New Year - Financial Focus for 2010

For many of us in the financial services recruitment arena, we look upon the beginning of 2010 with trepidation.  How many of us are still suffering the after effects of last years meltdown? Many of the financial organisations shed staff like it was going out of fashion and consequently, come the end of 2009, there was little need for recruitment of new IFA's or new financial advisory staff, meaning that substantial numbers of our poorly placed or less professional competetitors went to the wall. Not a bad thing,  somewhat like a case of nature ensuring that only the strong survive. There is reason to look upon 2010 with a little less forbodeing than we naturally are however, as the financial markets stabilise and financial recruitment picks up - if only by a small percentage!

This year should be for many of us within financial services recruitment, the herald of good things to come.  As above, professional service standards have been lifted to the nth degree and those companies without the best standards of both client and candidate care have not and will not survive as both clients and candidates alike begin to realise that there are financial services recruiters out there that are a cut above the rest and choose to work with organisations that can provide a highly professional and courteous service. Skills have been rediscovered and new skills honed and polished over the last year that have ensured the survival of the best financial services recruiters and because of that, financial advisory organisations and IFA employers are now  provided with a higher level of service and a better client experience than they ever were. Companies within financial services recruitment have realised that the two key components for their success, clients and candidates, need to be treated as the highly important aspects that they are.

2010 holds new promise and should for the financial services recruiter be a good year.  We are seeing growth in the economy, however small, and the resulting uplift in the recruitment of financial advisory and IFA staff will see a rewarding and profitable year, most definitely compared to 2009.  It can't get any worse, can it!  So, lets jump into 2010 with renewed hope and vigour and lets all ensure that this year, 2010 is the year we all hope it can be!

Xmas - traditionally a time to slow down or a time to get going?

With Christmas looming up on us as quickly as ever, it got me thinking about the effects the holiday period has on us personally and professionally and on all our business's as a whole, whether working as an IFA, a financial adviser, a mortgage adviser or a recruitment consultant. Of course, there is all the jollyness, brevity and 'good will to all men' normally associated with the festive season, usually fueled by too many hot toddies and holiday beverages brought by colleagues who don't speak to you throughout the rest of the year, but there is also the perceived notion that Xmas is a time when it all slows down.  Is that, or should that, be the case though?

Seriously, what is about Xmas that makes the majority of us go mad at about this time of year.  We start winding down at about the 10th December, we forget that to get ahead in the New year we should be pushing right up until the final whistle, as it were and instead we go all misty eyed at the Christnas Lights in our respective towns, following some old adage that 'nobody wants to do business at Xmas anyway'  Now this isn't my bahh humbug moment although many will perceive it as such, its simply a realisation that despite the fact that many of us do sit back, eat too may mince pies, indulge in Secret Santa, and make fools of ourselves at the Xmas party, we could still get ahead of the game, if there was a little bit of forethought.

As a financial adviser, an IFA, etc, I'm sure its probably different.  Timing isn't as crucial for someone looking to invest, or start a pension as it is for someone looking to fill a financial advisory role.  In the financial services recruitment industry, January is the time when the financial organisations want more staff, to get a flyer into the New Year, so what do many of us do, we go AWOL. Although we are physically sat at our desks, the activity level is probably at about 50% of what it is in September. What we need to do, is crack on, get those calls done, contact those candidates, check out what your clients are doing - who has new roles coming up in January and start working on those now, not actually in January. We can all still enjoy the Xmas period without grinding our business to a halt.  Keep the activity level high for as late as you can pre Xmas and I can guarantee, you won't have a hangover come New Year when looking at your pipeline!

CV Writing for financial advisers

As a recruitment specialist working in the financial services industry I am often asked to write the best CV I can for a financial adviser or IFA applying for their perfect role but what is the best way to write a Cv and what should it contain.  The financial services industry and particularly financial advisory organizations or IFA's, are looking for a definitive type of applicant and it's my job, ultimately, to present that candidate in the best light, in order to secure the financial adviser or IFA a 1st stage job interview. The Cv is a concise advertisement of yourself that should create interest for a potential employer and motivate them to want to interview you above anyone else.  

