During her first day on the job as a financial advisor at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., Emily Phillips found a handwritten note sitting on her desk that she says set the trajectory of her career.
The note was from a senior financial advisor on the council of Baird Women Advisors, an affinity group for all female advisors at the company. She welcomed Phillips to the position and offered advice and constant support in her new role.
“When you’re new to a job, there are unexpected surprises left and right,” Phillips said. “Right off the bat, BWA gave me an immediate network of resources that, as a new advisor, I had access to best practices and unlimited advice, which was tremendous early on.”
BWA is one of Baird’s various affinity groups that, similar to many corporate organizations, the company established to connect its employees to each other and to the larger community.
The group started in 2008 after a female Baird advisor accompanied a colleague to her recognition as one of Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors. She liked the idea of being present to celebrate a fellow female’s achievement in her field – “being each other’s cheerleaders,” as Angela Krause-Lane, financial advisor at Baird and Baird Women’s Advisory Council president, puts it.
“Baird recognizes the importance of growth and by providing us this opportunity to meet other women in the field, it promotes our success – and we want to be successful for Baird,” she said.
Krause-Lane was elected to her position at the start of this year, and for the next three years will head the group’s leadership council of 12 experienced female advisors, recruit potential female financial advisors, provide mentors to newcomers and organize BWA’s meetings and leadership development conferences. Annually, BWA attends an event with Ascent, a Baird affinity group for all female employees.
Now, only four years into her career as a financial advisor, Phillips uses the same level of support that BWA gives her to assist a different population of Baird advisors: the non-veterans, or those with less than 10 years of experience in the field.
Earlier this year, Phillips was one of 10 advisors nominated by executives to create the Next Gen Advisory Council, a resource group that connects the company’s non-veteran financial advisors – 221 of them in all – with a network of veteran advisors. The council uses a similar support model to that of BWA.
“The leadership development component is so important to give back,” Phillips said. “It is hard to be a woman advisor; we face different challenges than men. It is hard to be a young advisor; we face different challenges than someone who’s been an advisor for 20 years. The council is charged with providing that mentorship to next gen advisors.”
By proactively reaching out all new advisors when they start working at Baird, the council includes them in its informal network. Phillips said for the future, the council has considered creating an official Next Gen affinity group, but only if it is the best way to support the next generation.
“Larger organizations have the capacity and numbers to make these groups work,” said Lynell Meeth, director of member content at MRA-The Management Association. “They can offer different employees the resources to have affinity groups, which allow employees to be involved with and feel connected to their organization.”
For employees who do not hold leadership roles at a company, they can use affinity groups to learn and develop leadership skills, including collaboration and interacting with executives. Company leaders may not have noticed these employees in the past, but their participation in affinity groups makes them visible, Meeth said.
“I can think of multiple examples of colleagues who started as personal bankers but have moved to different areas within the organization because they were able to talk to and interact with company leaders through various affinity group events and activities,” said Darcy Pierson, director of inclusion, engagement and change management leadership at Associated Bank.
She oversees the company’s six affinity groups, which aim to include and attract all types of individuals to the bank – both employees and clients. The groups are centered on gender equality, young professionals, cultural awareness, the LGBT community, veterans, and employees with cognitive, physical and mental disabilities.
“Affinity groups have to be aligned with the company’s culture,” Meeth said. “And they can help build the culture by promoting ideas that work in its favor.”
So, if a company’s culture is about valuing open communication, affinity groups should work to promote open communication throughout the company.
Recently, Associated Bank’s Pride & Equality Exchange – its LGBT rights-focused affinity group – reviewed the company’s equal opportunities statement and, after deeming it below its standards, brought in a human rights organization that made suggestions to improve the statement. And the company’s executive team took the advice.
“Employees have good connections and are socially involved,” Meeth said. “Executives get excited when they listen to their employees and it opens their eyes to opportunity beyond their four walls.”
