Keeping them keen
02 Oct 2024
Clelia Frondaroli hears from three industry leaders at a panel discussion at InvestOps Europe about what it means to attract and retain top talent in the world of funds and investments
Image: donson_peopleimages/stock.adobe.com
Recruiting, retaining, and motivating top talent is not an easy task. Between finding the right candidate, ensuring their skills match with the needs of emerging and future technologies, and keeping individuals fulfilled within their careers, in the competitive world of funds and investments, organisations may face a series of stumbling blocks to finding that perfect ‘fit’.
What then draws new talent to a career within fund industries? And what can firms do to ensure their employees succeed within their roles?
Hungry, enthusiastic, and the right fit
Is it really all about the ‘money, money, money’ as put in the seminal hit by ABBA? It is, after all, what drove Amos Dadzie to his first job at Bear Stearns in 2000. He candidly reveals: “The reason I joined Bear Stearns was because they were paying the most money,” and later jokes, “I hope it wasn’t the driver for their ultimate demise a few years after, but that was the only thing that was important to me.”
Having learnt from this experience, and other experiences in the intervening years since, his role as investment operations and reporting manager at EdenTree now takes a different approach to attracting (and retaining) new talent.
Firstly, he explains, it is important to identify ‘extrinsic and intrinsic factors’ that may encourage potential candidates to apply. He suggests: “Talents are looking for, obviously, the best salary they can get. But ultimately, what they’re also looking at is, does the company meet my values?”
EdenTree addresses this by looking beyond the typical candidate pool of university graduates. Rather, they aim to attract people from a broader range of educational backgrounds and work experiences, including school leavers and early-career individuals. Dadzie emphasises: “We want to make that pool bigger, as opposed to having a token that says we will employ a graduate. I just want the best person for the job, and to enable me to do that, I need a greater pool to pick from.” This process of selection, he says, not only helps to ensure that the individual employed is the best fit for the company, but also that the company is the best fit for the individual.
He continues: “We’ve got to remember that it’s an audition for both of us. It’s an audition for the company, and it’s an audition for the individual to show the best version of themselves.”
This two-way process, as Dadzie puts it, perhaps reveals that it is important for candidates and employers to look beyond simply putting ‘the right price’ on talent and seek a connection that is built on similar values.
Finding the words
Attracting the right talent is also about using the right language. When it comes to job descriptions, Dadzie explains: “It is apparent from the data that is out there, one gender, if they have 30 or 40 per cent of a requirement, will apply for the job, and another gender will not.”
Although Dadzie declines to specify which gender he is referring to when speaking of this 40 per cent, various studies highlight a clear gender disparity. When looking at how qualified candidates believed they were for a role, one such study by Behavioural Insights found that men were far more likely than women to apply for roles that they did not hold the right qualifications for.
So how can firms within the fund industry ensure they are levelling the playing field when it comes to attracting new talent?
Dadzie proposes: “We look at the language in our applications, and we start again,” where he suggests that re-wording the ways in which a role is laid out on paper can have a significant impact on who may be inclined to apply.
Not just a stepping stone
Recruiting the right talent is simply the first step in a broader process of maintaining it. Stephen Fisher, head of operations at Amundi, stresses that this is not always an easy feat: “What we try and do is to explain to people that operations is a great place to work. I think sometimes people don’t always see that particularly, maybe some of the younger crowd. They see it as perhaps a stepping stone.” But Fisher is keen to change the current mindset surrounding the fund industry, specifically within the realm of operations, where he highlights the position as “the engine room of multiple organisations”.
Perhaps then, emphasising the importance of the role may be the key ingredient to keeping individuals invested in an operational career. As suggested by Fisher, “you’re trying to educate them in terms of awareness about what impact their role has,” and at Amundi, this education takes the form of a monthly formatting meeting where individuals present their current projects alongside new initiatives. These meetings have been created with the intention, Fisher says, of boosting “that sense of purpose for the individuals concerned, so that they feel like they’re contributing and their work is going towards something particular.”
This is similarly iterated by Claire Garvey, VP of fund investment operations at Fidelity Investment. She notes that improvement programmes at Fidelity have been implemented to ensure associates are not only continually updating their skills, but also investing in their own careers. She suggests: “When you start talking about this improvement programme, you really have to focus on the benefits of the associates so that they can see this is something that they should be doing for their own career.” Newly acquired skills, along with recognising and celebrating performance ‘wins’ throughout the year are critical, Garvey emphasises, to ensuring that top talents remain motivated, acknowledged, and most importantly, fulfilled within their roles.
Continuous learning, conscious improvement
Emerging technologies and fast-changing innovations have also presented a new set of hurdles to ensuring individuals meet the skill sets required to carry out future roles. Fidelity’s Garvey proposes one way to combat this: “We believe in, and we want to make sure that we continue with continuous learning for our associates.” She explains further: “Our leadership team set a target, and our associates with these skills that they’ve newly acquired, go after that scale and efficiency target on our behalf.”
In doing this, Garvey believes that not only are new skill sets being defined as technologies advance, but individuals are actively applying those skills to manage problems within the organisation. This, she argues, is an effective method for future proofing not only the organisation but the individual themselves.
Fisher agrees. In light of innovations to data, AI, and automation, he makes a staunch point: “You’ve got to remember that you [have to] invest in training the people as well to get maximum benefit from that.”
He continues: “We’ve actually looked at our senior managers and our management team, our leadership team, and actually going back to training them and making sure that they have the right skills, the right modern training.” This, he says, not only gives rise to improved skills but further unifies them across the board, from emerging talents to senior leadership.
Being brilliant
So, above all, what encourages new talent to lead a career within fund industries?