So, what does the modern financial advisory organization want in their IFA or financial adviser? Probably better to start telling you what they are not looking for first.  They are not looking for anyone who has lacked commitment in previous roles - so if you've flitted about from job to job throughout the last four or five years - you had better find a ready excuse to explain it! The financial services organization today is not looking for anyone who has defined targets in previous roles to be too difficult - too difficult, too difficult? By whose standards? The modern financial adviser or IFA type role is  very sales focused, as covered in previous posts,  Salesman, IFA or Financial Adviser?  so for a financial advisory professional to deem targets as unachievable, it indicates to the potential employer that the candidate lacks application and the desire to achieve.  The potential financial services employers also don't want inexperienced, under-qualified individuals that won't hit the ground running although this is currently defined by economic circumstance and as the market picks up and the economy performs better, we will see more leeway on this standard.

Now we have an idea as to what the potential employer in the financial services industry is looking for, how do we put it down as clearly and as attractively as possible.  A good Cv should always be easy to read and it should always have the most important functions close to the top of the page.  Start with your address details obviously but the first thing written should be a short, concise profile of yourself putting yourself in a highly desirable light for the role applied.  Sometimes this is called a career statement.  The next thing should be a bullet pointed list of key achievements, awards, etc.  Again this shows that you have excelled in previous roles and demonstrates you as someone who takes pride in achievement. for the financial adviser or IFA it is vital that they show they have the previous sales performance to excel with the potential employer reading the Cv.
The next thing on the financial services CV should be your past employment history, written in chronological order and showing any achievements, what your job entailed and the key competencies and experience gained.  The last thing on any CV is always personal information followed by referees.

A good financial services Cv should also never be more than two A4 sides long.  That is it! Much longer and it runs the risk of becoming tedious and will probably be repetitive.  Any shorter and it also runs the risk of looking like you don't have enough experience for the role or not enough employment history.  Financial advisory organizations, IFA's or accountants, because they work within the financial services industry are very much more strict with their procedures, references, etc, so it is important that the correct information is also put on the CV.  Lies or embellishment could always be found out at a later stage.  Working in financial services recruitment, I have become used to the need for exact CV's with exact career history and details, financial services is an industry that always checks.

If you need any Cv polishing or assistance with writing a CV - contact XL-Recruitment - financial services recruitment specialists, on 01278 429000 and ask to speak to one of the consultants.  This is just one of the value added services provided by XL.
                      

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'

When will the banking market return?

With today's(29th April 2009) recent surge in first quarter profits posted by Santander and the Abbey Bank in particular, are we starting to see the first green shoots of recovery in the banking environment and therefore the financial services recruitment industry? I am no economist and can only give a recruiters view on the situation but recent events do seem to indicate that we are perhaps starting to see a small increase in profits generated by financial services organisations, which should theoretically bring with it an increase in the amount of recruitment undertaken by the banking industry.

The stock market experienced a small rise on the back of the banking markets better than forecasted pre tax profits and this indicates a small but significant recovery. Of course, with the UK economy still in the mire of a supposedly full scale depression it could be a long time yet before we start seeing any upturn in the financial services recruitment market but it does however bode well for the latter part of 2009, despite the government telling us that 900,000 people will lose their jobs this year.

The recent increases in first quarter profits aren't quite across the board as yet and the mortgage market in general is still depressed but increased profits must mean increased consumer confidence and a slight easing on the restrictions in lending policy, which in turn will bring a need for an increase in financial advisory and mortgage advisory staff. Is quantitative easing beginning to take effect? Who knows, but after a year of headcounts and financial advisory positions being severely restricted any amount of recovery, however small, would be most welcome.

Working in the UK financial services recruitment industry, reliance on the 'big four' high street banks for financial services roles and the resulting lack of opportunity has brought about a heavy downturn in profitability. This has been offset by increased business development and marketing in order to generate alternative business from IFA organisations, Accountancy practices and assurance providers which has to a degree worked. However, the staple of most financial services recruiters is the banking environment and the financial advisory opportunities they bring, the holy grail of the PSL still being the aim, however,what good being on a PSL does if the jobs just aren't there, I don't know?

Speaking from experience, we have seen a small increase in jobs from the financial adviser or wealth management arms of the High Street banks very recently, resembling a small chink of light in the economic gloom. Hopefully it will increase and continue into the latter part of the year. And, if it manages to get back to resembling anything like it did last year in terms of the number of opportunities, both I and XL Recruitment will be happy bunnies!

New Clients are the new black

Recruitment for Dummies - Part 2 - Developing new clients

If you are a consultant working in the financial services industry you will be finding your role has changed over the last year to include a much higher percentage of new business development than it did. I would go as far as to suggest that perhaps an increase of 25% wouldn't be too much. In today's financial services market there are a whole host of financial advisers displaced from their roles, a lot from the major high street banks, who aren't recruiting as much, and from the larger National IFA firms. Candidate generation isn't really the issue - finding roles to put them in however, well that's a different story.

