Practice Management
commonwealth.com
For Advisor Use Only
45
Be Flexible
Part of your value proposition is being available to clients
to transact business and attend to their financial lives
during regularly scheduled hours. Although these hours
may not be flexible, how you approach your work can be.
For example, aging clients may prefer to meet with you in
their homes, while millennials may prefer to meet via Skype.
Being flexible on such points will help you meet the needs of
diverse client groups and do so during normal business hours.
Flexibility can extend to your employees’ work assignments.
Boomers were taught to complete tasks in a specific manner
and learn new tasks when supervisors deemed them ready.
Millennials like variety and want it early on in their tenure.
Variety can simply mean completing a new task or a regular
task in a new way. Providing a range of opportunities will
help keep them engaged and understand how what they
do impacts your firm.
Know Your Employees and Clients
Knowing what your employees are interested in outside of
work, as well as their long-term aspirations, can help you
maintain healthy relationships with them. Perhaps you
can design development opportunities that tap into their
interests and goals.
It’s also important to be aware of what’s happening in your
clients’ lives, as it provides opportunities to enhance your
service model. Use a CRM system to document client
information, and let staff know the type of information
you’d like to capture.
Although generational differences are apparent in speech,
dress, priorities, and ideologies, it’s not easy to discern the
impact of these differences on communication. We hope
these ideas will help you improve your communication
with a multigenerational workforce and client base. If
you need assistance in developing an approach to help
better communicate with the various generations, please
contact the Practice Management team at x9330 or
at
Angela C. Sarver is the supervisor of practice management.
She is available at x9873 or at
Younger Americans are most progressive
(56.6 percent) on cultural and social values
and the least progressive on economic and
domestic policy (53.1 percent).
— Center for American Progress
