Financial advisors surveyed for this year’s Report Card on Banks and Credit Unions say they are eager to obtain as much ongoing training as they can from their firms in order to keep up with the changing times.
However, there appears to be a disconnection of sorts: many advisors surveyed say their firms do not provide enough ongoing training, while executives claim that a wide assortment of training opportunities are, indeed, available.
Although few firms scored low in the “ongoing training” category, there was a sizable gap of 0.8 of a point between the overall performance rating advisors gave to their firms’ ongoing training efforts (7.9) and the importance rating they gave to the category (8.7). Gaps of this nature reveal advisor dissatisfaction, and in this instance, the reasons ranged from complaints about a shortage of training programs and frustration with a lack of local, in-branch training to disappointment with the depth and breadth of the courses offered.
Advisors with Montreal-based National Bank of Canada are the most displeased among advisors with the Big Six banks, rating their firm at 7.4 in the category, which is down from 8.3 in 2009 and 1.7 points less than the importance rating of 9.1 allotted by the bank’s advisors — the biggest performance/importance gap in the survey.
“They try,” says a National Bank advisor in Ontario. “The biggest problem is that we are geographically spread apart, so it is hard to get us together.”
“There is never enough,” adds a colleague in Quebec. “When it does hold training programs, I find that they are really good. There are just not enough of them going on.”
National Bank executives say they are doing all that they can to train advisors, but it seems their message is not getting through. “There are more than 300 courses available. A few of them are in classrooms; some are online,” says Michel Lussier, senior advisor, talent development, sales products and services, with National Bank. “There is an ongoing training platform through our intranet that advisors can refer to at any time.”
These courses cover a wide range of topics, ranging from sales strategies to financial planning, Lussier says. As well, he points out that an important aspect of each branch manager’s role is to act as a coach, offering advisors sales support as well as the ability to refer them to the appropriate courses when needed.
Meanwhile, advisors with the two credit unions in the survey — Vancouver-based Vancouver City Savings Credit Union and Edmonton-based Servus Credit Union — are relatively unhappy with their firms’ ongoing training.
Vancity advisors rated their firm at 7.1 in the category vs the importance rating of 8.1 they gave to ongoing training. The reason? “It is lacking in quality and quantity,” says a Vancity advisor in British Columbia. “It is not focused on the right things. We need more training on sales and marketing.”
@page_break@However, much like National Bank executives, Vancity’s leaders say they are giving their staff the tools that they need to stay current. “We have 10 sessions per year, one in every month except for August and February,” says Michael Atkinson, director of sustainable wealth management with Vancity, who notes the sessions include a coaching component and a presentation from the financial planning department.
Vancity also offers an annual sales performance training session to new hires, to advisors who are having difficulty uncovering clients’ needs and to advisors who request to participate. This session consists of two days in a classroom setting in which advisors are taught to introduce the credit union, discover clients’ needs and close deals. The training is followed up by sales managers.
Advisors with Servus rated their firm’s ongoing training at 6.9, the lowest rating in the category. In fact, several Servus advisors cite ongoing training as one of the aspects the credit union could most improve.
Servus executives say developing ongoing training programs is a priority, but admit the firm does not have all the necessary elements in place. “I am not surprised that [advisors] feel they have not been supported at this time,” says Ken Robinson, Servus’s assistant vice president of wealth management. “It is noted — and we are working on it.”
On the flip side, other advi-sors praised their firms for being proactive about offering new ongoing training programs as well as a wide range of courses. Advisors say these firms provide timely information on a regular basis, make sure to address a variety of topics in their courses and make training programs accessible to advisors in remote regions by conducting field visits and pushing online training.
Advisors with Toronto-based TD Canada Trust rated their firm highest in the category, at 8.6. A TD advisor in Ontario explains: “There is a lot of commitment to make sure that training is available. It is talked about. It is part of our culture.”
Indeed, TD executives say ongoing training is an integral part of the bank’s culture, as the bank offers online courses, one-on-one coaching sessions and visits from industry experts and executives.
“We have a really strong belief that continuous education and constant improvement is absolutely critical to providing really great advice,” says Thomas Dyck, president of TD Mutual Funds.
Advisors with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Royal Bank of Canada, both based in Toronto, are also pleased with their firms. They lauded their banks for providing timely training and addressing a variety of topics.
RBC’s 8.5 rating in the category, up from 8.0 in 2009, is second only to TD’s. Michael Walker, RBC’s vice president and head of branch investments, says the bank offers “a blended learning approach”: training modules are broadcast on its private TV network, Leo TV, while online training sessions and classroom courses are also offered.
IE