Peter Dawson

Financial planning firms have weathered storms in the past, but nothing like what we are currently experiencing. In this challenging time advisers are faced with a raft of additional operational issues while keeping focused on their clients, providing them with the advice and support they require.

The changing environment

Throughout the industry there has been a significant increase in client communication with advisers mounting the phones and using communications technology to reassure clients that not only their investment strategies are sound, but they are there for them. Often this requires an empathetic approach talking through the challenges clients are facing, not just in terms of their financial situation, but in their professional and personal lives.

In this time of heightened emotion, clients are watching local and overseas events ever more vigilantly, often with great trepidation. Investment markets have witnessed considerable volatility which there is no end yet in sight and this has led to anxiety with clients seeing declines in the value of their investments. This anxiety has been further exacerbated by social restrictions, which have cocooned families, physically isolating them from extended family and friends.

Client’s personal stories resonate with advisers

Advisers are hearing clients concerns about the welfare of their families where they are facing critical decisions about their children and elderly parents. They relate stories of parents with pre-schoolers having to reassess their child-care options with those usually depending on their parents to help them having to revert to full time carers while juggling their work obligations. There has been considerable stress with working parents at home with toddlers doing what they do while parents are on Zoom trying to actively engage in business meetings.

Advisers have also related stories of clients with school age children and the challenges they face getting them in to a routine that has them using their computers to enter the classroom. Almost universally there would seem to be more appreciation of the work of teachers as clients take on a hands-on role with home schooling. Older clients who are grand parents have had to relinquish their role as carers and this has been difficult to come to terms with although many have taken to Zoom and Skype to keep in touch.

Some advisers reported discussions with clients regarding communications technology options particularly with their older clients, however a number noted that this was sometimes challenging with some clients experiencing difficulties in making technology work for them. Other clients who haven’t access to this technology or think it is beyond them find themselves in a position they never expected to be in with their phone becoming their lifeline.

Those that have lost their jobs and those business owners who’ve had to pare back their operations letting staff go, or even worse closing their businesses are shell shocked by these events and often their first port of call is to their adviser who can help them navigate their way through the options available to them. Many of those now without work have never experienced unemployment and find the challenges of dealing with their situation unsettling if not frightening.

Advisers supporting role

Uncertainty increases stress levels and dwelling on what lies ahead can be poisonous for isolated individuals, so it is crucial that they have support they need to get them through this challenging period. While advisers aren’t psychologists, they do play a counselling role, bringing perspective and offering sage advice to conversations with their clients. Advisers not only have financial planning expertise but are good listeners and can help bring calm to the lives of those who are feeling adrift in this storm.

Financial planning has always been a relationship business, building trust with clients being the cornerstone of successful advice businesses. Advisers are listening to their client’s stories whether they are the parent struggling to home school their children, the grand parents who can no longer be directly involved in the care of their grandchildren, the business owner who has had to close their business or the employees who no longer has a job.

Many of the stories their clients are telling them are familiar to advisers, as they are hearing similar stories from their friends, industry colleagues and employees as well as experiencing these challenges in their own lives. This helps them understand their client’s problems and enables them to take a sympathetic role in helping their clients navigate the current situation.

Advisers have a history of playing an active role in times of disaster including the recent past with the drought and the catastrophic destruction from the bushfires. This pandemic has wide-spread effects on people’s lives as it reaches directly into every corner of our society causing economic loss and social isolation.

Advisers are making sure they play their part in supporting their clients, ensuring that they are in constant communication with them offering them guidance and reassurance and it’s their steadfast commitment that will help them steer a steady course through this storm.

By Peter Dawson

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Peter Dawson

Uncertainty stokes the flames of fear and that is particularly evident across the financial services sector with daily news of new Coronavirus infections recorded in Australia and other parts of the world. Closing businesses, restricting travel, being told to stay home and perceived mixed messaging has heightened anxiety amongst employees and their families. Talk of shutting-down the Australian economy and what that will mean has left many people thinking that their secure jobs are no longer secure and that they too may soon be lining up at Centrelink offices.

What happens next will depend on how long it is going to take to flatten the infection curve. If it is within a relatively short period there is a strong possibility that the Australian economy will start to recover soon after, however if the infection rate doesn’t decline or isn’t at least halted and the stimulus packages introduced by the government aren’t effective then there is a significant increase in the possibility the economy will slide into depression. So what does this all mean for our industry?

Wealth Management

Wealth Management businesses that have established client bases look to be on relatively firm ground. Financial planning principals have reported that while clients are concerned by recent events, there is only a relatively small minority that have altered their investment strategies. Most of those that have altered their asset allocation have reduced their expose to equities but not liquidated their positions and there are those who are keen to dollar cost further investment in the coming months.

These principals are confident that their clients will ride out the storm and they plan ride it out with them. At this stage they are not looking at reducing employee headcount and if they have to look at cost reductions in coming months will look at other areas before they consider redundancies.

Those practices that have been established in more recent times and rely on continued business growth will find the coming months difficult with some seeking to shed support staff and others looking to merge their client bases with other firms as a survival strategy.

The work undertaken by leading wealth management consulting firms has been beneficial to ensuring the welfare of many financial planning businesses. The inclusion of risk management strategies into business planning processes have been designed to prepare principals for disruption to their businesses. While few would have planned for the scale of this event, financial planning principals that have engaged these consultants have policies and systems in place that will help them keep their firms on a steady footing.

Institutional wealth management businesses have gone through significant rationalisation of the advice arms and are now in the process of making sure that their clients are provided advice to meet their needs through this period of upheaval. However, these companies have significant cost bases and cost management will be a focal point in these businesses as they navigate the months ahead.

