Each Monday from 9:30-11:30 a.m., Joyce Chan’s advisors in Singapore are expected to attend an in-person meeting, followed by optional coaching and mentoring. Later that day, from 2-4 p.m., they dedicate time to prospecting and client calls. On Thursday morning, they return to the office for two hours of role-playing and case discussions.
As for the rest of their time each week? It’s up to each advisor.
Chan calls this “structured flexibility” — the expectation for her team to gather and galvanize for about a day and a half each week, while the rest of the time they work independently toward production and client-satisfaction goals.
As a leader who loves helping others recognize their potential and achieve success, Chan is eager to lend a hand to her intentionally slow-growing team of six advisors and two staff members. Just don’t expect her to hold their hands, too.
Chan said structured flexibility helps her agency appeal to Gen Z, the generational name given to those born between 1997-2012. (The oldest members of Gen Z are now 27 years old.) Not only does this generation account for a new crop of potential financial services professionals, but it also represents a largely untapped client demographic.
“If we want to constantly capture that younger market, and to be able to plan that massive amount of inheritance Gen Z is going to receive over their lifetime, then we have to capture it at the start by hiring and managing Gen Z advisors,” Chan said.
Her idea of structured flexibility is expanded upon below — one of five tips on Gen Z recruitment and retention shared by three MDRT Center members during a panel at the 2024 MDRT Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
For the discussion, Chan joined fellow agency leaders Timothy Boyle, CLU, FSCP, and Fabian Chan, ChFC, B.Eng, both of whom are Diamond-level winners of the MDRT Culture of Excellence Awards. Together, the three leaders discussed how and why onboarding should be different for younger professionals, and how to create a development plan that encourages Gen Z advisors to forge long-term careers.
Here’s their advice on building your Gen Z approach.
1. Gen Z tend to switch jobs frequently. Emphasize the difference between having a job and building a career.
The “gig economy” popularized by Gen Z reflects a generational shift toward valuing growth opportunities, and their frequent job hopping reflects a quest for fulfilling careers. It also presents a challenge for leaders with high retention goals.
Financial leaders are wise to create emotional attachments between Gen Z advisors and the rest of the team, said Fabian Chan, an agency director in Singapore who manages 36 team members and excels in recruitment, production, retention and persistency. About 80% of the agency’s new advisors are Gen Z.
When recruiting young advisors, he highlights his agency’s trust-and-growth culture. He also aims to get them into leadership roles right away, especially if they show positive energy and the willingness to step out of their comfort zones. Doing so helps young professionals build skills and confidence, he said.
“Beyond their own sales and work acquiring clients, I get them into mentorship. I get them into recruitment,” Fabian Chan said, signaling the agency’s commitment to continual growth. “The emotional power, the attachment to a mentee, the relationships formed from the agency, might help them stay longer.”
A Gen Z member himself, Boyle adopts a similar approach and begins to assess a young candidate’s leadership potential even before they join his team as an advisor.
“This is a full-time job. If you treat it any other way, you're just not going to be as successful,” he said. “If they think, ‘Hey, I could probably go make a quick $40 by doing an extra Uber ride,’ they should know that if they spent that hour on the phone with prospects instead, they could've made $4,000. So, it's trying to change that mindset.”
Boyle tries to have the job-versus-career conversation with Gen Z recruits as early as possible, emphasizing that a career has a trajectory and is built on development and education.
“If we’re trying to convince them to come to a career in our industry, they're going to be spending a lot of time and energy dedicating themselves to that career. The least we can do is make them feel comfortable enough knowing that we're going to be spending the same amount of time and energy with them and their success," he said.
2. Gen Z are still discovering their “why.” Support their desire to explore, shift and grow.
Gen Z tends to seek meaning and purpose in their work. Providing a supportive environment that encourages exploration and growth can help align their values with agency goals.
To that end, Joyce Chan cultivates a culture that celebrates and supports change and work-life balance.
“As a leader of Gen Z financial consultants, the question I keep asking myself is, ‘How do we support their interests, their passions and the pursuit of these activities outside of their career?’” she said. “They probably joined this profession because it gave them the space to pursue those interests, that passion. If they feel supported by their manager, the likelihood is they will stay longer.”
One Gen Z member of her team is a content creator who adores world travel. “Am I going to tell him, ‘Hey, dude, if you're going to be serious about this, you better come into the office every single week’”? she said. “If I do that, I can be pretty sure he'll be out of the door within the month. This is a person who fits really well into our culture,” handling videos and other brand messaging. His outside-of-work passion fuels the agency’s creativity, she said, and that’s more important to her than abiding by rigid workplace convention.
Joyce Chan emphasizes that Gen Z’s passions are often fluid, so she conducts quarterly reviews with advisors to stay updated on their personal aspirations. “These check-ins are essential. I ask, ‘Have your goals shifted? How can I support you in this?’ The dialogue ensures that we're aligned, and that I'm supporting them in a meaningful way.”
