FOCUS: There are too few quality candidates to fill vacant slots.

The global wealth management industry is seriously short of talent and client relationship managers (CRMs) are in ‘exceptionally short supply’, according to the findings of the 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Banking/ Wealth Management Survey.

The report is based on the responses of the CEOs of more than 265 organisations from the global private banking and wealth management industry.

According to CEOs, recruitment, retention, reward and succession planning should be issues that are at the very top of boardroom agendas.

However, only 16 per cent of CEOs agree that the HR function is generally responsive to the changing needs of the business. Besides, over 70 per cent of wealth managers do not have HR represented on their boards.

Significantly, 65 per cent of organizations are unable to demonstrate the return on investment of their HR function, and 63 per cent do not use metrics to track the metrics to track the effectiveness of HR processes.

“There is clear room for wealth managers to improve in tracking areas such as recruitment, training, pay and performance management,” observes the report.

The most significant people issues that wealth managers are facing is attracting and retaining appropriately skilled employees. The pressures appear to be greatest with respect to CRMs.

All HR managers consider that attracting and retaining the best CRMs is important to maintaining revenue growth. Yet, “CEOs rate only 17 per cent of their CRMs as having very high ability,” the report states.

Only 19 per cent of CEOs believe their organizations are very good at attracting and retaining the best CRMs. The demand for new CRMs is significant, with numbers expected to rise by a ‘staggering’ 32 per cent over the next two years, with an ‘astonishing growth’ of 57 per cent anticipated in the Asia Pacific.

Yet, the labour market is already tight, with far too few quality candidates to fill vacant positions- and especially so for experienced individuals. One-quarter of recruitments openings for wealth managers has remained unfilled over the last 12 months, the report says.

Attracting staff and retaining key employees, and building leadership capabilities is cited as a key people issue, but it was found that 57 per cent of wealth managers do not have a formal succession planning process in place for the board, and 52 per cent do not have succession plans for senior management.

“This lack of nurturing talent appears to run through the entire organization,” says the report.

It concludes: “Wealth managers must make a quantum change to become more professional about HR issues.”

These issues are not new, but what is surprising is how many wealth managers are failing to tackle them, to the detriment of their businesses.