Investment Management

The global titans of investment management have the ability to ride through the worst of storms without introducing major cost savings. From talking to senior executives of these firms, the consensus view is that while this is a major disruptive event their companies won’t deviate from their business strategies. However, on a day to day basis this doesn’t mean business as usual as most of these executives are working from outside their offices and client interaction is conducted by phone or via a conferencing platform. These executives kept reiterating their concern for their employees and that they are committed to holding their teams in place. Any significant cost reduction initiatives are not planned at least in the short term.

Most small to mid-sized investment firms run lean operations, however the impact of decreasing revenues may seriously impact some of these businesses, particularly those that don’t have institutional backing. There are those that may be forced to close their doors or seek out a new home with larger, more established businesses.

The fear people have of losing their jobs in financial services is not without reason, particularly if the virus continues to spread and the economic impacts reverberate through the employment market. Already there has been a reduction in recruitment activity, shedding of casual employees and contractors but what next?

Worse-case scenario

Wide scale job losses in back and middle office positions and those in client facing roles may face redundancy if they are deemed non-essential employees. Job sharing will become more widespread particularly to fill roles left open by exiting employees. Voluntary redundancies will be offered at first and then if business conditions further deteriorate, companies will introduce compulsory redundancy programs.

Human resources executives, as well as managing redundancy programs, will be expected to take on the recruitment function as the preferred service provider arrangements with recruitment companies are suspended.

Best case scenario

Companies able to adapt to the changing environment and will be able to keep their businesses operations on course, focusing on the needs of their clients and maintaining employee headcount. There are also some positives for small practices, one being that those who have been reticent to use client engagement technology and will now seriously consider embracing it.

When it all comes to an end

Financial services is comprised of a large community of people and in challenging times like this are always willing to give support to each other particularly those who are struggling. Hopefully, we won’t be visiting a worst-case scenario but whatever the challenges we face going forward, there is a recognition that those companies that treat their employees with dignity and compassion will be the employers of choice when this all comes to an end.

By Peter Dawson, Principal

The post The storm sweeping across financial services appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Get control of your retirement strategy.

There are two career events that can trigger acute anxiety: redundancy and retirement. While redundancy can bring with it some major challenges that shouldn’t be underestimated, these are invariably short term in nature occurring while we are looking for the next career opportunity. Retirement however marks a permanent shift in our lives and unless we have taken the time to plan the transition out of the workforce we may be faced with a whole range of issues that can end up derailing our peace of mind.

While many people put serious effort in to retirement planning, the time invested is all too often weighted to financial matters. Having enough money to live a comfortable life in retirement becomes the top of mind issue as we know that if we retire at age sixty five we may have twenty plus years ahead of us.

With this focus budgets are worked over and over factoring in all those overseas holidays we want to take, home renovations, the new car and all the on-going expenses that were more of annoyance when we are working and then there are the consequences of living in to old age with the possibility of failing health and all the medical and caring expenses that go with it.

Financial considerations, while a critical part of the retirement planning process, often eclipse other important issues including our psychological well-being and our ability to cope in our post work world. The reality of retirement can be daunting particularly if consideration hasn’t been given to how we will fill the days that were once full of meetings and deadlines.

After the honeymoon period, when the elation of our new found freedom has subsided we need to find meaningful activities particularly those that keep us engaged with other people unless our intention is to retreat in to ourselves and live a hermit like existence

Engagement

Within the industry

The nature of retirement has evolved over the years with more retirees remaining active participants in the industry, at least in the early years of their retirement. Over the last decade there has been a marked increase in the numbers financial planners and executives who have sought to take on consulting, coaching/mentoring assignments and non-executive board roles with a number lured back from retirement to establish new business ventures.

For those who have a strong network of business contacts the challenge is far less than those who don’t, however expectations need to be realistic as there has also been a significant growth in the numbers of those over fifty who on leaving executive employment have established consulting businesses.

Voluntary work

There has been an increase in the availability of voluntary work in recent years and retirees can be involved in different ways depending on the institution. There have been a number of executives who have taken on board roles with major charitable institutions, advisory roles with companies looking to increase their community reach and working at the coalface with an organisation’s clients.

The degree of difficulty in securing this work will depend on the nature of the role and the institution itself. Most of advisory work and board positions are sourced through networking, recruitment consultants or by making a direct approach to the institution.

Social interests

People who have participated in a range of activities during their working lives can increase their commitment to them in their retirement. This can include sporting, artistic, travelling or other interests. Those who are seeking new activities and looking to meet new like-minded people are spoilt for choice as there are meet up groups that cater for a broad range of interests.

Social media has facilitated the growth of a diverse range of these meet up type websites which has made it easy to join up with a click of a mouse. A former senior executive told me recently that he thought that on retiring he might struggle to fill in his time. As he said ‘There only so many rounds of golf you can play in a week.’ He has joined three groups and said that his social network had doubled since he retired and he was as busy as he was when he was working.

The importance of engagement

One of the biggest challenges in retirement is finding a sense of purpose, particularly when many people see their intrinsic worth in terms of their work. Over the years their career achievements have built and supported their confidence and a sense of pride in their abilities and provided them with a feeling of well-being. When they walk away from a satisfying career it can be a struggle to fill the void and self-worth can erode quickly along with self-confidence and their state of mind.

Financial planners help lay the foundations of a secure and fulfilling retirement

Many people before their introduction to a financial planner think they will focus the conversation just on financial issues and are often surprised when the discussion broadens to a more holistic approach to retirement planning.

Financial planners ensure that their clients are in the best possible position to get the most from their retirement. They are trusted advisers providing guidance on both financial and life matters and help transition clients from long and rewarding careers in to a retirement that offers a host of opportunities that may not have arisen otherwise. This advice comes from years of professional experience, education, training and a passion for helping their clients who are seeking more than what a robot can offer.

