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 ...
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Loosen Up
If you have followed our newsletters, you know we are proponents of a thorough screening process. Because it’s easier to just not hire someone, than to have to fire them later! However, making great hires is like investing, in that you can reduce risks with proper planning, but can never eliminate them. You are always likely to have some concerns when making a hire. Yet at the same time, if you are dead set on holding out for the perfect candidate whom you have zero concerns with – you might ...
Handling Underperformers
At some point in your organization’s lifecycle, you will have a team member(s) who underperforms. Underperformance comes in various sizes and shapes, but is most likely a deficiency surrounding getting things done quickly and/or accurately. If not addressed properly, underperforming team members can wreak havoc on an organization’s work flow, service standards, and ultimately profitability. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help guide you in getting an underperforming team member back on a ...
Should I Hire a New College Grad or Career Changer?
When firms set out to hire a non-experienced financial planner, they can choose to hire a new college graduate who will have a degree in financial planning, or a career changer who will have a certificate in financial planning. The differences between a certificate and a degree program can be substantial, and should be an important factor in deciding what candidate type to pursue. In this month’s article, we will look at some of the other advantages and potential challenges in deciding ...
Training the Trainers Part 1 of 2
Whenever you hire a new employee, someone has to spend time training them on the intricacies of how your firm operates, no matter what the new employee’s experience level may be. Due to the nature of our profession, though, and the limited time and resources constraints for typical financial planning firms, training a new staff member is usually not the best use of a firm owner's time so your staff ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Training should not be viewed as a time intensive ...
Are you offering growth opportunities part 1 of 2
The impetus for this month’s post is the recent deluge of individuals who have reached out to me expressing frustration over “lack of growth opportunities” in their position at their current firm. It’s not uncommon for candidates to reach out to me to “see what else is out there.” What is interesting is the similarity of the recent conversations and the sense that the underlying, well documented, issue might soon have a larger impact than once thought. So in this two part post we will first ...
Understanding Gen ‘Why’
Undoubtedly you have, at some point, been exposed to someone from Generation Y (born 1978-2000). It could be in the form of a colleague, an employee, restaurant server or even one of your kids. Smile Gen Y, sometimes referred to as Millienals, Gen Text, and Gen Why have a unique set of characteristics. These characteristics often leave others from other generations, mainly baby boomers, scratching their heads. Since most financial planning firms tend to be owned by baby boomers, and most new ...