Edward Jones, the worldwide financial-investment company, uses a winning method to motivate employees: Each of them has an opportunity to own a piece of the company.
It is part of a company-wide formula that promotes independent action and entrepreneurial thinking. About 40 percent of the company’s employees – or 15,000 people – are limited partners of Edward Jones.
Employees set their own schedules and choose their branch locations. An office typically consists of one financial adviser and a branch office administrator. Managers provide all the training and technical support. Thereafter, financial advisers set their own schedules and operate largely independently.
The Jones business model encourages managers to guide and mentor employees through business and even personal conflicts and needs. This includes employee benefits like quick assistance in a natural disaster, paid leave or medical exemptions.
“As an Edward Jones partner, I have a vested interest in the success in every other financial adviser at the firm. I’ve always volunteered to help other folks start their businesses, but since becoming a partner a few years ago, I’m even more involved with helping new associates succeed,” said Mike Paolino, a Wakefield-based financial adviser.
Financial advisers work with clients to understand personal goals from college savings to retirement. This creates long-term investment solutions that emphasize a well-balanced portfolio.
Financial advisers are paid by Edward Jones while they prepare for licenses. They are then put on salary in addition to earning commissions, bonuses and subsidized benefits in their early years. They ultimately transition to commission earnings supported by bonuses and profit sharing, and even the possibility of limited partnership.
Hiring for branches all over the country has rarely slowed. Edward Jones serves more than 7 million individual investors in 11,500 locations in the United States; it also has offices in Canada. Financial advisers and branch office administrators have been hired to open new branches throughout the recent tough economic times. Advisers find that individual investors particularly need help in tough times.
Employees usually live close to where they work, making it easy to leave the office to participate in their child’s school activity or have lunch at home. They are able to work from any site using smart-phones and laptops. Some financial advisers work a reduced schedule in vacation periods to spend time with their children.
The company culture focuses on bolstering one another.
The company’s Goodknight program, for instance, helps improve customer service while it nurtures new talent for the company. In a Goodknight program, a financial adviser with too many households to service well may select a trainee to mentor and advise. Ultimately, the financial adviser may hand off some inactive clients to the new employee to bolster the startup of a new branch. Generally, employees who start with Edward Jones through Goodknight do better than those who start from scratch.
“It’s a highly effective program because it accelerates the progress of a new financial adviser,” said South Kingstown employee Mike Paolino. “I’ve participated both as a receiver and as a giver in the Goodknight program. Coming into the business, my dad started me off with a Goodknight plan in his office, and two months later my business was launched. Last summer, we completed our own Goodknight with Andre Freitas, who now has his own office in Narragansett.”
Each year, thousands of successful financial advisers not only get the opportunity to become partners but also earn through the company all-expenses-paid diversification trips to exotic destinations.
“Thanks to Edward Jones, we’ve cruised to Tahiti, walked the Great Wall in Beijing and traveled to Italy, where we reconnected with 34 new family members. We keep in touch with them regularly and would never have had all these opportunities if not for Edward Jones,” said Charlie Paolino, the father of Mike Paolino and also a South Kingstown-based financial adviser.
In prosperous and in difficult times, Edward Jones is known to stand by its employees.
“During the last two storms, the firm was very proactive in reaching out to make sure that my family and our branch-office associates’ families were alive and doing well. We received emails and calls to our cellphones and homes, just to make contact. It’s very nice to know our home office is always looking out for our safety,” said Mike Paolino.
This model of being supportive enables employees to help their communities as well as each other. Employees are encouraged to volunteer in their local community during office hours. When branch office administrators are waiting for new branches or branches in transition to open, they are paid to volunteer full time.
And since advisers generally live in the same towns as their clients; their relationships often extend beyond the office to the local school, place of worship or ballpark. Both Mike and Charlie Paolino have contributed significant time to their local communities.
“I’m a board member in our local chamber of commerce and have the pleasure of managing a scholarship program that we award to a local high school senior,” said Mike Paolino. “I’m also a member of the Narragansett Lions Club and work on the Blessing of the Fleet event, which raises $100,000 each year.”
Charlie Paolino added, “Throughout my career, I’ve been chairman and a member of the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce and involved in the Rotary Club of Wakefield. Each year, we raised about $120,000 that we donate to local causes.” •