By Peter Dawson

The post Futureproofing your retirement strategy appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Get the most from your career by doing a ‘personal audit’.

Having invested time in developing a career strategy is one thing but making sure that you maintain your focus can be a significant challenge. Having the appropriate tools to help keep you on track is critical to your success in making progress throughout your career. The personal audit is a tool that can effectively anchor your career strategy.

The Personal audit

The following questions are the starting point for your personal audit and are designed to assist you to identify the role of your capabilities, achievements and motivations when making career decisions. When tackling each question make lists and validate your reasoning with examples.

• What are my key capabilities?
• Which of my achievements have contributed most to my career?
• Where do I gather motivation from in my job and personal life?

To help you clarify your thoughts go back to your last appraisal or assessment and extract those capabilities where your bosses or teachers have rated you highly. Identify major tasks you have completed and projects that you have worked on. When you think of how you went about completing these, you should be able to identify capabilities you can add to your list.

When you think of your achievements some of them will spring to mind immediately as they formed milestones in your career. Some will be measurable such as meeting business targets or you may have introduced a new human resources policy that enhanced work life balance for management and staff. Your last appraisal will also be a good point of reference for this list.

Identifying motivations can be as easy as thinking through what you like about your job, your studies or other areas of your life. It maybe that you have autonomy to do your work as you see fit, you thrive on problem solving or it is being part of a team that motivates you.

Three things to keep in mind when doing your personal audit

1. Would I benefit from undertaking an objective personal assessment of my capabilities, achievements and motivations?
2. How could I effectively use the results to build on my career strategy?
3. Do I need guidance from a mentor or coach to review my career strategy and help keep me on track?

The danger in not taking an audit is that you take a narrow focus in considering career possibilities which lead to you making ill-judged decisions that you will regret. This may lead to overlooking roles and organisations that may prove to be a good fit for you in terms of career progression and personal satisfaction.

Job fit

As you consider different roles, use your personal audit list as a filter. If there is divergence between the role criteria for a specific job and your list then you need to consider if you are best fit for the role.

To make this assessment your starting point is to ensure that you fulfil the key selection criteria. From there, go on to pay close attention to how well your capabilities, achievements, motivations and values align with the requirements of the role.

Organisational fit

At the heart of organisational fit is the culture of the company which is comprised of the beliefs, values and behaviours that are set and governed by management under the direction of the board. Management is focused on aligning the culture of the company with its strategic aims, putting in place policies that set the agenda in terms of employee behaviours internally and dealing with external stakeholders.

Company cultures embrace and promote certain behaviours. Entrepreneurial companies will have high risk/reward focus and expect their employees to put forward their best ideas whereas a bank will have a more risk conscious culture and have a myriad of checks and balances to ensure that employees follow prescriptive policies that govern all behaviours.

Decisions about organisational fit are critical to the success of your career strategy. To assist you make an assessment of what type of organisational culture would suit you, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Would I be suited to an institutional business culture with highly defined roles and responsibilities or more suited to a business culture that is more personal and flexible and risk taking in its operation
2. Do I like rules and regulations to guide me in my work place?
3. Would I fit in to a culture that supports autonomy in my work?
4. Does the company have formal and informal communications between management and employees?
5. Is there a commitment to formal on the job training and sponsorship of educational courses?
6. Are there career pathways that are actively supported by the company?
7. Has the company has demonstrable community engagement and a policy of social responsibility?
8. Is there is a focus on work life balance?
9. Are there formal and informal employee forums and social activities?
10. Is the dress culture formal or informal?
11. Are there are employee benefits additional to remuneration? This may include time off for employees to engage in volunteering activities, payment of club memberships and journal subscriptions

Industry fit

It is not uncommon for people starting out to focus on an industry just because they know someone who is already employed in that industry. A family member or friend who is employed in a specific industry may talk about it being a growth industry with a diversity of career opportunities that are well remunerated. They may also be instrumental in making introductions to potential employers. Then, without taking the time to see if there are other industries that might better suit you the induction program has started and you’re sitting in the front row.

Sometimes people can feel as though they are stuck in the industry they are in because although they would rather work in another industry, they feel their skills and experience aren’t transferrable so they don’t take any steps to see if they can make the move. This doesn’t have to happen to you!

Whenever you have the opportunity, take the time to meet with a range of people in different industries. This is not a difficult task as each industry sector will run career information seminars, often organised by industry associations. These seminars and career expos often aren’t just for graduates but cater to a broad range of people who may already have careers in other industries.

In part three of this series of articles we will discuss the key ingredients in a professional CV and how to effectively manage the interview process.

This is an abbreviated extract taken from It’s not just a job it’s your career by Peter Dawson written in conjunction with Susan Rochester, a senior HR practitioner.

Read part one here

Read part three here

The post It’s not just a job it’s your career (Part Two) appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Managing your career can be the greatest of challenges you face in life.

Futureproofing your career starts with a career strategy designed to not only provide you with a road map to help you secure the positions that you are seeking but establish a framework that will help you navigate your career direction, identify and harness opportunities that you might not have otherwise considered and help you meet the challenges you find along the way.

The foundations of your career strategy

Managing your career can be the greatest of challenges you face in life. It entails dealing with your own personal aspirations that may at times seem beyond realisation due to a host of reasons; some of which are in your control and others that aren’t. To meet these challenges you need to invest time in developing a career strategy that includes the building blocks that will put you in the best position to get you to where we want to be.

While some people have their careers clearly mapped out others have few ideas beyond getting their first or next job. Planning for the short and longer term will provide you with a road map that may take unexpected turns at various points but will help you focus on getting the most from each opportunity that you are presented with and ensuring you keep your career path on track.

