You might ask yourself, what is the difference between a selection process and a recruiting process?
Where other firms hire six to eight people a month, Ashford Advisors hires six to eight people a year. This is intentional. Our commitment to our new employees is very high and we do not want to short change people by not giving them the time and attention they deserve. We want growth, but we want smart growth. That allows us to be very selective.
The retention rate in the financial services industry is 15%*, meaning 85% of new people are no longer in the business after four years. Thanks to this low success rate, many firms recruit aggressively to fill the empty seats!
While other firms are in constant recruiting mode, always focusing on recruiting and attracting, Ashford takes a different approach. We take our potential new associates through a selection process so they can better understand the exact career opportunity, if it is something they can identify with, and more importantly, is it the right thing for them. That means we are going to be very straight-forward and honest about the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Our four-year retention rate with people who join our firm is over 60%. There are a lot of reasons behind this success. One of them being our flow of great referrals. Our existing advisors often refer us to our next advisor. They recognize the type of person who will succeed in this industry and who will thrive in Ashford’s culture (someone who is driven, hungry, has an entrepreneurial spirit, and wants to serve other people). As a result, we tend to interview extraordinarily qualified individuals which makes it easier for us to select the right fit as opposed to recruiting anybody and everybody who will say yes.
The selection process is laid out in four steps: Laying the Foundation, Building a Meaningful Career, Building Your Business, and Building Your Vision. At the end of the four step process, the candidate will know if this is the ideal career and if Ashford is the best place for them. We also know it is important that we are equally excited and are fully prepared to support, train, coach, and mentor the new associates so they can reach the goals they set for themselves.
That’s a selection process. It allows us to select each other as oppose to us just simply attracting someone to the possibilities and not giving all the necessary data needed to make a smart decision.
*LIMRA Agent & Production Study, 2015 data; published October 2016. Based on Group A participating agencies with a career sales force of more than 2,000 full-time agents