How to Hire for Growth

Consolidation across the Financial Services space is rampant at present, as it has been for many years and will continue to be. It seems that every day in the press we see new announcements of yet another business on the market or having merged or been acquired by a bigger business.

What happens when you want to grow your business and maintain complete ownership rather than sell out to a consolidator?

Having the right growth strategy is key. I will give as much help as I can in this article and share what I have learnt over all the years of supporting Business Leaders and Owners in Financial Planning and Wealth Management to help you get this right for you, your business and your overall outcome. I encourage you to maintain the focus on creating a sustainable future for the business, your employees and the clients you are working with.

So, let’s start by how you make sure you are creating the right culture to attract the right people to your business and to retain those people.

In this article we will look through what you, as a business leader need to consider in your growth strategy.

It is imperative that all leaders within any business are clear on what the business is trying to achieve.

What is your purpose and/ or your mission? Get really clear on what your purpose is. That could be, for example, to grow to 250 advisers and maintain owner managed status as a network for advisers. It could be to change the face of advice and close the gender investment gap. It could be to close the advice gap in the UK by providing as many people as possible with affordable advice. It could be to be the go-to Financial Adviser business in your local town to help build wealth in the local community. That is for you to get clear on, but I implore you to make sure you do get clear on it.

Once this is clearly mapped out, this leads into what is the Businesses Identity? Your Corporate or Business Identity is key, it plays into all branding, marketing and targeting the right market and hires. All leaders need to fully engage with and embrace the Business Mission/ Purpose and Identity to be successful at leading the business in the direction it truly wants to go in. This then feeds into defining your Company Values. Being clear on the Values across the business ensures a solid culture to be formed and this is imperative to successfully recruit and retain the right people for the business; hires who align with the business values.

Please, if you need help with this, feel free to speak with myself or another trusted consultant or coach.

So, you get clear on the impact you are going to make in the world with your business. You are clear on your long-term goal, and your identity as a business. You use this to define your cultural values. You have all your leadership fully engaged in this and then apply this to your hiring strategy. This is continued throughout the business in recruitment and ongoing employee engagement, which is essential to the successful growth strategy. You then hire the right capabilities to deliver and provide the belief and the right environment for them to thrive in. There are many factors at play here, both visible and invisible which will dictate the outcome you achieve.

A well used concept is the ‘Iceberg Model of Culture’ which visually explains that organisational culture is like an iceberg that’s found in polar seas. What you see is just the tip of the iceberg (environment, capabilities). Underneath lies an enormous, invisible mass, which holds everything together strongly. The iceberg model of culture can be used as a standard to assess if your organisation’s collective cultural values align with set goals and standards for effective growth.

Organisational Culture is the character set of beliefs and values that drive what people do and how they do it. What defines the type of employee behaviour that is accepted, rejected, encouraged, or discouraged within the organisation and this is imperative to the successful growth of your business.

I urge you to get all of this right before embarking on your growth and hiring strategy. It is best implemented from ground zero but of course it is never too late to make sure you have got this right.

The assessment of these key areas should always be part of your board or leadership meetings to keep the focus and engagement strong across the business. Once you have got clear on your organisational culture you can create your hiring strategy. Please do ensure that your culture and your hiring strategies are inclusive ones. In achieving this you have access to the full range of talent for your hires rather than restricting yourself to a restricted section of the population. The positive impact this has on your business results has been proven many times over in studies (Deloittes, Forbes, Mckinsey and many more have plenty of reported studies) Ensure you are achieving equity and inclusion across your business and that your leaders and companies internal and external communications are consistently displaying your company values. Do you want to be known for your service? Do you want your clients to feel valued? Have a think about how important it is that those delivering that service feel that they are looked after and valued. One of the first steps in developing a hiring strategy for growth is identifying the specific roles, skill sets and capabilities needed to support your expansion. You could be acquiring client books yourself and want to grow by hiring service driven advisers to look after these clients.

Another key strategy involves attracting younger advisers with a client following and the opportunity to be part of the MBO. This needs to be done early, and such an opportunity should only be formalised after working together for a few years when implicit trust and capabilities are solid. Any hire is crucial to get right but, in this hire, you are looking to have someone who has that long term leadership capability (and desire!) so we would recommend utilising Psychometric profiling to assess overall skills and competencies that would be developed over the years. This approach works well as the adviser has been organically grown within the business and will be working to the business standards and ethics and will understand the operations, the clients, and be fully intertwined in the business purpose, identity, and values and able to exemplify these throughout the business.

Ensuring these hires are aligned to your company values and are fully engaged with the journey towards the overall business mission and purpose. It goes without saying in this scenario to make sure that contracts are tight and the right hires are made with people who are going to see themselves as part of that long term vision. If things do not work out, this is not personal, you assess where in the process it went wrong and address it. Make sure that you are using set recruitment strategies to avoid any confirmation bias in your hires. Have a set process that you follow, I am a fan of valued based interviewing to attract the right people to your business.

?A hiring strategy implemented 5-10 years prior to retiring can ensure a smooth transition and continued growth during the succession process. By attracting ambitious, client-focused younger advisers, firms can increase a business owners’ income for 5-10 years prior to a sale. This strategy can also allow an adviser to earn equity in the business prior to value crystallisation at sale, improving terms with lenders and potentially negating any capital input from personal finances. Attracting the right talent to your business requires the right approach, partnering with a trusted recruitment firm like Aspire Executive Search Ltd who have built up an enviable reputation in doing just this for the past 12 years. Another route to succession planning and recruitment particularly for 1 or 2 adviser businesses (either DA or AR) is to join a network 5 - 10 years before retirement. This route enables you to work in an infrastructure with the same systems and investment solutions making your business more valuable due to the uniform structure with peers and a record of income production over a sustained period of time. By joining a network you will meet like-minded individuals who have a similar ethos and geographical location that would be interested in buying your business.

The benefits are integration is simple due to same systems processes and investment solutions, also the network often provides the financing so providing some financial security for buyer and seller. Do not forget that there are not only the gargantuan networks, there are also more bespoke solutions within the network model. There is also an added benefit of the transition from DA to network in increased free time to write business rather than run a business adding value to sale price before retirement. We at Aspire Exec know and understand the UK network offerings very well, so if anyone wants or needs any advice or guidance on these, we are more than happy to discuss how this could work for you. Taking considered and well thought action, setting out your overall goal and working out the key steps to get you there. Taking external advice where it is needed and outsourcing skills that you do not want to have in your business will all help ensure you get the business built that you set out to. Be clear and be transparent in your mission.

Hope these nuggets give you some strategies to help you in your journey and you know where to come if you wanted to discuss any of this any further. Doing it right will always be worth it.