No matter where you are in your career, whether you’re looking for your first job or a next stepper seeking a new opportunity, your starting point is to ask yourself what you would like your career to look like in the short, medium and long term.

While most of us struggle with crystal ball gazing into the distant future it becomes easier when we have laid the foundations for the short to medium term. To ensure that these foundations have a solid base you need a framework that will enable you to gain an accurate perspective on your capabilities and motivations and achievements, all of which will underpin your career strategy.

Capabilities

Over time you acquire a range of capabilities some well-developed and others less so. It is important to understand your strengths and the areas that require improvement. While this may sound self-evident many people either overestimate or underestimate their capabilities and this often leads to performance issues that if left unchecked will have a negative impact on career satisfaction and inhibit advancement.

Your capabilities are evaluated through the employment review process that most organisations conduct on an annual basis. These assessments can be valuable tools in identifying your strengths and areas that need improvement, particularly when you are afforded the opportunity to obtain detailed feedback from your employer.

Whether you work in a large organisation or a smaller company, look for evidence of your capabilities in your performance reviews. It is important that if you use the results of such an evaluation it is sound in its design and isn’t an ad hoc tick box process.

If you are not yet employed, find other sources of objective measurement of your capabilities, such as course assessments, or feedback from your community involvement, such as sporting teams or voluntary work. This is all relevant information.

If you are unsure about the robustness of your assessment of your capability you will benefit from the expertise of career advisers or coaches. They can be a key part of your career path success and if there is a need for improvement in a particular area they will be able to assist you to address it.

Motivations

The importance of the role of motivation in our career and personal lives is reflected in the growth of the motivational advice industry which is now a global phenomenon. While motivational spruikers may offer some insight into how we can better understand what motivates us, most of what is imparted is a cocktail of home spun clichés that only offer little more than instant feel good moments. Their quick fix off the rack ‘solutions’ more often than not end up in the recycle bin as soon as the audience has left the adrenalin filled auditorium and is back in the real world.

Motivation is a personal issue and is determined by a range of factors, some of which are programmed into our DNA while others come from learnt behaviour. Occupational psychologists have conducted a myriad of studies on career motivation which point to a broad range of factors that instil and maintain motivation.

While some people are motivated by the challenge of building a business and taking their employees along on the journey, others’ motivations may lie in the satisfaction of doing the best at what they do no matter what that is. Alternatively, someone may find the day to day responsibilities offer them little stimulation but the interaction with their colleagues offers enough compensation to keep them motivated to perform well in their role.

Achievements

It is important that you give recognition to the importance of your achievements as they are a statement of your successes and often form benchmarks in your career path. Additionally, they will be scrutinized by potential employers who will expect you to articulate your achievements and how you reached your goals.

While most people are proud of what they achieve, often we think that they are of little or no consequence or we don’t see the use in reflecting on them because we are focussed on our next achievement.

There is considerable emphasis placed by employers on quantitative achievements where you are able to provide measurable outcomes, but it is also important to be able to articulate work where you have contributed to projects where the outcomes aren’t directly measurable but the results had a positive impact.

To ensure that you are able to maintain your goals and leverage appropriate career opportunities it is useful to have a process in place to help you keep your focus.

In part two of this series we will examine how a personal audit is a critical tool in your career strategy.

This is an abbreviated extract taken from ‘It’s not just a job it’s your career’ by Peter Dawson written in conjunction with Susan Rochester, a senior HR practitioner.

By Peter Dawson

Read Part Two here

Read Part Three here

The post It’s not just a job, it’s your career (Part one) appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Best practice recruitment

Best practice recruitment includes the recognition that those undertaking the recruitment process are aware of the potential pitfalls of discrimination not only in terms of the risk of breaching the anti-discrimination laws but by engaging in discriminatory practices you may exclude the best candidate for the role that you are seeking to fill.

Large institutional businesses have invested considerable resources in framing anti-discrimination policies, adding counselling services and designing training programs that arm managers with the requisite tools to ensure that they are aware of discriminatory behaviour in recruiting new employees. However, even with all the educational programs, training and support from human resources professionals’ discrimination may still occur either intentionally or unintentionally due to the beliefs of the individual managers.

Small to mid-sized businesses (SME’s) that don’t have these resources can struggle to ensure best practice particularly when they are dealing with a multitude of client related issues while also having to manage the business. Additionally SME’s often have limited or no resources to support them when recruiting new employees and find the prospect of initiating a search for a new employee a daunting task. The challenge only increases when they have to move through the assessment phase and candidate interviews can quickly stray in to areas where discriminatory behaviour may not be intended but are included in the questioning.

Ensuring anti-discrimination measures are included in the recruitment process

Whether you are undertaking the recruitment process in-house or you draw on the resources of an external recruiter you should be clear as to what you need to do to ensure you reduce the possibility of discrimination occurring.

DIY – In-house recruitment

Unless you have considerable recruitment experience then you may be best served by engaging the services of a professional recruiter, however if you proceed to manage the process yourself you should invest the time in mapping out a thorough recruitment strategy.

The recruitment strategy will act as your guide through the process and will help you maintain your focus. It will also help you steer away from discriminatory thinking and behaviour by clearly defining the position requirements in terms of capabilities and experience and make you more mindful in terms of excluding discriminatory biases relating to gender, age, ethnicity and disability.

Mindful and methodical

The candidate identification phase of the recruitment process can prove challenging however this is compounded at the assessment stage and to effectively address these challenges it is necessary to have a structured interview questionnaire when interviewing. Apart from ensuring that you cover all the requirements of the position in a methodical manner it is also a risk management tool that helps keep you away from discriminatory questions.