Emma McConachie, founder of Areté Ventures, leads with some final remarks: “It’s about inspiring people to be accountable. I want people who show up at work and do absolutely fantastic work because they need to, for themselves, not just because they do it for the organisation, but because they’re passionate about being excellent at what they do.”
What then draws new talent to a career within fund industries? And what can firms do to ensure their employees succeed within their roles?
Hungry, enthusiastic, and the right fit
Is it really all about the ‘money, money, money’ as put in the seminal hit by ABBA? It is, after all, what drove Amos Dadzie to his first job at Bear Stearns in 2000. He candidly reveals: “The reason I joined Bear Stearns was because they were paying the most money,” and later jokes, “I hope it wasn’t the driver for their ultimate demise a few years after, but that was the only thing that was important to me.”
Having learnt from this experience, and other experiences in the intervening years since, his role as investment operations and reporting manager at EdenTree now takes a different approach to attracting (and retaining) new talent.
Firstly, he explains, it is important to identify ‘extrinsic and intrinsic factors’ that may encourage potential candidates to apply. He suggests: “Talents are looking for, obviously, the best salary they can get. But ultimately, what they’re also looking at is, does the company meet my values?”
EdenTree addresses this by looking beyond the typical candidate pool of university graduates. Rather, they aim to attract people from a broader range of educational backgrounds and work experiences, including school leavers and early-career individuals. Dadzie emphasises: “We want to make that pool bigger, as opposed to having a token that says we will employ a graduate. I just want the best person for the job, and to enable me to do that, I need a greater pool to pick from.” This process of selection, he says, not only helps to ensure that the individual employed is the best fit for the company, but also that the company is the best fit for the individual.
He continues: “We’ve got to remember that it’s an audition for both of us. It’s an audition for the company, and it’s an audition for the individual to show the best version of themselves.”
This two-way process, as Dadzie puts it, perhaps reveals that it is important for candidates and employers to look beyond simply putting ‘the right price’ on talent and seek a connection that is built on similar values.
Finding the words
Attracting the right talent is also about using the right language. When it comes to job descriptions, Dadzie explains: “It is apparent from the data that is out there, one gender, if they have 30 or 40 per cent of a requirement, will apply for the job, and another gender will not.”
Although Dadzie declines to specify which gender he is referring to when speaking of this 40 per cent, various studies highlight a clear gender disparity. When looking at how qualified candidates believed they were for a role, one such study by Behavioural Insights found that men were far more likely than women to apply for roles that they did not hold the right qualifications for.
So how can firms within the fund industry ensure they are levelling the playing field when it comes to attracting new talent?
Dadzie proposes: “We look at the language in our applications, and we start again,” where he suggests that re-wording the ways in which a role is laid out on paper can have a significant impact on who may be inclined to apply.
Not just a stepping stone
Recruiting the right talent is simply the first step in a broader process of maintaining it. Stephen Fisher, head of operations at Amundi, stresses that this is not always an easy feat: “What we try and do is to explain to people that operations is a great place to work. I think sometimes people don’t always see that particularly, maybe some of the younger crowd. They see it as perhaps a stepping stone.” But Fisher is keen to change the current mindset surrounding the fund industry, specifically within the realm of operations, where he highlights the position as “the engine room of multiple organisations”.
Perhaps then, emphasising the importance of the role may be the key ingredient to keeping individuals invested in an operational career. As suggested by Fisher, “you’re trying to educate them in terms of awareness about what impact their role has,” and at Amundi, this education takes the form of a monthly formatting meeting where individuals present their current projects alongside new initiatives. These meetings have been created with the intention, Fisher says, of boosting “that sense of purpose for the individuals concerned, so that they feel like they’re contributing and their work is going towards something particular.”
This is similarly iterated by Claire Garvey, VP of fund investment operations at Fidelity Investment. She notes that improvement programmes at Fidelity have been implemented to ensure associates are not only continually updating their skills, but also investing in their own careers. She suggests: “When you start talking about this improvement programme, you really have to focus on the benefits of the associates so that they can see this is something that they should be doing for their own career.” Newly acquired skills, along with recognising and celebrating performance ‘wins’ throughout the year are critical, Garvey emphasises, to ensuring that top talents remain motivated, acknowledged, and most importantly, fulfilled within their roles.
Continuous learning, conscious improvement
Emerging technologies and fast-changing innovations have also presented a new set of hurdles to ensuring individuals meet the skill sets required to carry out future roles. Fidelity’s Garvey proposes one way to combat this: “We believe in, and we want to make sure that we continue with continuous learning for our associates.” She explains further: “Our leadership team set a target, and our associates with these skills that they’ve newly acquired, go after that scale and efficiency target on our behalf.”
In doing this, Garvey believes that not only are new skill sets being defined as technologies advance, but individuals are actively applying those skills to manage problems within the organisation. This, she argues, is an effective method for future proofing not only the organisation but the individual themselves.
Fisher agrees. In light of innovations to data, AI, and automation, he makes a staunch point: “You’ve got to remember that you [have to] invest in training the people as well to get maximum benefit from that.”
He continues: “We’ve actually looked at our senior managers and our management team, our leadership team, and actually going back to training them and making sure that they have the right skills, the right modern training.” This, he says, not only gives rise to improved skills but further unifies them across the board, from emerging talents to senior leadership.
Being brilliant
So, above all, what encourages new talent to lead a career within fund industries?
Emma McConachie, founder of Areté Ventures, leads with some final remarks: “It’s about inspiring people to be accountable. I want people who show up at work and do absolutely fantastic work because they need to, for themselves, not just because they do it for the organisation, but because they’re passionate about being excellent at what they do.”
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