Fire, reload, Re-Hire

Wow, I read this morning that Merrill Lynch has already started aggressively hiring trainee Financial Advisors. Just this past spring, my inbox was flooded with the resumes of Merrill Lynch trainees, two years in the business and less, who were fired because Merrill was no longer in the “training of new Financial Advisors” business. Did one quarter of wonderful results totally change their thinking? There are only four ways to grow a retail brokerage sales force: “same store” sales growth (i.e. increasing the productivity of the existing Advisors), acquisition, recruiting (my personal favorite) and training. Pick your poison, because no way is a sure thing or without its own peril. I don't recall how many Advisors were laid off by Merrill earlier this year, but those poor folks were thrown into a horrific job market. I wonder how many of them will be offered their jobs back. How many will have no other choice but to take it back, uncertainty and all, and how many will tell Merrill, “No, thank you. Screw me once, shame on you; screw me twice, shame on me.” This is just the latest example of an industry that hires way too much when things are good and then fires way too many when things are bad. Perhaps they should consider their strategies and manpower needs in the same way that they advise their clients. That is, take a long term approach and ignore short term blips because you can't time the market.