If you’re trying to attract new talent to your RIA firm, you’re not alone. The current talent shortage in the financial services industry creates stiff competition among RIA forms to entice the most talented professionals. To stand out as an appealing potential employer, you’ll need to demonstrate to future employees that your firm is worth their consideration. That will require innovative, strategic, and unconventional thinking.
You may not think of document management as a talent acquisition strategy. After all, when you’re considering hiring someone, discussions usually center around salaries, job descriptions, and benefits. But the effort to recruit new talent should include more than what you offer when new employees sign the dotted line.
Just as your clients trust you with their money, your employees trust you with their long-term career plans. Your technology strategy reveals the extent of your firm’s investment in employee experience, client experience, and innovation. Without a clear commitment to these values, prospective employees may lose interest in joining or remaining with your firm.
How Technology Improves the Employee Experience
Younger professionals are comfortable with technology and expect to interact with digital formats in their personal and professional lives. Many are accustomed to completing and submitting work and school assignments online, and many don’t even own a printer.
New hires may be in for a culture shock if you’re using older technology at your firm. Many firms use outdated, cumbersome technology to manage their documents. Not only does this place your firm at a higher security risk, but it also slows down your workflow.
When you don’t have software features like integration, automation, and personalization available, it can take you much longer to perform processes that otherwise could be handled automatically. This inefficiency can be frustrating for employees who understand their work could be more effective if they had the correct tools. If advisors can work faster and spend their time more productively elsewhere, your firm may appear less attractive in comparison.
Happy Employees Lead to Happy Clients
Of course, it’s necessary to establish a relationship with new clients and gather information, but many advisors view onboarding as the most tedious part of the client experience. Manually completing paperwork is time-consuming, especially if documents must be completed, copied, or filed multiple times.
Advisors understand the importance of the client experience in creating a long-term relationship. They also want to spend more time building relationships and less time doing paperwork. They are aware of client preferences for digitized documents, customization, and accessibility of information. When firms ignore these trends in favor of how they’re accustomed to operating, they risk alienating not only their clients but also the advisors who serve them.
Unfortunately, this happens far too often. Even though many firms view technology as important to future growth and have already invested in CRM or document management software, only 64% of firms say their advisers use the technology that’s available to them.
Innovation Attracts Talent
When an industry’s stability and profitability is threatened by economic volatility, you need to assure your future employees that you are a dynamic, innovative firm capable of anticipating and responding to future trends. Prioritizing technology shows your firm focuses on smart growth strategies. After all, firms that embrace technology outperform those that do not.
As your firm grows, the gap between outdated technology and the needs of your firm widens. Slow workflows impede future growth and cost you money. If your processes are inefficient, you’ll need to hire more staff or take on fewer clients than your competitors. In the long run, if your firm fails to invest in technology or fails to use technology to make your processes more efficient, it can’t scale. Your future employees, who are searching for long-term career growth and upward mobility potential, will be less likely to stay with a stagnant employer.
On the other hand, if you invest in technology that improves your firm’s efficiency, you’ll entice more talented employees to launch their careers with you. Tools like CRMs and document management software can keep your firm on the cutting edge of current trends to help you improve employee experience, transform client experience, and foster innovation, all at the same time. With reduced time spent on administrative tasks, you can increase your profitability and future growth potential while making your firm more attractive to talented advisors.
Ready to learn more about technology-centered talent acquisition strategies for your firm? Contact communications@docupace.com to learn more about how Docupace’s document management solutions can transform your firm’s employee experience.
