Advisor | September 2024
To ensure further years of success, financial advisor networks need today more than ever to retain their best professionals and at the same time attract new ones.
It is therefore essential to understand what are the levers capable of retaining those who are already CF and those that allow attracting new talent also from traditional banks, possibly with a focus on under-represented women in the world of financial consultancy.
FINER conducted a survey involving a sample of financial advisors and bank employees, with a focus on career paths, personal and professional ambitions and the propensity to change jobs.
In terms of career, CFs are more attracted by an individual growth project, bank employees by company status and remuneration aspects; at a gender level, women are more interested in the creation of a team project and educational growth.
TCs are interested in managerial positions as long as they are clearly part of a challenging project, but many of them prefer to follow clients rather than coordinate other colleagues.
For bank employees, the obstacles to managerial growth are the scarcity of available positions and the reduction in staff. For women, the possibility of developing a managerial career clash with poor meritocracy and persistent gender discrimination.
The few female managers are highly appreciated by colleagues above all for their greater listening skills, empathy and ability to establish constructive discussions. The best work results are in fact recorded in teams where the presence of women and men is more balanced.
Even in relationships with clients, women are characterized by these qualities combined with greater calm and less presentation anxiety than their colleagues.
In terms of personal and professional ambitions: TCs declare themselves more competitive and ambitious than most bank employees, who prefer cooperation and the execution of company directives to competition, being less attracted by individual challenges. Women are on average more inclined towards constructive collaboration but with a healthy dose of individual competitiveness.
The propensity to change jobs is higher among bank employees, greater for men than for women; satisfaction with one’s salary level is on average higher among CF, with bank employees and women being more critical.
Among the drivers for company change, the importance of the professional challenge (new network, new goals) stands out for TCs; for employees, remuneration, company equipment, prestige, visibility and management of collaborators; for women, training, work tools and family welfare are especially important.
CF and bank employees have a different DNA developed very different work environments for prospects of professional and personal growth and fulfillment.
When recruiting and retaining, rather than homogeneous proposals, it is essential to know each professional thoroughly and individually, therefore calibrating the job offer with their aptitudes, abilities and objectives.
Only after this process will it be possible to offer each individual candidate a real job opportunity which, in all likelihood, will be accepted with mutual satisfaction.
Some banks and networks have understood this well, others decidedly less so.
Nicola Ronchetti