The ad hoc approach to interviewing lacks rigour and facilitates a meandering approach that may stray in to discriminatory waters. The introduction to any interview commences often with seemingly innocuous conversation which may include family, interests or shared acquaintances. However, what may initially be innocuous can move to questions eliciting personal information about managing competing demands of work and family. Many women would find this familiar and unwelcome territory.

Post interviews you may be well served by adding all the candidates’ capabilities, experience and responses to your questions on a spreadsheet so that you can make an objective assessment of each candidate. At the very least you should have comprehensive notes of each interview to refer to. Resorting to memory is the Achilles heel of recruitment as it opens the door to errors and may lead to discrimination.

Being mindful of discriminatory practices is the first step in ensuring that you are undertaking a best practice recruitment process and adopting a methodological approach will keep you on track to delivering the best fit candidate for your business.

Example of gender and age discrimination

The CEO of an SME advice business needed to replace a member of the financial planning team who had taken up a role in another firm. The CEO saw this as an opportunity to hire a financial planner who had a focus on the SMSF market and added this in terms of capabilities and experience to the position description. The existing financial planning team was all male with the youngest being forty five years of age. The CEO decided that he would look for another male financial planner in his forties as he thought he be a good would fit in with the existing team.

The CEO lodged an advertisement on an industry job board and it attracted fifteen responses, six of which fitted the position brief. Of this six two were women in their thirties and the CEO immediately excluded them from contention. A personal issue arose which would take the CEO out of the office for a week and he handed the recruitment file to the office manager who was instructed to inform the successful and unsuccessful candidates and set up interviews. She took the time to read each CV and noted that the two women candidates had been relegated to the unsuccessful category and immediately called the CEO to clarify why they had been excluded. When he explained his reasons the office manager drew his attention to the women’s superior experience and qualifications and that had both been very successful in building client relationships.

The office manager was unrelenting and the CEO agreed to meet with both candidates if only to pacify her. On his return to the office he interviewed all five candidates and the short list of three included both women and after the third interview one was offered the role.

When the office manager asked CEO about his decision to hire one of the women he said that both women were very impressive in terms of their professionalism and their experience. He also admitted that he enjoyed the meetings with them and on reflection he should have put his preconceptions to one side as he believed either of them would work well with the team.

On meeting the other financial planners the new team member was given a warm reception with one of them saying ‘It’s about time we had a woman on the team after all this is the twenty first century’.

Engaging a recruitment firm

Most professional recruitment firms have significant experience in dealing with discrimination and have in place training programs for new consultants. However, small recruitment practices with minimal resources and large firms with high consultant turnover may struggle to ensure they provide a best practice recruitment service which actively addresses discrimination.

If you decide that you need help in recruiting a new employee it is important that engage a firm that is not only able to demonstrate a track record of success in placing like roles but that they have a robust recruitment process that addresses discrimination.

Discrimination is demeaning to potential employees and can deprive business of high performance candidates. Mindfulness is the key to avoiding the discrimination minefield, that and a robust structured recruitment process.

Peter Dawson, Principal, The Dawson Partnership
www.dawsonpartnership.com.au
 

Read Part one of Addressing the D word here

The post Addressing the D word – Part two appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Anti-discrimination policies go hand-in-hand with good recruitment strategies.

Recruiting the best fit employees for your business brings with it a multitude of challenges at each stage of the recruitment process. Discrimination is one of those challenges and is an important issue that is often overlooked when putting together a recruitment strategy. Discrimination can occur during each stage of the recruitment process from the initial phase of considering the requirements for the role through to making the final hiring decision.

When it comes to making recruitment decisions discrimination of one form or another will inevitably rare it’s head and if not identified and properly addressed may lead to a hiring decision that may not only breech anti-discrimination legislation but could also deprive your company of high performance employees.

Discrimination shackles our thinking to preconceived ideas that mar our ability to make an impartial decision about the merits of a candidate. Often discrimination is not overt with many employers not even consciously recognizing that they may have a bias.

The most common forms of discrimination are:

• Gender ‘Our team is a bit blokey and adding a woman would stifle the camaraderie within the team’ or ‘We’ve tried women before and it didn’t work out – soon as they settled in they either got pregnant or wanted flexible working hours that didn’t work for our business.
• Age – ‘They’re too old and wouldn’t have the energy that’s required in this role or ‘We have a young client base who wouldn’t identify with an older team member
• Disability – ‘We don’t have the support someone with a disability would need’
• Ethnicity ‘We like to employ people who have the same backgrounds and values as our own’.

Identifying discrimination in the recruitment process

The position description

While the introduction of anti-discrimination laws has made it more difficult to show overt discrimination when it comes to writing a position description, it is often in how messages are conveyed. While including a candidate’s required range age or gender have been relegated to the past there are some issues that can be discriminatory even if they don’t technically breech anti-discrimination laws.

Examples of discrimination that may be included in a position description:

• Including a specific number of years’ experience may deter candidates who have the required capabilities but have not been able to demonstrate them over the requisite period.
• Requiring a narrow range of qualifications which may preclude good candidates with relevant alternative qualifications.
• Roles that may be suitable for part time workers/job sharers are designated as full time roles with no time flexibility. This may exclude candidates with relevant experience from applying for the role as they are seeking more flexible working arrangements.
• Seeking people to join a young dynamic team excludes mature candidates who have successful track records of delivery and who could potentially provide valuable experience that could boost team performance.

In times past it was a common occurrence for employers to add in requirements regarding gender, religion and age and it was also commonplace for applicants to be told that they were unsuitable on these grounds. While discrimination on the basis of a candidate’s religion has been relegated to the past biases related to age, gender, ethnicity and disability remain.

When it comes to qualifying candidates pre-interview, making an assessment at interview and making the final employment decision then there remains the opportunity for discrimination to play a part.

