It’s no surprise that running a family office has its own set of unique challenges. However, this industry has fierce competition, which makes successful family office recruitment challenging. This makes it all the more important to hire and retain the right people for executive leadership roles and other positions within the company. By doing this, employees will be able to support family sustainability and achieve their long-term objectives.
Unfortunately, many prospective candidates find it difficult to know whether or not to join an organization because family offices are generally known for being quite mysterious. Furthermore, family offices are also often associated with being difficult to adapt to and describe.
Therefore, many people find it challenging to identify, attract, and land a qualified candidate who fits the firm’s culture, always-changing job description, and can deal with the varying compensation levels.
Fortunately, there is a solution for successful recruitment. By consistently following the steps below and working with a family office recruitment firm, you’ll be able to identify the top talent you’re looking for.
Seven Steps to Successful Family Office Recruitment
If you’re currently undergoing a family office executive search, there are a few things you have to keep in mind.
To successfully hire people for your single or multi-family office, make sure you follow these seven steps:
1. Establish Your Vision, Mission, and Goals
If you want to be successful, your family office needs to have a solid foundation. You need to establish the firm’s vision, mission, objectives, and goals before creating a family office. Do you and your family members agree that this will only be a generational project, or will it continue into perpetuity?
By defining and aligning all of your goals, the human capital and recruitment process will flow smoothly. It’s also crucial to define your target market and scope of services, as this will significantly impact your staffing and recruitment plan.
Why is this important for the family office recruitment process, you might be asking? Well, the top candidates in any industry want to know who they’re joining, as this will give them a sense of direction for the future.
A few things that qualified candidates look for is a family office structure that defines clear roles and responsibilities and aligns with the family’s vision. Therefore, two of the major selling points for potential recruits are articulated values and a well-defined decision-making framework.
2. Create a Human Capital Plan
Human capital plans are all about creating ideal candidate profiles. You need to clearly define the job responsibilities, expectations, personal characteristics, skills, etc., that you’re looking for in an ideal candidate.
When it comes to family offices, roles can vary quite often, which is why you need someone who is adaptable and can adjust to your needs.
Many family offices often stick with people they’re comfortable with; thereby compromising skills. Ultimately, you need to find employees that have a balance between cultural fit and technical ability.
3. Develop an Assessment Process
Now that you know what you’re looking for in the perfect candidate, you can develop an assessment plan that will help to identify the most ideal candidate for the job.
Develop a set of criteria that you will use to assess all potential candidates. This will also help you compare candidates to one another so you can find the right fit for your family office.
A few of the tools you should consider incorporating into your assessment process are:
- Behavioral assessments
- Structured interviews
- Behavioral interviews
- Evaluation forms
- Open-ended questions
- Presentations and case studies
4. The Recruitment Process
Do you prefer an internal or external selection process? Your search process should include a search strategy and candidate engagement process as well as an interview, assessment, and selection process.
This will help you to draw on their experience and find the candidate with the technical skills you’re looking for. It will also help top-tier candidates see the value in your firm.
5. Design an Onboarding Plan
Onboarding is all about introducing the new candidate to the family office culture, their new role, and more. You want to help the recruit build relationships as soon as possible so that they can start achieving their goals.
By committing yourself to the success of the new leader, you’ll be able to foster a successful environment for the family office as a whole.
6. Create an Effective Performance Management Plan
One thing we’ve already touched on is aligning your goals and expectations. This will ensure that you don’t waste time or resources on candidates who are not ideal for the job.
By defining your short- and long-term view on performance expectations and success metrics, you’ll be able to attract the top prospects for your family office.
7. Develop a Retention Plan
Regardless of whether you run a single-family office or a multi-family office, you need to have the right people on your team. Once you successfully onboard them, you’ll need to work to retain them on your team.
A comprehensive retention plan usually includes strong governance, competitive compensation, clear business goals, professional development opportunities, communications channels, appropriate resources and authority to achieve goals, and more.
Don’t take retention for granted when it comes to family offices – the last thing you want to do is put a great deal of effort into talent acquisition only to lose them after a short amount of time.
Working with a Family Office Recruitment Firm
Both single and multi-family offices can benefit from working with a recruitment agency. Family offices generally have a limited network and simply rely on referrals from other family offices.
If you want to hire long-term employees, hiring a multi or single-family office recruitment firm can help to fill your vacancies. These professionals have industry experience and expertise to identify candidates that check all of the boxes.
Find Your Perfect Fit Today!
Do you need a firm that takes a holistic approach to family office recruitment? From succession planning to wealth management, investment management, family conflicts, and more, recruitment firms have a proven track record of helping single and multi-family offices find the perfect cultural fit.
For a complimentary consultation on your family office hiring strategy, contact us at info@questorg.com or 212-971-0033.
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