A global brokerage firm, with more than 10,000 Financial Advisors at the time, hired Gus Prestera and his team to redesign their new hire Financial Advisor program and address the problem that, despite investing millions into Associate hiring and onboarding, it yielded a poor return on investment. The previous onboarding program relied completely on classroom training; consisted mostly of knowledge dumps and death by PowerPoint; and took too long to complete. We were charged with redesigning the program to be more effective, more efficient, and less costly. After mapping the skills that distinguished successful Financial Advisors, we developed a skill certification process and a fully blended curriculum that combined elearning self-study, experiential learning, case studies, online and in-person simulations, peer mentoring, and coaching.
