Andrew Frankish, Mortgage Talk’s Managing Director,
As any successful business knows, good staff are the foundation of a company. Quality staff are worth their weight in gold, while less committed team members can create problems for even the most professional managers. On the one hand, a dedicated team of staff members can lift an organisation beyond its position in the marketplace, but on the other could hold back a company from gaining a successful niche.
More than ever before, brokers are struggling to retain good, loyal, hardworking staff. There is little doubt that, since the advent of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulations, the industry is witnessing a reduction in the overall number of mortgage advisers. Recently tightened FSA regulation has had the effect of discouraging new intermediaries from taking their first step into the mortgage advice arena, and has caused some existing staff to reassess their qualifications, and even move elsewhere.
Retention
With a smaller pool of qualified advisers from which to draw, combined with a high ongoing demand for qualified staff, the result is that existing team members can reasonably move from broker to broker more or less on demand. And, given the cost of training and so on, it’s not surprising that brokers are anxious to retain the good quality staff that they have already recruited.
Added to this is the fact that more agencies than ever now specialise in financial services recruitment. The effect of this is that agencies are now more eager to ‘poach’ staff than previously, so it has become harder than ever to retain your good staff.
Compliance is a fact of life for brokers nowadays. From the client’s perspective, there are many advantages to this, but for individual advisers, it can be a real burden. Many advisers are resistant to receiving compliance advice and training but, given its unavoidable nature, this should really be seen as a positive way in which we can add value and help retain good quality staff.
Brokers need to sell this aspect of their service to staff as an opportunity for personal development in a positive sense within a fast-moving industry. Equally, advisers should be aware that some smaller intermediaries will struggle to offer the same degree of support to their staff, and this ought to be taken into consideration when choosing an employer.
Helping your staff
Brokers should always be at pains to help their staff by featuring the latest equipment and technology, including an up-to-date sourcing system, plus platforms that enable them to write life business and to compete with other providers. Ideally, these should enable them to submit applications online, helping to save time and improve accuracy which, in turn, enables the adviser to write more business.
Legal & General’s Recruitment Manager programme has also helped us enormously. The open and commercially positive relationship that exists between us and Legal & General provides an excellent flow of information, a worthwhile exchange of prospect data and ideas, and an ideal platform for joint activities to assist in the recruitment process.
Our central database is updated on a regular basis, allowing us to make regular contact with potential business partners and advisers, and enabling us easily and quickly to fill any opportunities that arise.
In addition, we have begun to recruit additional franchises and business partners as a result of our increased focus on recruitment activity. Instrumental to this is the extra confidence we can deliver – an attractive proposition both to business partners and intermediaries as a result of having a structured recruitment plan.
Added to this is a recently implemented cold-calling programme, generated by Legal & General, on behalf of Mortgage Talk. Although still in its pilot stage, this has already resulted in 77 prospects, of which 36 were contacted on a single day. 22 appointments resulted, with three advisers already offered positions at Mortgage Talk, and an additional 70 names held on the database for future use.
Legal & General’s support in this process is absolutely vital, as it has at least a 90 per cent synergy with our key business values, and can therefore be presented as a single recruitment proposition for potential recruits. We have found that a recruitment effort that is weighted 75 per cent Mortgage Talk/25 per cent L&G forms the ideal balance for these purposes.