In your organisation, do you have specific individuals responsible for new business development and subsequent account management or do you, like us at XL-Recruitment make everybody responsible for developing new accounts? Both business models work and both can be very effective, like most jobs, its about having the right people. It takes a lot to successfully develop and manage a new account, from initial contact, right through to successful placement of financial services candidates.

Firstly it takes the development of some sort of rapport. Its ok having a strictly professional relationship but people will be much more willing to help you with any queries if you've taken an interest in them previously. It also helps in getting past the 'gatekeeper' if by the 5th time you've called you know they're married and support Everton football club! See how many times you get through to the decision maker then?

Secondly - finding out exactly what the client is doing currently to source their financial advisers or IFA's, if they are getting good results? what they are unhappy with? whether or not whatever they are doing is cost effective? Gently probing to determine what it will take to differentiate your company from your competitor - and then offering to supply that, can make all the difference in securing the business

You may not get the business immediately and I would suggest that with the financial services industry and the economy in turmoil at the moment, it probably will take more than one call. Persevere though and if you can't get on the PSL immediately look to at least secure a trial when they are next looking for new financial services professionals. How are they going to know what you can do without giving you a go?

Finally, when you do get the new business and you've been tasked to find a new IFA or a financial adviser, para planner, whatever, make sure that you keep in contact and develop the relationship. Keep them in the loop, provide good feedback and make sure that you provide a professional and most of all cost and time effective service.

New business generation and finding new roles is a much more important part of the successful financial services recruitment consultants armoury nowadays and is a part that shouldn't be neglected. Its also a hell of a lot easier to talk to candidates if you have a role that is different from the jobs that have been put to them by five consultants before you!

Financial 'advice' or just another sale?

With the RDR looming in 2012 the onus is now on IFA's and financial advisers to mantain their qualifications at a higher level than previously. Simple FPC3 or CEFA qualifications just won't cut it any more and Diploma or Chartered status will now be almost a prerequsite. This is a smart move by the FSA partly designed to clean up the financial services industry and bring a regocgnised standard to the financial services industry. Advisory organisations will have to decide whether they want to go down the route of qualifiying their advisory sales force in order to make them truely 'independent' or stay as they are and be labelled as a 'sales' force.

Financial adviser or Sales man? What is the essential difference between a financial 'adviser' and a sales person. As a recruitment consultant working in the financial services recruitment industry I see a hell of a lot of different roles that all encompass the same specifications - the sale of financial products - whether on a self employed basis working through various providers (usually the ones with the best commissions) or as an employed adviser selling the products of your employer. Most roles will all involve some sort of up selling.

So how do you differentiate from an adviser providing true 'advice' or one selling you the product that best fits their needs or acheives their target. My advice - no pun intended, would be to construct a checklist of questions that you can use to validate whether or not the adviser is offering you advice in your best interests. Of course, before you interview financial advisers or IFA's to find out what they can offer, you need to ask yourself some questions first to determine exactly what you need. Is it a full financial overhaul or a lifelong financial plan with long term goals, is it just a mortgage or protection policy. The answers you give will help you determine who's services you will require. The questions to ask should resemble something along the lines of the below:

• What experience do you have? - find out how long they have been practicing, which companies they have worked for previously - it will give you an idea as to whether they will have the right experience.
  
• What are your qualifications? - will help you determine whether or not they have the right qualifications to be able to assist you
  
• What services do you provide? - Some may be able to offer pension tranfers, some may not, some may offer mortgages but can't do investment business - there are a few variations and the question is a valid one to determine if they can help you.
• How do I pay for your services? - A vital question to ask - since the RDR was announced more and more advisers are offering fee based services alone, rather than commission based - the advice offered is more likly to be impartial and true financial 'advice' as there is no benefit to the financial adviser pushing products from one provider (usually with the biggest commission rates!)

A simple list of just a few questions, but they will help the client to decide if the financial adviser is more of a 'salesman' then a true financial planner. In some cases, the advice and financial products offered by a financial adviser will be absolutely spot on, whether with the provider paying the best commission or not, so don't discount out of hand the financial advisers that will take the 'salesman' route after the RDR but if you are looking for truely impartial. independent financial advice then I would suggest a reputable IFA.

Is now a good time to be an IFA?