• Pre-interview – This is the initial vetting stage where candidate’s suitability is judged on the basis of their application letter and CV. Age discrimination is enabled through the CV where it isn’t difficult to work out with reasonable accuracy a candidate’s age. Gender is a given as the applicant’s identity is provided. Race can also be identified particularly if the candidate is from a geographical region or country that has a high proportion of a particular ethnicity. Disability may also be identified through specialized training/support programs the candidate has been enrolled in.
• Interview – What some would think were innocuous questions can be discriminatory and breech anti-discrimination laws. Questions relating to woman’s family situation where the interviewer is attempting to ascertain whether the candidate is planning to have a family and at what stage are not an uncommon occurrence. While it is understandable that an employer is interested in knowing the commitment of the candidate to the role it is unacceptable to ask questions designed to draw out a candidates personal circumstances in this regard.

Candidates that are in their fifties can find they are asked questions about their ability to cope with the demands of a role – questions that would not necessarily be asked of younger candidates. Age discrimination is a major area of discrimination and often it is hard to identify as most of it is unspoken and often denied by employers even those that do discriminate against older workers for fear of being held to account.

At age fifty an IT systems analyst was asked at interview if he had a laptop; the inference being that as he had reached middle age he was old school and wouldn’t be a suitable fit for the role he was being interviewed for.

Candidates with disabilities may find they are asked questions focused on how they would cope working in a business that has few or no formal support mechanisms to help transition them in to the business and little on going support. While often there may be no intention to discriminate, concerns for the welfare of the candidate can turn in to reasons for them not to be considered for a role.

• Employment decision – This is the point where candidates are reviewed post interviews and an assessment is made of the most relevant candidate for the role. Gender, ethnicity, age and disability could possibly fall part of the decision and while in many cases discrimination will be excluded from the decision there will be times where it does.

While the financial services sector has a relatively high level of awareness about the issue of discrimination with large organisations having human resources practitioners who are well versed in not only the legislative aspects but also have adopted policies designed to actively combat discriminatory practices. However SME’s often don’t have these resources and can find this to be a difficult issue to deal with effectively.

While it is never possible to completely rid the industry from discrimination while there are those who bring their biases and prejudices with them to the recruitment process there are steps companies can take to raise awareness.

In part two of this article we will cover the design of a recruitment strategy that will provide guidance as to how to recruit the best fit candidates for your business while avoiding discriminatory practices.

Peter Dawson, Principal, The Dawson Partnership
www.dawsonpartnsrship.com.au

Read Part two Addressing the D word here

The post Addressing the ‘D’ word – Part one appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Use your social media networks to your advantage during recruitment.

Employers are increasingly using social media to source candidates with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter positioning them as an integral part of recruitment programs.

Even those employers with extensive networks will draw on these social media websites to uncover relevant candidates, or to access and build on the candidate profiles they already have as a part of their process.

Social media is also proving useful in leveraging talent that may be overlooked in a recruitment search process and is relatively cost efficient. Recognising the market for recruitment, some social media companies are now offering specific tools to conduct their searches and advertise roles.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers access to a broad range of candidates with many employers now including LinkedIn as a candidate identification and screening tool in their searches. While it can prove to be a laborious process building a large network on LinkedIn, increasingly employers are investing the time and resources to do so.

You can identify candidates in a number of different ways on the LinkedIn website:

• Offering invitations to Link In with candidates you are interested in.
• Posting paid job posts for positions you are seeking to fill. The cost per advertisement is minimal and is on the site for thirty days.
• Join groups where you think you will find relevant candidates and then engage in conversation with them.
• Use the network activity box (status box) to get the message out that you are in hiring mode. “Looking for a compliance manager. If you know someone please contact me”

TIP – Although social media websites offer access to candidate networks it is advisable not to take the information posted on these websites as totally accurate. It is important that you make further steps to validate candidate information and only use these websites as a part of your information gathering process

When you identify candidates you should check that they have:

• A complete and coherent profile. You will find that those who have adopted a diligent approach to their profile and have uploaded a photograph may prove more worthy of your attention than those with sketchy details and a sepia image of an egg as their photo
• Been recommended by colleagues, managers and clients with whom they have had dealings
• Connections to other candidates that may be of interest to you and are in LinkedIn groups that may be relevant to your networking focus

The candidates decide who they want connect to and it is not uncommon for invitations to be ignored or refused if the candidate doesn’t want to let someone link to them. If a candidate wants you out of their connections they can also delink you.

TIP – Set up your own corporate LinkedIn page to establish your business presence on the website and use it as a platform for your recruitment activity process.

Facebook

While Facebook may be helpful in locating industry colleagues, navigating the website searching for candidates can be a marathon effort that can be less than productive. This is often due to them either not having an active Facebook page or not including enough information to identify them with their professional work role.

If you decide to include Facebook in your recruitment process make sure you make the best use of your time by:

• Accessing the Facebook Directory to search for users, groups and relevant applications.
• Post a job in the Facebook marketplace. You are restricted from targeting specific groups however you can add a position description, define the job category, job title and even add your photograph or logo.
• Setting up your own corporate Facebook pages to establish and promote your company and the products/services you offer. You can also use your Facebook pages as a recruitment tool posting jobs that are available in your company.
• Post a Facebook advertisement that will specifically target your audience. You can input a range of key words about the position and the candidates who would be a possible fit for the role. Facebook is able to calculate how many users will fit your criteria narrowing down the universe of relevant talent.

TIP – If you decide to use Facebook consider how you can make best use of the site. Posting an advertisement is a good way to start as it is a cost-effective way of targeting your audience.

