Worldwide financial services firm Edward Jones is set to take on dozens of staff in a Midlands recruitment drive.
The company plans to hire an average of 38 new advisers a month, as part of a bid to improve its services after taking on a record number of recruits last year, its tenth year of trading in the United Kingdom. The firm said the Midlands is one of the key areas on which it wants to focus when looking for recruits.
Brian Donaldson, the regional leader for Edward Jones in the Midlands, said: “We now have around 70 advisers across the region and want to grow that number rapidly. We have found people in our region have a real appetite for the services we provide; we have only one customer, the serious, long-term individual investor whom we serve, regardless of net worth and on a face-to-face basis.
“We find that, in the current market conditions, people really appreciate the opportunity to sit down with their financial adviser and discuss the right course of action to help them achieve their long-term financial goals. Being stockbrokers and financial advisers means we can offer clients a wide range of investment solutions.
“Therefore, we are on a rapid expansion programme as we need to be close to where our clients live in order to give them the best service. “We hope a significant proportion of the 38 new hires each month will be from the Midlands and help us boost our presence here.
“Once our advisers have their business up and running, then we employ a branch office administrator to act as their dedicated, full-time personal assistant which is typically six months after they become qualified advisers. We believe it is vital that they have the time to concentrate on the needs of their clients and not get bogged down in administration.”
Each Edward Jones office has a single stockbroker and financial adviser supported by a dedicated, full-time assistant.
The company advocates a conservative investment philosophy, based on owning a diversified portfolio of high-quality investments for the long term, which it says has stood it in good stead during the financial downturn.
As part of the recruitment plans, Edward Jones said it would shortly be embarking on a new advertising recruitment campaign. The company offers two salaried training programmes – one for those with previous financial services experience and one for those joining from outside the industry.
“We are looking for confident people, with an entrepreneurial spirit who thrive on working by themselves, enjoy helping clients plan for their financial security and are both professional and ethical,” said Mr Donaldson.
The latest West Midlands branch of the company was opened in Lower High Street, Stourbridge last August.
The deputy mayor of Dudley, Councillor Pat Martin, was guest of honour at the opening of what was the town’s first ever stockbroker. Edward Jones has nine outlets in the West Midlands and more than 300 in total in the UK. The firm has more than 10,000 offices worldwide.
In 2007, the Birmingham suburb of Harborne became the first area in Britain to get a second branch of Edward Jones – in the same street.
The second office, at 174 High Street, followed the successful establishment of the Jones outlet at 45 High Street five years earlier by Bart Dalton, the US-born investment representative who had helped to spearhead the company’s continuing expansion in the West Midlands.
Jones calls the policy of opening multiple branches ‘the Goodknight Plan’ after investment representative Jim Goodknight.
He opened three new offices in Nebraska after winning more clients than he could comfortably look after.
