Over the past year, we have heard from advisers that the economy has not only hit clients hard; it has also affected their children who have recently graduated from college.
Many college graduates are moving home after graduation and living with their parents, while they continue to hunt for that first professional job. Once they move home, they also lose contact with the resource centers available through their college or university.
The challenge
Financial advisers from across the country have asked for ways they can help their clients' children stay focused on the job search — while also keeping them from getting discouraged. This can be a time-consuming service and may take away from other important business needs. So how are advisers helping clients and even extending this service to the community?
The opportunity
Some financial advisers are offering semimonthly job search sessions for their clients' recently graduated children at local locations such as a coffee shop, community center or library conference room
No matter what the approach, however, the key to success is to put a process in place and leverage outside resources to help run the sessions. The goal is to keep the graduates motivated, provide a job coach as a resource at these meetings — and have the group share success stories. A success story can be about having a positive interview, or of course, getting that first job. Some of the graduates still come to the meetings after they have landed their first job, to mentor the attendees.
Here are tips for running sessions effectively and efficiently while keeping a steady flow of communication:
* Select specific days and location for the group meetings — such as the first and third Tuesday of each month — and share the schedule of the program with all of your clients. Often, clients will offer their services and may even identify job opportunities for the group. In this difficult economy, this provides an opportunity to reach out to others and help.
* Invite clients' children to attend the sessions. The goal is to keep the job seekers motivated and informed of new developments, networking resources, or online job boards. At the same time, make sure to provide interviewing tips.
* Be sure to invite any clients who may have experience in job searches to your groups, but also consider reaching out to a job coach for these sessions. This may be an initial cost, but often the job coaches are hired by the attendees and eliminate their upfront fee. This can also translate into clients' starting one-on-one coaching sessions with the graduates outside of your group, where it becomes a win-win for both.
In addition to helping graduates find employment, the meetings can turn into a client referral opportunity because the attendees bring friends and the adviser meets their parents.
* Keep the graduates networking and connected. Many graduates are well-versed in utilizing the latest online networking sites, like LinkedIn, which can put them in touch with professional organizations segmented by career interest. These resources provide information such as e-mails for job openings or the ability to access message boards. Encourage them to maximize their use of these sites, but to also ask their peers to tell them of any other sites that may offer additional opportunities to network and obtain job leads.
* Also encourage graduates to make use their college or university's alumni website. Fellow alums will want to help out and this is a very influential tool that is easily accessible through the school's website. This is an opportunity to set up informational interviews and tap new networking resources. New grads can also consider tapping into their high school's alumni program once they have moved back home.
* Stay connected to the school's career placement department and encourage students to be proactive.
* Keep best practices for interviewing top of mind at all times. Remind new grads of the three steps of successful interviewing: Prepare before an interview by learning as much as possible about the company and try to secure a referral, dress for success and follow up with a thank-you note that day and a phone call or e-mail within one week. Remind them that firms may be flooded with applicants and it is key to stay in front of them.
Such efforts can permit advisers to turn a negative situation for their clients into a positive experience and build long-term client relationships.
If you have a strategy or idea that has worked to help clients' children gain employment, please e-mail me at
[email protected].
Next week: Helping retired clients transition back to the workplace.
Maureen Wilke has spent over 20 years in marketing and wealth management with firms including Nuveen Investments and Sequoia System International. She has worked with thousands of advisers to increase the effectiveness of their practice and has developed The CONNECTED Adviser practice management system to help distribution teams and financial advisers on practice management strategies. Sign up for the free Stay Connected newsletter or find out more on how to Jumpstart Client Reviews at www.connectedadviser.com.