Twitter

Twitter offers a timely and succinct way to communicate with your audience; however you need to take the time to build a following. At a bare minimum you can use the 140 characters to get a message out to your followers who may in turn re-tweet your message to their followers and so on. If you have a role that you are recruiting for then you simply need to keep to a tightly worded message. For example, “looking for a practice manager to work with advisers with HNW clients in Sydney, suit ex-financial planner”.

Twitter has flagged that the 140 character limit will be increased so in time you will be able to provide more information in your Tweets.

To build a following you will need to develop a network of followers who will automatically receive your tweets and you theirs. Your starting point is making contact with colleagues, potential candidates and others in the industry who may be relevant to you in identifying and engaging with candidates. From there you can readily communicate with a growing follower base by:Tweeting on industry issues, posting articles you have read and re-tweeting other’s tweets.

• Keep a watch on followers and those you are following who are active on Twitter reading their tweets which may provide you additional insights in to their opinions and positions on industry and personal issues.
• Market your own events such as conferences you are sponsoring/speaking at or workshops you are running.
• Posting a position you are recruiting

TIP – When using Twitter to help you make a preliminary assessment of a potential candidate you should consider how they conduct themselves when tweeting. Do they have lapses in judgement by tweeting inappropriately? Or are they measured and considered with their personal brand and therefore more likely to be a good brand ambassador as an employee?

Researching Candidates

Social media invites the scrutiny of employers making candidates more visible than ever before. It is now used extensively to gain insights in to candidate’s career history and achievements though websites such as LinkedIn. This information is freely available and may include professional endorsements from colleagues and former employers.

Additional information is accessible through websites such as Facebook where candidates allow access and this may include details of personal interests and photo galleries that can provide further insight in to the candidate.

It has been known for prospective employers to reject candidates due to photos or comments posted by candidates on these websites, or alternatively, when they have posted their own comments or re-posted others comments on Twitter.

While there is a need for candidates to be careful about what they make available on these sites, it is equally important for those seeking information on potential candidates to be cautious about how they access this information. There have been a number of cases where privacy has been breached by those who have gained unauthorised access to personal information available only to family and friends of the person involved and have used this information to make a negative assessment of the person precluding them from a role that they might otherwise have obtained.

The use of social media is a powerful recruitment tool which will provide you with access to a broad range of candidates that you may not have otherwise identified. It is also a valuable tool when reviewing your candidate requirements as you may come across candidates with capabilities and experience that you hadn’t previously considered. Social media is cost efficient, relatively easy to use and has the capacity to identify the best fit candidates for your business.

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Engage with the next generation and your business will reap the rewards.

Financial advice business owners are facing a raft of challenges in dealing with the new generation of financial planners who are not only very career focused but have expectations that can prove both challenging and confronting.

No matter how we label them; Generation Z, iGen, or Post-Millennials, this generation comes with a healthy amount of the self-esteem with its focus clearly on professional development and career path trajectory.

Generation Who?

This is the most educated generation yet with in excess of seventy percent completing high school, thirty five percent undertaking an undergraduate degree and forty percent completing some other post-secondary education. Furthermore thirty percent undertake part time work with a high proportion volunteering for community based activities.

While we are looking at a generation that values education and entering the workforce at an early stage, these young people not only react positively to change but actually embrace it. When it comes to adapting to innovation and adopting business efficiency initiatives, this generation is miles ahead of its predecessors particularly the Baby Boomers and GenX. The critical question for financial planning businesses is how to recruit, train and retain the best of this generation.

Engaging the Next Gens

A major challenge in dealing with Next Gens is managing expectations as to the scope of their roles particularly those that don’t provide significant intellectual stimulation. Next Gens are hungry to learn and will devour all that interests them but may see the more routine tasks as suitable for someone else. However it is not all hard work as most will adapt when they understand the importance of the interconnecting parts of the business and how it all results in a valuable client offering of which they are a part.

Next Gen financial planners have inquisitive minds and will be unrelenting in gaining a thorough understanding of a particular issue. This is highlighted in their positon as natural adapters of technology. Those business owners who are not on top of the raft of technological innovations that are entering the market including the proliferation of diverse robo advice models will be able to draw on Next Gens as a valuable resource.

Disruption for Baby Boomers and Gen X may be at times confronting but to Next Gens it’s duck to water.

The Next Gen talent pool

With the upscaling of financial planning educational requirements there will be a marked increase in Next Gen’s who will be sourced from universities that offer relevant qualifications. However, many will initially gravitate to financial services companies that offer entry level call centre, client service and administration roles. Institutions with scale operations have training programs that provide a comprehensive orientation to the industry along with product and client service information.

Next Gens are not only adept at getting the most out of training but are keen to put what they learn in to practice and make themselves targets for financial planning practices who are looking for new talent.

Institutionally owned advice businesses draw on new entrants in their own organisations to feed their financial planning practices, however specialist financial services recruiters see these companies as talent pools for their clients. Next Gens have a propensity to explore new opportunities and readily engage with those who offer them career advancement.

Rising to the challenge

Small to medium sized financial planning practices often find recruiting Next Gens a challenge. This starts from the commencement of a recruitment program where the practice may struggle to identify best fit candidates and when they do they fail to coherently demonstrate their relevance to the candidate by effectively positioning their value proposition.

Many business owners turn to their colleagues as a source of referrals and when this doesn’t prove effective place piecemeal advertisements on job boards. If suitable candidates make themselves available for interview it is critical that whoever is conducting the interviews is fully conversant as to not only interview techniques (including having a structured interview questionnaire) but able to present themselves in a professional manner.

Preparation is critical as Next Gens will quickly make an assessment of whether they identify with the interviewer who is the gateway to the business.

