The location of your firm is a major driver in what type of talent you can attract. When recruiting Millennial talent for your firm, the firms located in major metro areas (tier 1 market) tend to have an advantage over those in less populated urban centers (tier 2 market)… a reality of current Millennial lifestyle preferences. The most sought-after job location destinations cited by the prospective job candidates we have worked with year to date are: Nashville, TN Austin, TX ...
Questions You Can and Cannot Ask
Last month, we discussed why it’s important to hire for quality of experience over just quantity (or job title) alone. But this comes into play not only with experienced planner hires, but also those coming directly out of CFP programs, since all the CFP programs are not the same. In fact, one of the reasons we do so many on-campus visits to CFP programs each year is to be able to speak to the faculty members, tour the facilities, and meet with the school’s program leadership. As in practice, ...
Should You Counter Offer?
Hearing the words “I have accepted another offer…” can be an entrepreneur’s worst nightmare… especially since it’s most likely to happen with team members who are high performing (the ones most likely to be recruited away!), where their departure could be a substantial setback. And as frustrating as it may be, it is inevitable that this will happen if you manage people long enough. Firm owners typically have several different ways to respond when the news comes, especially if team member is ...
Compensating Your Financial Planner
One of the questions we field on a regular basis is “how much I should pay my new hire?” We have written previously about some pitfalls associated with firms relying solely on industry salary surveys to determine competitive compensation for their team members. Below we have provided compensation information on some of our recent placements to provide additional data points for you to consider when making offers to new hires and/or revisiting compensation with your current team. The types of ...
Handling Candidate Disclosures
Throughout the years we have interviewed candidates who have wide ranging experience levels, and come from a variety of backgrounds. And we’ve seen first-hand how a wide breadth of candidates can make it challenging to decide which one to actually hire for your firm. Having your candidate(s) go through a structured screening process with interviews, exercises, and assessments is a great place to start understanding who they are, how they operate, and where they might be the best fit within ...
New Planner Recruiting turned 10 Years Old!
Here at New Planner Recruiting, we recently celebrated our 10-year anniversary, and wanted to take a moment and thank you for your continued support over the years. We value the relationship we have with our clients, who have been an integral part of our success, have truly enjoyed serving you, and really appreciate the trust and confidence you have placed in us to assist you in sourcing, screening, and integrating the top talent you need to stay ahead. When Michael and I had the initial ...
How to Stand Out
Am I Average? Ways to Stand Out as a Financial Planning Candidate. While finding your dream firm and position is important, you ultimately must stand out to be recognized among the dozens of applicants. Although everyone brings a specific skill set and perspective to a role, resumes and cover letters often blend together for hiring managers. As an applicant, you need to differentiate yourself and stand out from the other applicants. STUDENTS Most financial planning students ...
Hiring A Remote Planner
The lack of sufficient talent currently entering the financial planning profession is undeniable. This talent shortage can cause immense frustration among firms attempting to build a solid pipeline of qualified candidates to select from when they need to add a financial planner to their organization. Due to these challenges, paired with increased efficiency and effectiveness of technology, some firms are rethinking their hiring strategy entirely by embracing remote/virtual hires versus ...
When to Promote?
For growing firms, the onset of a new year brings a new slate of goals to work towards, and challenges to overcome for you and your team. The beginning of the year is also a great time to promote people on your team who are performing exceptionally, so they can start the year off in the right position and mindset. This month, we will look at how to identify candidates for promotion. Here are three signs to look for: They are already taking it to the next level. This one is ...
Volume Hiring for Your Firm
Hiring and on-boarding new team members is a great way to increase the number of services you can offer and the number of clients you can service, but it can also be a lot of work and a challenging endeavor for those who don’t hire frequently. This month we interviewed Eric Sontag, COO of Sontag Advisory, who has a team of 45 staff members and over $5 billion in AUM. We chatted with Eric to discuss how he managed hiring what is now almost 22% of the firm’s workforce in just over a year, what ...
When You Want Them To Leave
In August, we reviewed some strategies for trying to retain an employee who you don’t want to leave. This month we review some things you can do to get an employee to leave if you don’t want to terminate them directly. Sometimes firm owners don’t terminate under-performing team members when they need to because of the human nature to avoid conflict, hassles of HR process and red tape, and afraid of potential legal action/discrimination accusations that may be taken. In addition to these, it can ...
Employee(s) About to Bail Part 2 of 2
Last month, we reviewed possible warning signs that your employees might be looking to leave. In this month’s article, we offer some suggestions and ideas for overcoming common reasons employees cite as their reason for leaving (which varies depending on whether they’re leaving the profession, or just leaving for another firm), in an effort to try and retain them. Assuming, of course, that you do not want them to leave in the first place! How To Stop An Employee From Leaving The ...