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.

Is generating new business the Key?

Or is it servicing the clients you already have at a higer level than previously? I think there are pro's for both and given the state of the ecomony in the UK financial services market currently, there is nothing wrong with having more than one string to the bow.

Generating new business does not always mean the corresponding 'new revenue', well, not immediately anyway. For a financial adviser in the UK there is much importance placed on the generation of new business, particularly in interview. One of the key questions you will be asked at interview is not 'how much total you have written in gross commissions or API' but 'what was the percentage of new business'. Because an adviser with a large percentage of new business is a proactive adviser, someone who is not afraid to contact new people and sell the company, its services and finally 'a product'. In some cases, although you may generate the contacts, it can be difficult to convert them to 'business' without demonstrating a high level of client servicing first.

Which brings me nicely onto new business generation via the servicing of existing clients. How mant times a year do you phone exisiting clients? I would suggest it should be plenty. The better serviced a client feels and the more happy with the service received, the more likely they are to refer you to their friends or their colleagues. It doesn't take a genius to work out that referrals from someone who is already happy with the way you treat them are almost certainly more likely to do business. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. In this day and age with email and social networking at the forefront of any brand recognition strategy, treating your exisiting clients in the most considerate way possible is a very good way to secure new business.

As I said at the beginning, there are pro's and cons for both and you should definitely pay equal attention to both areas of business, if you want to be succesful that is!

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!