Recruitment and Retention

For many firms today, Stewart Koesten noted, recruitment means “having to be on the hunt for quality people all the time.” The primary quality his firm looks for, he added, is a “cultural fit,” which means essentially the drive and the commitment to help the clients prosper.

One of the best sources of new recruits for Stepp & Rothwell is the current staff. “They know what we require,” said Ken Eaton. “They know what’s important to us, and they know who is going to fit into the organization.”

Haas & Wilkerson benefits from its college intern program. “We actually go in and we look for people who seem to be doing the best as students, who seem to be doing the best socially,” said Fred Dunn, “and bring them in with the idea of educating them as to what business is like.”

UMB has a very strong management training program, noted Dana Abraham. Abraham manages the bank’s private banking and wealth management organization.

“The key element for us in recruiting is really identifying people who are likable,” said Abraham. “You can be the best investment manager, but if your client cannot relate to you and doesn’t like you, they are not going to work with you.”

Commerce Trust Company looks outside the industry for the type of traits that they think will make for good professionals in the wealth management business, noted Scott Boswell. If new recruits understand business, client relationships, sales, and marketing, Boswell believes that they can be profitably trained around the specifics of the wealth management business.

To grow from one to seventeen key people in a single year, The PrivateBank here in Kansas City found it necessary to give new hires part ownership in the business. The initial challenge was to find people who were interested, especially those that wanted to be with the company for a long time and were willing to sacrifice current income for future net worth. Even with incentives, said Don Hubbs, “It was amazingly hard to get people to move.”

Recruiting a diverse work force makes the recruitment job all that much harder. “We are always looking for a diverse group of people,” acknowledged Lori Gregory. “But just like with any recruiting thing, you want to get the quality people, and so it’s a balance.”

Confirmed Stewart Koesten. “There is a total gap in people of color and other nationalities in the industry.”

“You want your client delivery team to mirror your client,” said Abraham, referring specifically to foreign nationals. “There are cultural differences that we have to be aware of.” Still, she conceded, it is a “struggle.”

New Challenges

Don Hubbs addressed the fact that although roughly 50 percent of potential investments are abroad, most Americans have been historically reluctant to invest their money outside the country. That is changing. “I think they have accepted it,” he added. “We haven’t.”

“It used to be difficult to get people to put five percent international,” said Bob Rippy, “Then the norm sort of moved to ten. It’s gotten to be twenty now.”

“You see the incredible returns over the recent years in the emerging markets,” said Mark Vlasic. One challenge he sees is “helping clients understand how that fits in the overall picture.”

The expansion of investment options, globally and here in America, has made the advisors job admittedly more challenging, but it has arguably made their services more valuable. “I don’t have to know everything,” said Vlasic. “It’s knowing where to go to get those resources.”

“I think the payoff is the referral,” said Rippy. “When a client brings one of their family members or their grandmother or their mother or their best golfing buddy; that means you have done a good job or they wouldn’t be doing that.”

“If we can identify one or two things that are really important to the individual and then help them achieve it,” said Stewart Koesten, summarizing the essence of his job, “that’s the moment of greatest joy for us.”