Recruiting from the inside

A financial services consulting group has expanded its operations to assist those struggling to find good staff in a tight employment market.

South Australian-based MGF Consulting Group has added staffing and recruitment advice to its existing consulting services.

Called the MGF Exec Search, the service will use the financial services experience of principal Max Franchitto to “assist clients select key staff for key roles”.

“It’s becoming more obvious that a general recruitment firm isn’t as good at recruiting for [financial planning] roles as someone who has worked and managed in that space,” Franchitto said.

“Because we have experience of having managed people in those roles, we understand the job role in depth, as opposed to just reading a brief.”

In a tight employment market, finding good BDMs, paraplanners and planners is becoming increasingly challenging.

“Good financial planners who will stay with a firm are hard to find. There’s a lot of uncertainty at that level.”

According to Franchitto, paraplanners are also in high demand, with the best commanding “top dollar” salaries.

He said many financial planning firms are also struggling to find BDMs with the ability to add value to a business, as opposed to those who just “deliver brochures”.

“It’s a big challenge for fund managers and dealer groups to find young BDMs who can relate to the older generation of planners,” Franchitto said.