When hiring, financial planning firms will naturally seek to find the best possible candidate for the specific position. However, such individuals don’t necessarily appear on their own; rather, firms have to craft a job posting that attracts a qualified pool of candidates from which to choose (while also considering the time cost to the firm of assessing those who apply).
In this guest post, Daniel Yerger, founder and owner of the RIA MY Wealth Planners, outlines the strategy behind crafting a job description when his firm needed to hire two entry-level positions in relatively short order, and the tradeoffs involved in where to advertise the position.
To start, the concept of “signaling theory” suggests that employers will attract better candidates when their signals are clear in terms of expectations and rewards, and candidates with stronger qualifications will apply for roles in which they believe they are more likely to obtain adequate compensation in alignment with their qualifications.
With this in mind, an effective job posting can start with a basic description of the role and its responsibilities, followed immediately by compensation information (including a salary range as well as benefits offered). At this point, any qualified candidate for whom the compensation would be reasonable is likely to proceed, and any candidates not qualified or otherwise who feel their skill level is above the offer at hand will move on. Next, the description can describe common tasks for the job (to give candidates an idea of what their day-to-day work would be like in this position) as well as a list of minimum and preferred qualifications (with the former being a shorter list to avoid discouraging potential candidates who might only apply if they meet every one listed).
The job posting can then include a description of the hiring process to give candidates an idea of both what they can expect in terms of submission requirements (e.g., resume and cover letter) and the number of interviews, as well as when to expect to hear back from the firm (whether they’re selected to move on to the next round of the process or not) as well as the start date for the position. To help clients through this process, firms can also include a paragraph describing its target focus, the size of its client base, and any unique characteristics, as well as a list of resources where candidates can learn more about the company.
With the job posting created, firms can then consider where to advertise it to reach a desired pool of candidates. Notably, this decision involves tradeoffs; for example, while including the posting on larger platforms (e.g., LinkedIn or Indeed) can attract a broader (and more diverse) pool of candidates than on industry-specific job boards (e.g., the FPA Job Board or the CFP Board Career Center), doing so could require filtering through more submissions (though firms can reduce the number of superfluous candidates by having them apply on the firm’s website instead of directly on the site where the job posting is listed).
Ultimately, the key point is that given the high stakes involved in advisory firm hiring (particularly when it comes to the time and dollar costs of employee turnover), taking the time to craft and advertise a job posting that appeals to prospective candidates with the interest and qualifications to excel in the position is likely to be a worthwhile investment!
