Well-planned and carefully structured performance reviews are vital in retaining the best advisers.

Lewis Byford first wrote this article for Money Marketing and we thought it was too good not to share. You can find out more about Money Marketing here.

One of the biggest mistakes firms make in holding on to good advisers is not having a proper, structured performance review in place.

Advisers are seen as the money-makers in the business — the relationship managers who hold everything together. The importance of asking the right questions at the right time should not be underestimated in stopping the best ones from moving on.

Indeed, one of the top reasons why financial planners changed jobs in 2019 was for a clear learning and development plan.

If firms truly understand their advisers and actively go out of their way to see how they can improve things and help where needed, this will create more loyalty than anything else.

The key to successful performance reviews is preparation — both on the employer and employee side. So, what key points do you need to consider?

What is it for?

The purpose of a review meeting is for a manager to take the time to ask how the employee really feels about their role and work more generally.

The manager will review the employee’s current performance or performance over a certain period. When used correctly and with the right structure, they will be trying to find out how they can help the employee be even better and enjoy their role even more.

The outcome of any review should be to agree goals and development opportunities. Both parties should use this time to the best of their advantage, bringing up questions they have been meaning to ask.

What do you need to do?

Make sure the meeting is agreed in advance and use the time leading up to prepare as much as you can.

Employees should review their job spec. Does it reflect what you do? Is it up to date? Can you add more duties on there?

Managers should consider whether their employee is taking on enough or more than what was initially thought. It enables both parties to see what changes have been made and, in many cases, where monetary increase is due for new duties and greater responsibilities.

Other areas that should be discussed are:

• What do you enjoy about the role? What is going well for you?
• What is important to you?
• Have you experienced any problems? Any concerns? What is not going as well as you had hoped?
• What is going on in your personal life? Do you feel you can be open with your manager?
• What else do you need from your manager or the business to succeed?
• Do you have any development needs to help you do an even better job?
• Do you have any skills not being used that you feel could be?
• Has the role changed? Is it still what you expect it to be?
• What and where do you want to get to?

Even if your reviews have no real structure to them and are more along the lines of a conversation, that should not stop you from being prepared.

Well-planned and carefully structured reviews will mean employees get so much more from their workplace and managers get more from their team — a win-win situation.

If you have any thoughts around this or have any questions, I would love to hear from you.
Email: lewis@antonygeorge.com
Phone number: 01268 669 313
Antony George LinkedIn