Five tips to recruiting Next Gen candidates for your business

• Invest time on mapping out your recruitment strategy. Not only do you need an effective road map of how you are going to identify relevant candidates but how you are going to conduct interviews, gain the proffered candidate’s commitment to your business, conduct psychological evaluations and instigate a rigorous reference procedure.
• If you have little or an experience recruiting Next Gen employees then consider drawing on the services of a professional recruiter who has a track record of recruiting Next Gens.
• Next Gens are savvy as to what they perceive to be employers of choice, which includes an inclusive culture that welcomes their ideas. The initial discussion is an opportunity to position your business as forward thinking and welcoming them as a respected colleague not as an indentured apprentice.
• Next Gens will do their homework on your business and it is critical that you have a web presence that is in accord with the professionalism of your practice. Next Gens will also look at your LinkedIn and Facebook pages. If yours are looking tired then freshen them up in terms of design and content. Additionally, do you have a Twitter presence? Next Gens see Twitter as a core social media platform so if you don’t have a presence or even worse you think a twitter is something that should be left with the birds then you will struggle to engage with them.
• While to some this may seem a given, it is important that the interviewer presents themselves in a professional manner. Making sure that there is appropriate time for the interview, that the interviewer is on time and they don’t enter the meeting in a dishevelled manner is critical to the candidate making an assessment of the professional standards of the practice.

Next Gens are the future of financial planning and as much as they will welcome the opportunity to learn from you with all the experience you have garnered over the years and you will have the opportunity to benefit from their knowledge, abilities and enthusiasm.

Peter Dawson, Principal, The Dawson Partnership

The post Meeting the challenge of Next Gen financial planners appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Employee remuneration in the context of this survey is divided in to three components:

• Salary and superannuation and other benefits including the payment/subsidy of fees for relevant vocational courses, association/club memberships, parking, subsidised childcare and health care.
• Short term incentive schemes including cash bonuses.
• Long term incentive schemes that include participation in equity/shadow equity schemes.

The Dawson Partnership 2016 survey found that in terms of salary and superannuation and other benefits:

Increasing existing employee remuneration:

Of the 25% of businesses in the 2016 survey that stated that their intention was to increase remuneration:

• 56% stated that the increase was targeted primarily at employees who had met or exceeded their KPI’s
• 31% stated that the increase was targeted primarily at valued employees as a part of a retention strategy
• 13% stated that the increase was targeted primarily at those employees who weren’t being paid market remuneration.

Maintaining existing employee remuneration:

Of the 63% of respondents who stated that they would maintain employee remuneration levels:

• 69% stated that they will maintain the current remuneration settings in order to meet current and projected business targets and currently didn’t see there would be any change in their position in the 2016 year. However when asked if they would consider increasing remuneration levels if business conditions did improve beyond their current expectations 28% stated that they would consider it but only if they believed the improvement was sustainable.

• 31% stated that they were adopting a cautious approach to expenditure even though their businesses were experiencing increased business growth. 38% of these respondents expected this business growth to come from new and lower cost technology increasing productivity.

Decreasing employee remuneration

The 6% of respondents looking to decrease employee remuneration stated that this would be achieved by implementing cost reduction strategies including not replacing employees who leave their businesses and or replacing back office employees on lower level remuneration.

Short term incentives:

Long term incentives:

Other findings:

• 52% of employers who stated their intention is to increase employee remuneration in 2016 will do so by between 4-6%
• 44% stated they would increase remuneration in line with CPI
• 4% stated they would increase remuneration above 6%
• There was a focus on employee retention with 67% of those employers increasing remuneration seeking to offer market based remuneration to employees who had performed well and had demonstrated loyalty to them.
• 62% of those surveyed stated that they believed that that recruitment activity for high performance employees had continued to maintain the momentum from 2015 and that they were aware that their best employees were being approached by competitors either directly or by recruiters.
• 56% of employers stated that salaried financial planners with high level technical knowledge and strong communication skills were in particular demand with recruitment activity also picking up for paraplanners and support staff.
• 33% stated that they were interested in recruiting employees who are across digital technology.

While salaried financial planners employed by institutions received CPI increases or marginally below or above this level those employed by independent firms fared better, particularly those who contributed to the firm’s revenue growth with increases upward of 5%.

There was also an element of employers playing catch up. Employees who were identified as being paid below market or who had some stage during the year taken on additional responsibilities and there had been no adjustment to their remuneration were granted increases in the range of 7%-15%.

Sources of remuneration data/trends:

Respondents drew on the following sources to assist them in their remuneration decision making:

• 13% drew on market data available from web based resources including remuneration survey data released by remuneration and recruitment consultants
• 11% sourced the information from their practice manager or HR manager
• 6% had discussions with a remuneration consultant/recruiter
• 70% didn’t identify any sources of remuneration information

Positive factors cited by respondents:  

• The improvement client sentiment
• The growth in business profitability
• Efficiency gains from technology

Negative factors cited by respondents:

• Continued volatility in investment markets and the flow on affect to client sentiment
• Further government changes to the legislative framework
• The impact of negative news related to personal insurance

‘We are seeing an upward trend in recruitment activity and an awareness by financial planning businesses that to retain their employees they need ensure they are remunerated in line with the market or they will face the possibility of losing them. It was clearly evident that there is more emphasis being placed on employees having high level technological skills and experience as financial planning practices refine their client communications strategies. Employees and candidates with requisite skills and experience will be the beneficiaries of higher level remuneration’.

Financial Planning businesses involved in this remuneration survey:

Ownership

• Institutionally owned – 42%
• Independently owned – 58%

Location

• Metropolitan – 74%
• Rural – 26%

Number of employees

• Between 1-10 – 26%
• 11-30 – 35%
• 31-50 – 15%
• 51-100 – 12%
• 101-200 – 7%
• 201-500 – 3%
• More than 501 – 2%

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