With the UK financial services market experiencing so much doom and gloom and with the redtops and the broadsheets conspiring to make it sound considerably worse than it actually is, its vitally important for the Independent financial adviser to try and ensure that they are the choice of the consumer rather than the 'big four' or the other high street banks and building soceities.
 
Given the behaviour of the banks over the last year or so, completely reckless and without consideration for recourse, mismanagement on a grand scale and complete ignorance of the consumer now should be the time that IFA's are marketing themselves as heavily as they ever did to ensure a fair market share of the displaced business.  I don't think that the brand that the banks have spent years nurturing is going to be strong enough to retain the consumer confidence that they have held for so long in its entirety and this means more business for the UK Independent financial adviser

The IFA is 'Independent', not tied or multi-tied, nor do they fit into any of the new breed of groups of sales or 'generic' advice.  Their actions are based on the need of the client and not on the requirement to achieve a target or the need of a banking or assurance institution.  There is no sales target, most are self employed,  they have no product targets, they're not required to sell a particular quota of say, life assurance or bonds.

Another good thing to the IFA is that most of their business comes via word of mouth with a good recommendation.  There is no reliance on counter  staff almost kidnapping customers as they walk in branch and harrying them until they agree to see what can loosely be termed an 'adviser' and in truth probably comes closer to a sales person.

Also, they aren't multi-tied,  which means that they don't have to try and sell one type of protection product from a limited panel of providers which conveniently happens to be more expensive for the client to purchase, simply because the commission is loaded.  This practice is called dual pricing and is demeaning: there's the real price (which they would rather have teeth pulled than show the client) and there's the one specially arranged between the 'multi tied' adviser and the insurance company.

Independent Financial advisers pride themselves on always being able to offer the best advice at all times and they will always act on the clients behalf and not with a hidden agenda - Now which would build the better relationship?

Social Media, new business gold or a waste of time?

For recruiters in the UK Financial services industry its a turbulent time to be doing business. Companies are downsizing, there are less actual vacancies, organisations are a lot more specific than they were a year ago as to what they want, candidates are more likely than ever to be dealing with another agency and its more difficult to find advisers and finance professionals of the right quality. So, in my mind, anything we can use to our advantage in terms of both sourcing new business and new candidates is more than welcome. In any case, the value of social networking, if used correctly can be immense as indicated by the number of people now using social networking sites.

The strength of your brand and therefore your business is influenced heavily by the web and other media's and of course, word of mouth is still one of the best ways to build a reputation. Everyone has access to a computer and the FS recruitment industry is now recognising the value of social networking, 'word of mouth' for the electronic age, in building a brand and finding new business. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, they are all valuable tools in getting your name and your reputation out there and most, if not all offer company profile pages.


There are obviously things to do and things not to do when raising your profile on these sites and I suppose it won't hurt to list one or two:

• Use your real name and not just a faceless brand ie; Jim@ XL-Recruitment rather than just XL-Recruitment - it builds a more user friendly image


• Use recommendations - a powerful tool!


• Be careful about the content placed on your profile - it has to come across as human and not just an organisation


• Target the audience you want and focus on those particularly
  

Just a couple of things that should be looked at when building your brand on social networking sites.

Most of these sites have job boards now, which are again a hugely valuable resource, and some of the networking groups can be real sources of value. If anything though, the key to it is getting the right people. The same as sourcing in any particular way, its about finding the right calibre of individual or the right opportunity.

Web based marketing is here to stay and over a difficult period, the more widely you are known and the better your brand recognition, the more value will come from what you are doing. I think in the UK we are perhaps a little behind our friends across the pond in recognising the value of the web to the UK Financial Services recruitment industry but we are catching on and the more time spent building your brand, the better the rewards. Social Networking? S Where do I sign up?

Is financial advice made an attractive career prospect?

How many times did your careers adviser suggest to you at school or college that you might like to be a 'financial adviser'?

If they were anything like mine, I doubt very much if they mentioned it once. Is it the industry itself that is seen as an unattractive career choice or is it the fact that its not advertised heavily and pushed like other career options such as 'nursing' or 'teaching'. The financial adviser should be of no less value than those careers. Arranging someones finances to enable them to achieve their dreams is a noble idea certainly and one that should be marketed. The reality however is that an industry that has seen better days in terms of consumer confidence is awash with people that don't generate much in the way of trust - no offence to the hundreds of thousands of very, very good professionals out there - its more that one or two bad eggs that are heavily publicised have more effect on the uptake of a new generation of advisers than the good ones do.

