Recently, TWM spoke to Leo McKeague, Executive Director at eMFusion, about a new type of recruitment proposition. We discussed how recruitment needs and patterns are changing and how recruitment via direct relationships is best - placed to meet the changing needs of a rapidly evolving industry. Through its partnership with TWM and TWM Recruit, eMFusion hopes to gain visibility and reputation with the wealth management community and thus enhance the depth and breadth of its direct relationships.
Tell us about the TWM Recruit project!
My business partner Peter Murtough, a successful recruitment entrepreneur, and I were frustrated by the recruitment processes commonly seen within financial services. We decided to provide a service grounded in quality, not quantity, and move away from PSLs in favour of direct relationships. We can help clients fill their roles with the right people quickly and with minimal fuss.
This is particularly pertinent to WealthTech because it is disruptive and needs niche and quality people. In working with TWM, we expect that we will be able to form more direct relationships in terms of those needing to recruit. We will become more visible within the WealthTech and wealth management community, thus boosting our emerging reputation. The more profound and engaged relationships we have, the more we can attract and retain the right talent to feed into our client base.
What have been the biggest challenges in getting in front of your audience and breaking down the established recruitment methods and systems?
It is always hard to break down entrenched habits, but our message is that there is a clear opportunity to improve. We work within three verticals: portfolio management WealthTech and consultancies. We started with Wealth and FinTech and found those firms to be smaller, nimble, disruptively minded, and, crucially, open to new ways of doing things. They are much more aware of what they want and need, how those fits into their bigger picture, and the ability to work flexibly.
The story with consultancies is a little harder! They generally only start looking outside established processes if they risk losing revenue opportunities. The key is our ability to work alongside existing internal teams to augment their ability to meet hiring demand spikes and specialist role acquisition.
With portfolio managers, the challenge is finding a partner that deeply understands their highly specialised requirements. Building lasting and deep relationships with the decision-makers are where we add our value.
All our business comes from organic referrals, so we are doing something right. As we advance, our partnership with TWM will help us get our message and brand across to all three verticals and so firmly entrench us in the minds of those hiring! We will leverage TWM’s proven relationships and solutions, such as membership and various forms of content; written, video, podcast, webinars, reports, research of multiple forms, events, and more, as a channel to raise awareness and engagement. Hopefully, we will become the go-to recruitment firm and further expand our referrals model.
What are the specific needs of the industry?
The wealth management community is experiencing competing pressures. It needs to reduce the cost to serve and thus alleviate the effect of fee compression. It also needs to meet sophisticated client demands and higher expectations. In particular, ways to win and service next-generation clients are changing client-facing professionals’ demands.
These expectations, plus regulations and lower barriers to entry for competitors, continue to drive the investment in digital transformation journeys, cybersecurity, and human-centred design efforts. Data and analytics capability demands remain high and deepen every year.
In addition, the move to an ecosystem and microservices-type environment means we are often seeing firms lacking the people to integrate a new solution or to be able to join up the data and processes. It might also be that a firm has a short-term project where they need to scale up, or if they are dipping their toes in the water in a new geography- we can support that too. Over and above our direct recruitment sourcing, we also carry out bespoke advisory services.
Ultimately, the competition for talent is becoming historically intense across financial services. Firms need to understand what the future workforce expects and, in many cases, move away from traditional hiring and employment patterns. By having direct relationships, helped by TWM, we can better understand our client’s needs and work to fulfil their requirements with a tailored solution rather than trying to fill a square-shaped recruitment issue with a round-shaped solution.
How have you leveraged tech to remove all the paperwork and have an active and efficient client focus yourselves?
We are openly and proudly a relationship business and have invested significantly in tech to support our operating model. This means our consultants are free to focus on our client relationships. They have a deep understanding of the client and their needs. They can add value by suggesting additional solutions or people with specific expertise that might help the client- perhaps a gap they had not considered or identified. Doing this with the personal approach allows for organic and sustainable growth from referrals and the visibility we will gain with our partnership with TWM.
Case study: Can you give us a live example of where the solution has been deployed, why it was chosen, and what it is doing for that case/client?
We are very protective of our client-partner relationships, and it would be inappropriate for me to disclose our clients or their activity. However, a snapshot of the past few weeks would include the following:
- Live C2C Transformation Consultants working for our clients in:
- USA: in NY, TX, and FL
- Toronto
- London and EU
- Recent Perm Placements:
- Head of LATAM Sales based in the US
- Global Head of Professional Services - US
- SaaS Regional Enterprise Sales in Ireland and Germany
- Client Service roles filled in UAE and London
- CTO in Bangkok
Over and above our direct recruitment sourcing, we carry out bespoke advisory services. We recently carried out a three-week engagement with a client. Along with key client stockholders, we built a six to 12-month Talent Demand Requirements and associated Resource Plan to run alongside their Strategy and Sales Projections. This enabled us to follow up with a Priced Resource Delivery Proposition and process improvement recommendations to allow our client to increase their competitive edge in the Talent market.
What is next? Finally, can you tell us what is coming next about your further development? How will you work to form more direct relationships with the right people?
Our stated mission is to facilitate executives, founders, and hiring managers worldwide in achieving their recruitment growth objectives and to distinguish ourselves on the quality of service and the tailored nature of our partnership offering. Our partnership with TWM will help us stay ahead of industry developments to help clients gain a competitive advantage. Our combined offering is directly targeted to the challenges this sector faces today and in the future. TWM’s in-depth insights and eMFusion’s ability to adapt and service the industry set us apart.
If you would like to take part in our The Wealth Mosaic talks to…” series, please get in touch with us at office@thewealthmosaic.com
