John Pierce is Head of Business Development at Cetera Financial Group, driving Cetera's financial professional recruiting strategy.
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The past year and a half has been a period of reflection for many. Working from home has given is the opportunity to weigh new business relationships, networking opportunities and career decisions.
Think back 12 months to when many of were thrown into a new normal of working from the kitchen table, being isolated from colleagues and having kids or pets drop into virtual video meetings each day. Our collective experiences provide new insight and options that we would not have experienced pre-pandemic.
Now, as we emerge from the pandemic, we are seeing a surge in professional socialization activities — leading to a wave of new jobs, new business deals and new partnerships. What have we learned? That we have a choice; we have options. Let’s explore five considerations that may help you assess your next potential business partner, be it a new employer, affiliation or other professional relationship.
Your Assessment
First, if you have not done a genuine assessment of your last year — what worked? What didn’t work? — I would encourage you to sit in a quiet place with a pad of paper and collect experiences that you are thankful for during the pandemic and those that you did not enjoy during the pandemic. This self-reflection allows you to consider more informed choices.
Your Must-Haves
Second, after your assessment and learnings from the pandemic, what are your “must-haves” in a new role or to affiliate with a new company? Two key themes resonate with me:
1. Does the firm you are considering have genuine respect for the individual and their needs? For example, I have a friend who is being forced to go back to her office in a city environment despite a surge in crime. While she does not want to leave her firm of 11 years, she is leaving because the employer is not listening to her concerns.
2. Since we have been in a work-from-home environment for over 15 months, does the potential employer provide flexibility and balance for in-office work while trusting that you are still being productive and goal-oriented when working from home?
Meaningful Work
Third, the global pandemic has allowed many of us to prioritize what is important in our lives and clearly focused us on what has value, what resonates for us personally and what is important for our families. If you are considering a change in work environment, will your efforts have meaning and significance? Now more than ever, the concept of professional purpose has relevance.
Innovation
If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that firms that pivoted first, leveraged technology and provided resources for areas like mental health were the ones that both retained key associates and brought in higher quality talent. I recall Cetera rolling out our industry-leading “resiliency pack” to help our over 8,000 independent financial professionals as well as thousands of home office support professionals. As you explore other options, it is critical to see how other firms responded over the past 15 months and how they invested in their associates. Here, you need to evaluate what they did versus what they said.
Choice
Every industry is different, and the concept of “choice” may be different across sectors. In our area of the financial services industry, we are in the business of forging new relationships with practitioners of all sizes and types. For that reason, our business really needs to meet advisors where they are. The lesson we have learned is to offer affiliation models that provide broad affiliation choices. For example, depending on preference, a financial shop can “tuck in” to a large entity and have turnkey service. The bottom line: Firms that offer more choice will increase retention, attract higher quality talent and become a destination of choice in the industry.
These topics may seem “soft,” but they are not. The global pandemic has provided a new perspective where we are thinking about what is truly important now and in our future. Investing your time in self-assessment, determining your must-haves, finding meaning in our work, understanding how innovation can drive our future and truly having choice will afford more freedom, happiness and, in the long run, productivity and retention gains for employers. Take the time to invest in yourself with these five activities.
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