The evidence suggests that firms do not find it easy to recruit and train graduate advisers.
If they did then we would all be bumping (virtually) into great hordes of them at industry events and partner meetings. Instead, meeting a graduate adviser is the exception, not the norm.
We do strongly believe, however, that graduate recruitment is a positive route to growth for most firms. Recruiting and training a graduate in ‘your way’ of doing things, your proposition and view of the advisory world, gives you options for succession planning, in the long term. Graduate hires can also help immediately in areas such as administration and paraplanning. It’s not the case that you need to recruit and wait around for four years until you see some value.
You’ll find a lot of help when it comes to graduate recruitment in our new guide ‘Recruiting, retaining and developing new advisers into your firm’, produced in collaboration with James Wetherall of Wetherall’s, who has had significant success when it comes to graduate recruitment in recent years.
The guide contains a six-step graduate recruitment process and here we’ve reproduced the basic structure, with some new tips and guidance for engaging new hires.
Step one: looking for great graduates to hire
To find the very best graduates there are two things you may need to consider, beyond the normal recruitment activities.
Graduates may not consider financial advice as a viable career option, until you put that option in front of them.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that financially-minded graduates look towards careers such as accountancy and investment banking, before they consider financial advice. This means that, to secure the best graduates, you may need to do more than simply advertise an open position. There may be a degree of ‘selling’ what you have to offer to your graduate. This means that you may need to…
Consider how to put yourself in a position to have conversations with high-performing graduates.
This could be in the form of guest speaking or lecturing at your local university. You may be able to become involved in a mentoring program, again, potentially through a university or possibly through a partnership with another business. In essence: you may need to think outside the box of advertising a job when it comes to hiring graduates into what will eventually be financial advisory positions.
Step two: reviewing CVs and settling on what you will value in a hire
However you have attracted your applicants, you will at some point need to review their details and make value judgements on what your potential hires offer. Some firms consider financial qualifications as valuable. Others prefer to hire on personal fit and overall academic performance, adding in financial knowledge later. There’s no right or wrong way, but this is the point to define your criteria and in turn begin to shape how you will develop your hire.
Step three: interviewing for ‘fit’
Graduate hires can present wildly differently when it comes to personality, maturity and work experience. Interviewing in a relaxed manner to see if your hire will fit with your team and ethos is arguably more important than assessing knowledge. A bad personality fit is unlikely to thrive, no matter how supportive the environment you create for them.
Step four: testing your graduates
A written test is probably not the best way to go here, but rather consider having your graduates present on a topic of your choosing. There are some suggested options for topics within the full guide. Graduates here will show you;
- Their desire for the role: how thoroughly have they researched the topic and prepared for the presentation?
- Their knowledge: what’s the standard of understanding in the presentation?
- Their current ‘soft skills’ level: how well did they present and communicate during the presentation?
Step five: follow-up interview and career path agreement
With a small group of final applicants now is the chance to ask any final questions or test your graduates on their expectations and knowledge. You know that they are on a four year career path before they bring in and earn any significant level of income… but do they know that? Motivated graduates may well also have begun the learning process. What can they tell you that they hadn’t discovered before?
Step six: making the hire and the next steps
If you’ve settled on an appropriate graduate to hire then it’s time to get started. You should consider how to begin their development and who will mentor them through the process. What performance indicators will you look at to make sure they are on track and what can they be doing to help the business immediately, as they build up to qualified adviser status?
