Financial Services Recruitment Standards

Having taken a close look at the financial services recruitment industry over the last year, we at XL Recruitment have come to the conclusion that the downturn in the economic climate has been detrimental to the financial services recruitment industry not only in terms of revenue but also in terms of the lowering of standards that were once thought of as a given. High standards of client and candidate servicing are the bedrock of the recruitment industry and are what makes a successful financial services recruitment agency. Its a people business and therefore 'the people' must be treated with the utmost respect. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

The highly competitive nature of the financial services recruitment industry means that often IFA and Financial Adviser candidates are treated as no better than cattle or pieces of meat to be traded on the financial services market without their prior knowledge or say so. A practice we are finding more and more prevalent as the Financial Services market contracts.

The biggest cause we can see, of issues, is the use of Job Boards such as Monster, REED or Total in the search for IFA and Financial Adviser jobs. Candidates will quite often apply for IFA and financial adviser vacancies advertised on these boards and will then also be contacted by recruiters sourcing or doing daily searches. Many times, these candidates will be swamped with over 20 financial services recruiters calling them, with most offering the same vacancies. What some unscrupulous recruiters are now doing is submitting candidates to IFA or financial adviser vacancies without their prior knowledge and without discussing it with the candidate first. The vacancy might not even be one the potential candidate would look at - it doesn't matter, to stop anyone else putting that candidate forward - the unscrupulous financial services recruiter will submit them anyway - on the off chance that the company will offer an interview. Its at that point that the candidate will be contacted with something along the lines of "We've got a great opportunity here and you'll never guess what but we just happen to have an interview slot for you on..............."

It works because for an IFA or Financial Adviser out of work, its very hard to turn down a guaranteed interview. Of course, this can and often does give rise to cross over and agencies arguing over ownership of the candidate. To give the uninitiated a look into the world of financial services recruitment, the rule of thumb is that the first agency to submit a candidate to a job with a specific organisation takes ownership of that candidate, with that company only and for a period of six months. Its often exasperating to do all the work properly, as XL-Recruitment always do - speak to the candidate and describe the opportunities we have, gain agreement for submittal, submit the candidate to the company and job involved, only to find out that someone has put the candidate forward to the same IFA or financial adviser role without even speaking to them.

It doesn't help the candidate in any way - a) because they haven't spoken to or began to build a working relationship with the agent that's submitted then, b) the agent will have no idea as to what the candidate is looking for or whether they are a good fit to the role and c) the job simply has not been done to the standard it should have been. In the most extreme cases this can even result in the candidate not being interviewed. What financial services company out there will want to interview a candidate and potentially pay a fee for someone who is being squabbled over by two agents from different financial services recruitment companies?

In all honesty, the economic climate has only intensified the competitive nature of the industry, however, the people suffering most from the recruiters who 'don't do it right' are the candidates and this needs to change. Remember, client and candidate servicing are the keys to a strong business so be one of the recruiters that are 'doing it right'