So what can the financial services industry do to make itself a wholly more attractive career proposition? Can they offer FS exams as a supplementary addition to the curriculum? work experience shadowing financial advisers, apprenticeships perhaps? Cash incentives like the golden handshakes offered to teachers?

They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity, I beg to differ, given the pounding the FS industry is taking at the moment in the media, however, I think the best thing that financial services can do to make itself more attractive as a career choice, is clean up its act, regulate itself more critically, make itself whiter than white and restore consumer confidence in what to date has been to most, a shadowy law unto itself. Only then will we see more younger people entering the industry.

Finding the right staff can be tiresome and costly

For a financial services organisation, be it a national IFA firm, a blue chip bancassurer, a big life assurance organisation or even a small regional accountancy practice whats the biggest problem you come across in running a profitable organisation?

That's right - finding well qualified, experienced, high quality financial advisory staff.

What do you usually do? Put an advert in your local paper? Advertise on the web? Even try networking or word of mouth? All good solutions in their own right but are they both cost and time effective? and do they find you the right staff? or do you find that time after time you are interviewing the wrong calibre of adviser?

For some reason public perception of the financial services recruitment specialist is that we are expensive and in some cases a waste of time. The good recruitment organisation, and there are plenty out there, can turn a sometimes fruitless task into a time and cost efficient exercise. many financial services recruitment specialists will take the sourcing process almost completely out of your hands leaving you to do the one part, as the company potentially hiring, you will have to do - the interviewing.

Imagine that, you have an organisation staffed with professionals highly skilled in sourcing good quality financial staff at your disposal. A good financial services recruiter will find you staff through advertising your position on both the web and in the papers, headhunting and targeted cold calling. They will then pre-qualify and screen those professionals by meeting them face to face in most cases, or if distance makes it prohibitive, over the telephone by asking highly relevant questions focused on performance, qualification, experience, business strengths/weakness's, ambition and motivation. Once screened the candidates are forwarded by way of a concise summary CV of the above and if deemed good enough by you, booked for interview.

How much time and cost do you think that would save in man hours and advertising budget? Oh, and it doesn't end there. Most financial services organisations will require a second competency based interview so the candidate will be questioned for feedback, given relevant guidance and prepped for 2nd stage.

There are professional financial services recruiters out there that do all this, and for what they provide, at an extremely competitive cost. Think about how much it currently costs you to get the right staff and how much time it takes. Now think about not having to do all that and having someone else, a PROFESSIONAL do it. The time saved, the cost saved, the extra revenue generated by the right advisers - how come you're not on the phone already?

Why use a financial services recruitment specialist?

Finding a new role in today's financial services market can be a daunting prospect whether relatively new to the industry or an old timer with years under your belt. In today's uncertain economic climate its no less difficult.

Professionally you would expect companies to be more choosy about who they want to take on which can make it look like its not quite the right time to make the jump. Also, personally there is a multitude of questions you ask yourself, such as 'what do I want from a new role?', 'where do I go?', 'Bancassurance or IFA?'. These are just a few of the questions we, as financial services recruitment specialists, come across every day. Now of course we can't answer every question. For some of them the answer comes from you, the adviser but we can certainly make the whole process a lot less painless. Who said 'knowledge is power' or 'forewarned is forearmed'. I'm not particularly sure but they were right. Given the right information, at the right time it becomes a hell of a lot easier to make a considered and conscious decision. And of course, there are still good opportunities out there, they just need to be with the right company and with the right conditions!

So why use a Financial Services recruitment consultancy to do something today, with the access to job boards and companies the web gives you, that you can do yourself?

Part of the answer lies in the first part of the post. Not only do financial services recruiters give you access to some of the best jobs in the financial services industry but, if the jobs done properly and you're given the right information, they can assist you in making the right choice for YOU. If the recruiter you use is a good one they should be able to go through your past employment history with you, find out what your strengths and weakness's are, what you're looking for from a new role, find you that position and finally, do the best they can to assist you through the interview. And if the right role isn't there right now, you sure want them to make you aware of it when it is.

There is no 'one size fits all' approach to recruitment. You, as advisers, require a flexible yet professional service that 'does what it says on the tin'. Too many agents don't listen to what the adviser wants or needs and because of that, public perception of the financial services recruiter is not what it should be. The good financial services headhunter is a very relevant service and next time you're considering making the jump, consider who you want to make it with!