Shake up hiring practices to fill adviser gap, says coach

Founder and CEO of Ignite Global, Kim Seeling Smith, noted that the advice industry in Australia has endured significant regulatory and legislative changes in the last 10 years, including new educational requirements.

“Those changes have made the barriers to entry more stringent so it's much more difficult to get into the industry,” she told ifa.

“With more competition it's probably becoming more difficult to attract people into the industry because of these barriers to entry.”

Indeed, according to Wealth Data, ASIC figures as at 8 September 2022 showed that there were just over 16,300 advisers in Australia, down from just over 17,100 a year ago (a 4.75 per cent calendar year-to-date decline).

Speaking ahead of her session at the ifa Future Forum 2022 in November, Ms Seeling Smith said recruiting and retaining talent are more challenging for advice practices operating as a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) due to the lack of resources.

“Large organisations have entire teams dedicated to recruitment and retention but in SMEs, it's often the business owners themselves who are responsible for this,” she said.

“But, while it does present some difficult and unique challenges, it's not all bad news. There are always ways to overcome these challenges.

“If you do some very basic things differently and take a more innovative approach to attracting talent, you have a real opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors.”

For example, business owners could recruit employees with strengths and attitudes that complement the role, instead of someone who matches the required skills and experience.

Some companies are also engaging in what Ms Seeling Smith calls “role deconstruction”, where business owners deconstruct roles into various components and fill those roles with multiple employees through job-sharing arrangements or in part-time positions.

“Quite honestly, we are not too far away from that moment in time where one job no longer equals one full-time employee,” Ms Seeling Smith said.

During the ifa Future Forum, she will explore the key resourcing and retention issues currently facing advisers and arm them with strategies to minimise turnover and maximise employee engagement.

While Ms Seeling Smith said she is excited about the opportunities available to advisers to fill the skills gap, she remarked that the greater challenge lies in convincing employers that the labour market is not going to return to the old normal.

“We need to realise that this is our new normal,” she maintained.

“We are not going back to a time when there were more candidates than roles to fill them, and where if we needed somebody, we could just whack an ad on Seek and have a pool of candidates to choose from.

“Accepting that this is our new normal is the first step we need to take to solve the adviser gap.”

Alongside this, advisers are required to attract a “future-fit” workforce, with roles that will evolve as the industry evolves in three, five, and even 10 years from now.

Instead of going to the open market to recruit new employees, advisers could consider how they could “bring along their current employees on that journey”, Ms Seeling Smith said.

“You as the business owner must understand where the industry is going, how your individual practice is going to evolve to meet those challenges and opportunities, what the future workforce looks like, and what future skills and abilities you'll need to ensure your business evolves and thrives.”

Ms Seeling Smith concluded that this requires advisers to adopt an “agile or growth mindset”, embrace change, and become resilient, while focusing on exceptional customer service and managing client expectations.

To hear more from Kim Seeling Smith about how to attract a future-fit workforce into your advice practice with the skills and abilities you need for growth, come along to the ifa Future Forum 2022.

It will be held on 16 November at Montage in Sydney.

Click here to register for free and make sure you don’t miss out!

For more information about the event, including agenda and speakers, click here.