Client Needs & Challenges
The Full-Service Investment Arm of a North American bank wanted to hire investment advisor candidates with an established professional network consistent with the profile of their most successful investment advisors to organically grow their business.
Despite a clear understanding of the ideal candidate profile, the firm struggled to attract the right people and generate a sufficient volume of qualified candidates. Traditional passive recruitment channels, such as newspaper ads and job boards, were no longer effective, and their internal talent acquisition teams lacked the networks and sourcing capabilities needed to attract these successful, hard-to-reach professionals, let alone convince them to make a career change.
The client hired Robertson to help the shift from a passive approach—waiting for candidates to come to them—to a more proactive strategy to fill their pipeline with top investment advisor talent critical to ensure long term sustainable growth.
Robertson’s Approach
Leveraged Wealth Management Experience
Robertson’s experience recruiting for wealth management firms enabled it to quickly gain a deep understanding of the “ideal” candidate profile – beyond having professional networks – including providing insight on critical core competencies predictive of success. Once Robertson had provided input and aligned on the candidate profile with the client, it conducted a proactive, research-driven approach to find similar professional profiles.
Extensive Market and Candidate Research
Robertson’s dedicated team conducted targeted candidate outreach to gain insight into the level of interest and motivators that would convince targeted professionals to make a career change to an investment advisor. This included using proprietary and professionaldatabases, and extensive referral networks, as well as developing tailored communications to highlight the unique compensation model offered by the client including base salary over 18 months to help new advisors establish themselves.
Engaging Candidates
Robertson’s approach was not just about finding but actively engaging potential candidates who fit the profile—and had connections in industries and networks the firm needed to ensure success for the advisor and grow assets for the firm. This engagement enabled the team to build a pipeline of qualified candidates as requested by the client so their internal recruitment team could continue to engagement them until there was a mutually beneficial time to hire them as an investment advisor.
The Results
Robertson successfully met all service level agreements (SLAs) for pipeline development, consistently delivering approximately 45 qualified candidate profiles per month, despite a lengthy and challenging recruitment process. Although Robertson was not responsible for direct hiring, Robertson was the only provider able to fill the pipeline when other vendors failed. This project demonstrated Robertson’s ability to identity and engage high-profile talent and candidate development at scale.
