Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
It’s been long overdue for us to hire a new associate to provide administrative-level responsibilities in our firm. Our office manager has been wearing too many hats and she was about to walk out with all of the additional work she had inherited, administrative in nature. We finally found a young man who is a great fit for our culture. We hired him from a job where he is doing well and put him in the role.
Not one week later, we are all working from home.
It is challenging – we are communicating with clients, getting reports updated, making portfolio changes and no one has the time or inclination to give this new hire the attention he needs (and deserves) to get up to speed. Worse, we are all remote so there isn’t someone physically to take him around our office and introduce him to the ways we work.
I feel responsible for taking him out of a successful career. I can’t fire him, but I’m paying him to essentially do nothing right now. My office manager is pulled in many different directions and she is the glue that holds us together. She knows how to manage the technology, the clients all know and trust her and she is the coordinator for our meetings. She has told me in no uncertain terms that she is not going to take on training this new person (she has three kids under six-years old at home with her full-time, so it is very hectic at her home).
What do I do? Am I being too soft to say I won’t lay off this person? Of course our revenues are likely to take a hit with the market movements, so I could justify it as an unnecessary expense. I am not usually an indecisive person, but everything about this current environment puts me on edge and I don’t trust my own judgments.
A.E.
Dear A.E.,
These are challenging times. Let’s reframe your viewpoint about being “indecisive.” There are no easy answers to many questions confronting us and you are very thoughtful and considerate looking at all aspects of the situation. In these times, it is essential to be thorough and to look at all of the information and give yourself a break and not use any opportunity to beat up on yourself! You are in a tough position and you are trying to make the best decision considering a number of inputs.
Ask yourself a few questions to gain more information. Once the situation eases a bit, will this person still be necessary? I know you mentioned revenues going down and cash flow. But given that, how low would they have to go for you to deem this role as completely unnecessary? If your revenue could support it, would this role still exist and be a “need”?
How hard was it for you to find this individual and how easy would it be to replace him? Is he a good cultural fit for the firm and someone you really want to hold onto?
Is there anything you could have him working on in order to learn? Could he take online classes? Could he review client accounts to learn more about what you do? Could he follow up and help schedule meetings? Could he self-train on the technology? Is there a way to assign him tasks and keep him engaged, while not full-time, enough to give him a head start?
You have a couple of fair options – depending on the answers to all of these questions:
- Stop paying him but hold his role and let him know you expect to reconvene as of May 1 or whatever date you are comfortable with and tell him salary will start up again then.
- Keep paying him at full rate and if you find online learning and ways to keep him engaged ask him to clock hours to ensure he is working for the money.
- Pay him 50% of his salary to stay engaged and ask him to attend meetings, listen in on client calls but not expect to put in an 8 hour day.
- Let him go.
Consider the questions raised and then decide, for you, which option fits you and your comfort level the most closely.
Dear Bev,
I attended your stress management webinar this week and found it very valuable. Do you think it is appropriate for us to talk with our team members about managing their stress? It might sound silly, but I was on a Zoom call with one of my advisors and her daughter came in and started yelling at her. My advisor responded in a very nasty tone. I know families are getting on each other’s nerves during these times, but I don’t think it is productive for us to turn on those we love. I’m not comfortable saying that directly to my advisor. But what if I generally asked about the stress levels my team members are experiencing? Is that appropriate?
T.N.
Dear T.N.,
We are all human beings going through unprecedented times in our lives! Of course, it is appropriate to talk to your team members in normal, human behavior-oriented ways. I recommended to a client firm of mine yesterday to have a conference call with team members (or Zoom, WebEX) for the purpose of checking in with team members and asking how they are faring: no client information, no market talk, just concern and focus on the human element and what obstacles people are facing.
Your team members are likely stressed, depressed, worried, fearful and so on. Acknowledging this and allowing them to talk about it openly and having you support their willingness to do so is one of the kinder things you can do.
Ultimately you have to underscore they can’t get stuck in the negativity, but they can express it and discuss it and find ways with one another to work it through. I commend you as a leader to be considerate of people and their personal lives.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
