Jenny Segal, chief investment officer, actuary, workplace culture expert and author of the On Motivation series, examines why so much workplace culture commentary misses the realities of smaller advice firms.
For this month’s In Focus, we’re exploring business development in financial services, looking at how leadership, workplace culture and strategic growth are shaping the future of firms across the sector.
If you run an advice firm in the UK, the chances are that most published articles on workplace culture aren’t that useful. Typically aimed at large firms with training budgets to match, they reference dedicated HR departments and specialist Learning & Development resource, with case studies that don’t translate and standardised frameworks that are overkill. So where do you turn to when a senior adviser hands in their notice, and you didn’t see it coming?
This mismatch is so much more than an editorial oversight. It is deeply problematic for advice firms in a competitive landscape, where culture is the key driver of future growth. And with the FCA sharpening its focus on non-financial misconduct, the pipeline of younger advisers getting even tighter, and the consolidation trend squeezing away at already-narrow margins, getting culture right has become the differentiator that spells success.
The advantage nobody is talking about
But there is a silver lining. In a thirty-person firm, the principal has the magic bullet: first hand influence over everything. You sign the job offers. You run the Monday morning meeting. You approve the bonus pool. You decide who runs the prestigious new client account. In a small firm, the culture is set by the behaviours of a small handful of people and a small number of business decisions, every one of which is overseen by you.
That is a lever that a FTSE 100 company does not have in its toolkit. There, culture has to travel through multiple layers of management and committees, and often a multi-year programme of work before anyone outside head office feels the wind of change. Yours can moves at the speed of an email. Here is a scale asymmetry that is – finally – in your favour.
Three things to audit before quarter-end
There are three easy steps to take advantage of this structural size skew. Carve out some time where you won’t be disturbed and answer these questions as honestly as you can.
How does feedback actually flow upwards in your firm?
This goes way beyond a formal 360 review cycle and gets to the very heart of psychological safety: who would be genuinely willing to tell you if something were wrong? And what would happen to them if they did? Specifically, can you name three people who have given you uncomfortable feedback in the last six months? If not, people have probably stopped trying. And if the only people who raise concerns eventually leave, your firm has a culture problem.
Who gets recognition?
Look at the last ten client wins. Who received the credit for the win, and was that a fair representation for who actually won the business? Recognition is often the most under-audited cultural variable: it can feel too granular to think about, but it absolutely is not. People notice every time recognition gets unfairly distributed, and they are keeping a tally even if you are not.
What does your offer process signal?
This goes way beyond the benefits package: what impression do candidates get from the time they spent interviewing? The conversation. The feel of the office. Who they met, and who was conspicuously absent? New joiners will be able to assess your culture in their first two weeks more accurately than any employee – or client – survey ever will. Make sure you ask them – and make sure you ask the ones who didn’t accept your offer too. What you learn might just be invaluable.
Three questions. An hour on each. No management consultant fees attached. Think long and hard: it is worth the investment of your time.
The competitive case
Culture has become the competitive advantage for advice firms in a market that is running out of levers. Owners who keep treating it as a soft topic will lose the recruitment race to the firms that took it seriously two years ago. And those who treat it as a serious commercial question, with the same rigour they bring to investment process or compliance, will reap the rewards.
You sit in every room. You see every decision. The lever is yours to pull. Find a quiet hour to answer those three questions.
By Jenny Segal, Chief Investment Officer, actuary, workplace culture expert and author of the On Motivation series
