In a 2023 recap, Lead-Advisor, a search firm specializing in Wealth Management Talent Placement, revealed the most common roles hired for in 2023 by financial advisory firms. Perhaps most surprising to me, given all the talk this year of scaling through internal lead and servicing advisor models, was that Client Service and Advisor Support roles led paid search engagements by a wide margin.
If your firm is looking to hire in the new year, starting your search sooner rather than later might pay off. According to Lead-Advisor, not only is January the most common month for job changers to make a move, according to a recent Indeed report, quit rates are still high by historical standards even though the Great Resignation appears to be behind us.
With inflation tempered and the Fed holding steady at this new interest rate inflection point, wage growth also looks to be settling down, which might mean good news for advisors looking to hire.
While the job market pendulum has remained to be in favor of candidates for several years now, we continue to see signs that wage growth may fall to its pre-pandemic levels soon. This should also slow employer demand and increase the labor supply, creating an easier environment to hire new talent.
For those who haven’t hired recently, one notable change may come as a surprise. While fewer than 20% of pre-pandemic job postings included salary data, Indeed reports that more than 50% now include salary details. Job seekers may not be the only ones to benefit from this new transparency, however. As salary transparency has become more common, even being mandated by local regulation in some areas, many employers also report that it has made it easier to attract quality candidates.
That said, there is still growing demographic pressure on talent as the average advisor age is still over 50. For those in the market to hire, Indeed Hiring Trends Report sums things up quite succinctly: “There’s a case for optimism in 2024, but it’s best not to oversell it.” As the saying goes, the early bird might be better positioned to get the best worms as we head into the new year.
Christy Charise, Founder & CEO of Strategic Advisor