What makes Edward Jones a great place to work?
According to Kevin Hylander, regional leader for the investment firm’s offices in Connecticut and Rhode Island, it’s the company’s mentoring program designed to help employees grow their businesses.
For Kathy Mendelson, a senior branch office administrator, it’s the relationships made both inside the office and in the local communities.
Either way, it’s working.
“Financial advisors come from all walks of life,” explains Hylander. “We find the right people and help them become great Edward Jones representatives. The right person has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and wants to run an ethical and profitable business,” he explains. Edward Jones provides a proven business model and the advisors and office administrators bring the motivation and drive to make it work.
Based on the company’s strong history, it’s a formula that works. Edward Jones has grown from 300 offices across the country to 11,000 over the past 30 years and has been ranked “Highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms,” two years in a row by J.D. Power and Associates.
As a regional leader, Hylander says his job, in addition to providing financial advice to his local clients, is to coach each new advisor in his region. Then a team of additional mentors takes over as advisors progress through their careers. “Advisors need different skill sets in the beginning, when they’re opening a branch, than they do when they later take on leadership roles. We address each stage when the time is right so mentoring is focused exclusively on the skills people need to be successful today.”
Because multiple offices, each run independently, may pop up in the same town, it might seem like competition could become an issue. But, Hylander explains, “there is a unique culture that comes along with a focus on team-based mentoring; competition just doesn’t enter into the equation. If one team runs their business in a way that another office likes, they teach that office how to do the same thing. We know there is power in numbers and teams are happy to help each other out.”
Each of the 60-plus branches in CT is made up of two people: a branch office administrator and a financial advisor. These two-person teams are the cornerstone of the Edward Jones way. According to Mendelson, the senior branch administrator in Enfield, the arrangement allows for meaningful relationships to emerge both inside the office — between the financial advisor and the branch administrator — as well as outside the office with members of the local community.
“We get to know clients personally; we meet with families and hear their stories,” she explains. “We spend time with our clients; we see them as individual people, not dollars and cents. There is compassion and understanding in an Edward Jones office.” Both relationships make it possible for employees to feel a personal connection to their job.
Edward Jones has grown substantially over the years, but guiding principles have remained the same. One-on-one relationships are the key to this business. According to Hylander, “clients like working one-on-one; they don’t want a faceless advisor. Our teams make relationships in their communities that last a lifetime.” â
