Sticking with a winning team

Booming markets in the fund management industry have put recruitment on the backburner as staff are reluctant to move.

The prospect of large bonuses on the horizon is one factor, but the reluctance to move from winning brands is also playing a part.

Zurich Financial Services Australia human resources manager Deborah Birt says remuneration packages have got to be right if you want to attract the right people.

“You have to make sure you don’t get behind your competitors with remuneration packages,” she says.

“Also, good people are attracted to companies with strong brands and they look at where in the cycle of growth a company is at.”

Birt says candidates want to see themselves as part of that success story and the better the fund manager is performing, the more likely they will be to attract people.

Off the record, everybody Money Management talked to about recruitment agreed that having Westpoint on a curriculum vitae would be a black mark for their future, as fund managers want to recruit from successful companies.

“People always want to put successful companies on their CVs,” Birt says.

Macquarie Funds Management division director Bruce Murphy says it is difficult to recruit people in current markets, so the focus is on keeping existing staff.

“We go out of our way to retain people,” he says.

“Our approach to retaining them is strong participation, profit share and acknowledging their role.”

At Macquarie, the funds management sales teams play a significant role in the business and the divisions are more set up like boutiques, Murphy says.

“The staff have a strong affinity with the business and understand the need to grow profitability. It is a key to retaining people.”

He says the strong Macquarie brand has also helped attract people and they recognise there is a career path for the right people.

“Macquarie has a diverse business and people with the right skills set can move around the business if there are opportunities,” he says.

Revolving door

Financial Recruitment Group managing director Judith Beck says the market has been quiet for hiring people involved in funds management operations, with more movement in sales.

“The technology area of funds management has been more active but other areas have been very quiet,” she says.

Specialist positions such as analysts see very little turnover in staff.

“It is extremely hard to get good analysts and there are usually only a couple of job changes a year,” Beck says.

“You won’t see a good analyst answering a job ad, you have to go and tap them on the shoulder and that is difficult.”

While the funds management side of business is quiet, the sales operations continue to see a revolving door for business development managers (BDMs).

Aviva general manager distribution Paul Northey says recruiting good BDMs is a challenge at present, although the company has revamped its sales structure, recruiting eight more sales staff and three distribution development managers.

But retaining existing staff is just as important.

“The key for sales staff is building career paths for them with a variety of roles available, so they can map out a career and develop their management skills,” Northey says.

“Retaining staff is also good, as they know the business and the product lines, as well as how a company works.”

However, he says recruiting new faces is equally important because that brings in new ideas and skills.

“We might need a particular skill and somebody internally fills that need, but alternatively we sometimes identify a person we want for a role and ask a recruitment firm to try and get them.”

Northey says there are some risks with this approach as the person recruiting might have a pre-determined view of the person.

“It is important to test your own judgement and benchmark that person.

New opportunities

Macquarie Financial services group division director Mike Huddy says his company doesn’t offer career paths to new sales recruits. However, there are always opportunities with such a diverse company.

“We don’t provide them with a career path, but eventually some will want to go into management, while others will want to go into financial planning,” he says.

Huddy says part of the creation of opportunities focuses on enabling BDMs to run their own businesses.

“For us it is about getting BDMs to manage their own business and we help them in areas such as writing business plans,” he says.

“Our structure is for them to act in a managerial role approaching that of a state manager but with their own key accounts.

“They are more key account managers and that is also good for attracting people.”

Huddy says this initiative helps to keep staff, and in the past two years the division has only lost 10 per cent of its sales team and no-one else in the past four months.

Developing people

Northey says while it is important to develop the managerial skills of some of the sales team, finding the right people to develop starts at the selection process.

“Organisations have to learn how to develop people more effectively,” he says.

“So we do send some people to executive manager programs.

“People do put a high value on these moves and it is a consideration when they are looking at a position.”

Northey says while some BDMs have managerial skills and become state managers, they may not have the people skills to become a good manager.

“If you find sales people with people management skills, it is a critical factor in selection,” he says.

“A lot of relationship managers have aspirations, but don’t have the background in this area.”

Birt says sales people will want a career path in a company and the good people can pick and choose their employer based on future promotion.

“We are good at taking on good people, giving them a lot of support, and promoting them,” she says.

“Many people are considered the right risk to give them the opportunity to move on their career paths at Zurich.”

Beck says BDMs do want to see a career path and put a three to four-year timescale on achieving promotion.

“If BDMs don’t see a career opportunity internally after three to four years they will look for a change,” she says.

“But if they are making good bonuses, they will not jump ship for an extra $20,000 a year.”