Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
We have struggled to find young talent to hire and groom for our firm. It seems everyone under 30 works somewhere for three years and then moves on to the next thing. One guy we hired had four serious jobs on his resume and hadn’t turned 30 yet. I hear about succession planning and all of the steps we are supposed to take to prepare for the future, but if we can’t get someone young who stays more than 1,095 days, I am not going to introduce them to all of my clients. What are other advisors doing to deal with this?
Mark S., Boston
Dear Mark,
You have identified an increasingly worrisome problem in the industry. Advisors who have committed the better part of their careers to their firms are seeing new talent come – and go. It’s not an unusual problem, but there are some things advisors are doing to make it even more difficult.
For example, when you find someone you think is a fit for your firm, what kinds of conversations are you having with them? If succession or long-term (past 3 years) commitment is in your plan, are you asking them what’s in their plan? Countless times when I have talked to both parties in situations like this, there is plenty of miscommunication around expectations.
Have you identified what specifically you want from this role and this person? Do you have accountability, a plan for their personal growth and a process to help them learn and engage? Most firms have a job description but little follow-through. If you have long-term expectations for someone, you need to take the time to be as clear and supportive as possible.
Are you putting an emphasis on the type of person you hire? If you are thinking about something as serious as succession, have you “matched” style, or are you hiring people who are very different from you? You might inadvertently be trying to find a complement to your skill set and approach, but in doing so, you may be locating new hires that are so different you cannot connect with them – or they with you.
Lastly, have you looked at your compensation plan and expectations from the seat of the other person? You may think it’s important to have this person “earn their stripes” the way you might have done, but if you don’t lay out opportunities for advancement and monetary achievement, they might become disillusioned. They could seek opportunities elsewhere not even knowing what you could have, or would have, offered them.
The more you can try to understand your employees’ needs and concerns and you communicate openly about expectations on both sides, the clearer you will both be about where the situation could lead.
Dear Bev,
What is your best tip for managing time? The bigger our practice grows, the less time we seem to have to spend with clients. Yet spending time with them is why we get the referrals we do. We are victims of our success. I don’t want to halt the successful cycle, but I need to get better at managing time.
Mike P., NYC
Dear Mike,
The time-management conundrum is probably the most popular issue we see advisors deal with – it’s the issue of our culture in general. There are a number of things you can do.
- Review your client-servicing process. As you bring on new clients, do you have a clear onboarding process? Are you setting expectations with the clients about what will happen and when? Do you have the right people in the right roles to provide those services at each step? Become as efficient and streamlined as possible in your onboarding and servicing approach – without compromising the quality you offer.
- Are your clients segmented for servicing or for communication, or both? Are you able to send an email, for example, easily to a group of clients that has a specific investment in their portfolios or a shared interest in retirement planning? Segmenting by the type of service you give, the communication program you use or even the interests your clients have will help you manage your time.
- Are you using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system effectively? This should not just be a holding tank for information. It should be a shared resource where staff populates information, sends updates about the next steps for a prospect or a client and generally works together so everyone knows what is happening and when. Often, a practice doesn’t want to take the time for training and refreshers on what the CRM can do, but using it efficiently can save time in the longer run.
- Find a way to reach out to clients each day that takes less than 15 minutes. You could have a stack of note cards waiting on your desk to write quick thank-you notes to six clients, or you could make proactive phone calls to tell them you value your relationship. There are ways to offer client engagement that don’t require loads of time if you are prepared and have a plan.
- Make sure you are not over-delivering for clients. They will take whatever you give them and ask for more! Some advisors, for example, think it adds value to hold four meetings a year when the client would be happy with one or two. Review your client engagement process and see if there are places where you can continue to add value, but in less time.
- Make sure you have the right people in the right jobs and that they are doing what they are supposed to do. If someone is excellent at talking on the phone with clients but not good at detail, for example, do not assign them the task of combing through Excel spreadsheets to find errors. When people are mismatched in their roles, they spend much more time than they need to – and often still make mistakes.
- Make good decisions around time choices throughout the day. I advise starting your day with a written list of the top three priorities for that day and continuing to refer to it as you make decisions about what to do. I wrote about this in more detail in an earlier “Ask Bev” column.
- Adopt the mantra: “Time doesn’t control me; I control it.” We feel so out of control and thrashed around by events, but in reality, we control our approach and decisions. Make sure you are exerting control – delegate, say “yes but not now,” schedule and plan.
Good luck with the continued growth of your business!
Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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