For 2022 we have made expanding our Paraplanning and back-office support teams a key part of our business strategy. It's no secret we are on a recruitment drive to help achieve this.
Continuum has grown quickly, both in terms of headcount and client assets.
Last year saw a 39% increase in annual turnover, assets up by a third and the advice team increased to 57 advisers across the UK.
We needed to strengthen our infrastructure to support our existing business growth as well as getting ourselves into the best position to continue our growth.
This month alone we have three new administration staff joining the team and have hired our first dedicated in-house recruiter. We are also in the process of hiring several Paraplanners.
Previously we had been reliant on recruitment agencies to help us find Paraplanners and administrators. We had begun to become a little frustrated sometimes by the agencies’ focus purely on qualifications rather than bringing us candidates who had already been assessed for how well they would fit into our company culture.
Company culture is very important to us. Our people-first culture is what helps our team strive for an outstanding client experience with every single interaction. We have worked hard to create a culture where the client, advisers, back-office staff, and the business as a whole are of equal importance. For this to work each party must feel engaged and that the business acts as one.
So, we decided that it was time to bring our recruitment in-house, with a new in-house role responsible not only for finding the right talent, but importantly also for onboarding and embedding them within the business.
We have also been undergoing a comprehensive review of our benefits package and have been collaborating with our staff who have had some great ideas on what we can offer them that they will really value and will help attract more talent to the business.
We have introduced pay increases to help offset the rise in the cost-of-living seen across the country. Following feedback from staff we have also introduced group death in service protection.
When at the helm of a rapidly growing advice business, it can be too easy to focus solely on recruiting advisers and finding new clients. However, without a strong Paraplanning and back-office team both growth and quality of client service would quickly drop.
We recognise that without good support staff we are nothing.
Martin Brown is managing partner at national Financial Planning firm Continuum. The firm has assets under influence of over £1.52bn.