The Critical Importance of Talent Management

Alison Steed

15 March 2007

Finding good staff in any industry is becoming more difficult, but finding the right people to work as relationship managers with a private bank can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. As the number of high net worth individuals rises, the expansion of private banks is increasing at a healthy rate, and it can be difficult to recruit good people to not only keep the customers happy, but maintain the reputation of the bank itself. American Express Private Bank, which has over 4,000 clients with around £22 billion under its management, is no exception. It has undertaken a programme of measures to try to ensure that it not only recruits the best staff available, but also keeps them once they are through the door. Jacqui Brabazon, senior director of American Express Private Bank, said: “We have a document that we call ‘profile for success’ and that has seven dimensions of what it takes to be a successful relationship manager, such as understanding the client. “It is rather unusual, but we have a director of talent management who sits in the business rather than in the human resources function. They are very involved, they can focus and concentrate on the talent management, each in the context of the private bank. We have aligned the marketing and talent management functions.” There is no doubt that to be a successful relationship manager you have to be a self-starter, intelligent, personable, and have a good knowledge of what your client wants and needs. To get all of these elements in one person can be a task in itself, but if you find them, you are often dealing with highly professional people who expect to be treated well. That can lead to problems in retaining staff if the package, and their career development, is not up to scratch. Mark Kibblewhite of Barclays Wealth said: “We understand that to succeed in the wealth management business, we need to have the best staff, not least in the client relationship space, where establishing long term relationships is paramount. We have conducted independent research and our clients tell us that when choosing a wealth specialist they look for the following criteria: excellence, creativity, innovation, ideas, resourcefulness, knowledge, experience, and expertise. “All of these qualities can only be delivered by the highest calibre of staff available in the industry. Our clients expect operational excellence in everything we do, so it is imperative that we have the highest quality of operations and infrastructure. Our clients also demand that we deliver the best products and services from the entire marketplace in addition to our ability to access products from Barclays Capital or BGI.” Barclays is investing £375 million over the next three years – an annual amount of £100 million - £125 million – primarily in “people and infrastructure,” said Mr Kibblewhite. He added: “Our intention is to invest in the business without taking a profit holiday. Our senior team spend many hours each week interviewing prospective candidates to ensure that we recruit the right people. We have succeeded in recruiting some key players from across the industry this year, as well as developing a programme for hiring professionals from other backgrounds.” In 2006, Barclays Wealth recruited 700 people worldwide, 60 per cent of which are in the front office, said Mr Kibblewhite. He described the bank’s compensation structure as “disciplined, competitive and designed specifically to ensure that we are constantly client-centric”. He added: “These recruits include investment bankers, but also lawyers, solicitors, tax experts, accountants, experts in IT and technology and even people from biosciences, medical, media, celebrity, or sports backgrounds. Through our ‘Embark’ initiative, we are looking for people who have been successful in other areas and who have the intelligence but perhaps not, up to now, the technical skills to join a wealth management business. “Of the 370 people we hired in the first half on 2006, 20-30 per cent came from outside the financial services world. With private bankers in short supply globally, the move makes sense. We will provide the relevant training to include financial qualifications.” Many organisations are targeting clients with at least £10 million to manage, but Mr Kibblewhite said he believes that Barclays Wealth can “provide quality service and advice to clients without being restricted only to the very high end of the market”. Of course, one of the perennial problems in talent management is that if you have very good members of staff, you are likely to eventually promote them out of client-facing roles, said Mark Evans, head of private banking for the British Isles as RBC Global Private Banking. He said: “We try to create a well-rounded professional who can talk about all aspects of wealth management. But you have to strike a balance when you are managing people’s careers and filling vacancies.” If banks are looking to expand overseas, often the younger personnel are the ones sent initially, as more established people with families are less likely to want the upheaval, said Mr Evans. However, there are distinct advantages to more experienced staff setting up new offices. Mr Evans said: “It’s a diverse game, and we have to allow that diversity.” However, Ms Brabazon said she would stop short of saying you were dealing with egos when considering the needs of successful relationship managers. She added: “I don’t think I would say egos, but what you are dealing with that complicates it is someone who is highly professional, highly polished and with high expectations. So when you are looking at motivating such talented people, you can’t just get them to go on a training course because they may well have covered subjects like that 10 years ago. It is about making the progression relevant to that person. “There may be things you need to do at a national level, then there may be things you need to do at a regional level. But the most important thing is to make sure you are managing their development at a personal level. “The retention is a very large part of the puzzle. If you have got them, you will want them to stay. Helping them to be successful in the organisation is important. If they are successful, they will want to develop in that organisation. “Everyone talks about attracting and retaining talent, it is not just about making sure the client has a consistent experience whoever they deal with. You try to safeguard yourself as much as possible.”