Of all the difficult decisions advisors face in building their practices, one that seems particularly agonizing is the issue of hiring staff. Hiring to Grow: A Practical Workbook, by Kirk Hulett, is a solid attempt to ease that pain.

Hulett is a well-regarded financial services industry contributor; his perspective as senior vice president of practice management at Omaha, Neb.-based Securities America Inc., an independent dealer, allows him to identify the key questions advisors must ask themselves when they reach this juncture of growth in their businesses.

For new advisors, the decision to hire is especially difficult because it frequently comes just as their investment in their businesses is bearing fruit. As advisors are recovering from the costs of the initial launch and the pain of drawing minimal personal income, they face the need to hire an assistant to maintain growth. The good news is that those advisors who go on to build great practices readily concede they should have made the decision to hire much sooner.

For experienced advisors who have already started to build their teams, the decision is, perhaps, less intimidating because the value of good support has — hopefully — been proven.

Regardless of the stage of development in the practice, top-producing advisors agree that in addition to waiting too long to recruit help, the other career-blocking obstacles in this area are hiring the wrong staff and not having written procedures for staff. Hulett addresses each aspect of the hiring process.

At the beginning of Hiring to Grow, for example, we find an easy-to-use activity log to record and analyse how you spend your time. In my experience, most advisors overestimate time spent with clients and underestimate the hours devoted to administration. With a simple summary of a typical week’s activities in hand, the next step is to complete a cost/benefit analysis worksheet to support the hiring decision from an economic standpoint. While there are clearly other considerations, getting the financial justification done early removes the most frequently stated reason advisors give for delaying their decision to hire staff: cost.

Assuming the benefits outweigh the costs and you proceed to hire someone, a detailed job description is essential. Hulett, however, recommends a more strategic first step: the creation of a “roles and responsibilities” chart to lay out what needs to be done within the practice overall. It looks like a typical organization chart, but the emphasis is on the functions. Where there are gaps between responsibilities and people to accept them, you have identified the hiring needs. From that awareness, you can build a more relevant job description.

Having decided what you want in your job candidates, you then have to find them. Recruiting sources include referrals from friends, family, colleagues and clients; online job postings; school placement offices; employment agencies; and newspaper advertising. Hiring to Growcompares the pros and cons of each method and includes sample advertisements. There are also brief insights into attracting the “millennial” generation, born between 1978 and 1989, who may have expectations that could surprise some older advisors.

At the resumé review stage of the process, Hulett points out potential “red flags” — vague information, gaps in employment history, etc. — and provides a checklist for initially screening applicants on the telephone. For many Canadian advisors, this chapter (and one other) may seem overly concerned with employment law, documentation and equal-rights legislation, which is clearly a response to the more litigious U.S. environment. However, some fairness considerations and other lessons in hiring apply universally.

Hulett thoroughly covers the interviewing process, another area in which many advisors could benefit from a little discipline. A detailed sample interview guide ensures that the employment interview doesn’t become a sales presentation of the advisor’s capabilities and the job’s promise, as too many do.

Other topics, such as background and reference checking, use of selection tests, contingent job offers and probation periods, are not dealt with to the depth possible. But, overall, Hiring to Grow provides enough good food for thought to reduce significantly the anxiety associated with this very essential step in the evolution of a successful financial advisory practice. IE