That’s also the feeling Fabian Chan wants his Gen Z advisors to feel. He shares this specific Gen Z retention concept: Try talking to advisors about their “why” during moments when they seem more open and vulnerable than usual.
He recounts a poignant experience with a new Gen Z advisor whose grandmother had passed away. The personal loss became a defining moment for the advisor, shifting his focus from material success to honoring his grandmother’s memory.
“During the funeral, he shared that he wanted to bring glory to his grandmother. Knowing this, it was easier to coach him and remind him of his deeper motivation when distractions arose,” Fabian Chan said. Their understanding helped the advisor stay focused and perform well even during challenging times.
“It’s important to constantly engage with Gen Z consultants to understand what’s important to them,” he said.
3. Gen Z can be competitive yet distracted. Encourage their entrepreneurial focus with a mix of competition and camaraderie.
Gen Z advisors grew up in a digital-first, short-attention-span world. It can be challenging for them to stay focused and motivated — traits they need when working toward activity and production goals.
The good news: This always-screen-watching generation boasts plenty of production superstars, “gamers” who thrive on competition.
The most successful Gen Z advisors have their self-motivation dial on high, Boyle said. That’s why during his new advisors’ 90-day action plans, he wants to see — and help boost — their level of self-motivation.
“You’re trying to have them come to the fruition of, ‘This is where I want to be. This is the industry I want to be in. These are my goals,’” he said.
To help manage potential distractions, Boyle uses activity trackers, which he calls "15-fives." These are brief, five-question forms his advisors fill out weekly, taking about 15 minutes total to complete. The tool serves as a key for Boyle’s one-on-one meetings with them, ensuring that both parties come prepared and maximize their time.
The meetings provide an opportunity for new advisors to receive advice, product training or case preparation, fostering a dual-accountability culture where both Boyle and his advisors focus on the team’s success.
He also emphasizes the importance of camaraderie to maintain a positive environment, noting that while competitions can motivate advisors, they can also create unnecessary tension if not managed carefully. To address this, Boyle sets inclusive goals that allow lower-producing advisors to participate for potential rewards such as trips and special recognitions, rather than only the agency's top performers.
“Those top agents are now going to start dragging those middle ones across the finish line, because they don't want to go alone,” he said. “They want to pull new people into that contest, and you have a lot more lift. You have a much happier culture” with more unity.
4. Gen Z has high expectations for work-life balance. Provide a structure that respects their time yet holds them accountable.
Joyce Chan appreciates a common business phrase: “You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” The saying underscores the importance of having well-defined processes in place to help Gen Z advisors meet their professional objectives without compromising their personal lives.
Her structured-flexibility approach to advisors’ time is part framework, part freedom. Advisors have clear guidelines, regular check-ins and ongoing career-development support, yet also are empowered to take ownership of their schedules.
On Mondays in the office, “they see other people working, the energy is up, and the face time is good enough for them to feel relatively motivated for the next two days before they see us on Thursday, and then for the weekend before they see us on Monday again,” she said.
Joyce Chan’s six advisors are at different stages of their lives. They include a working mother, a new father and a recent college graduate. They’re all expected to come prepared to the Monday team meeting and discuss their weekly self-assessment — a list of scores from one to 10 based on their knowledge and performance in areas such as production, branding and operations. They’re also prepared to outline the new week’s activities and review long-term goals.
What her advisors choose to do the next morning, or on Friday afternoon, is up to them. “We’re all adults,” she said. Everyone is free to set appointments and block off personal time as they see fit, and everyone is required to share digital calendars with teammates. “The intent of shared calendars is not to micromanage your life, because that’s definitely not what I want to do as a leader. It’s to respect your time.”
Joyce Chan shares her calendar, too. She said transparency fosters a culture of respect, as advisors are less likely to interrupt each other during important personal or professional engagements. It also allows her to monitor trends in activity, giving her a big-picture view of each advisor's progress and areas for improvement. Meanwhile, advisors can book coaching sessions and other meetings without unnecessary back-and-forth communication.
5. Gen Z are socially conscious and purpose-driven. Emphasize the opportunity to serve others through community service.
Fabian Chan’s agency offers internships for university students in Singapore to learn more about the profession. One aspect of financial services they most appreciate, he said, is the ability to make a genuine difference in the lives of clients and the community.
That big-picture mission aligns with Gen Z's desire to work for businesses committed to social impact. When leaders foster a culture of service, they can appeal to the social-conscious mindset of young professionals while also strengthening team cohesion.
At Fabian Chan’s agency, all advisors are invited to come together for acts of service. They recently bonded to help a cancer survivor paint and clean his studio apartment.
“It heartened me to know that everyone wanted to contribute,” he said. The advisors bought the paint themselves and took on the responsibility to organize the workday.
Community service is an ideal way for the agency’s Gen X and Gen Z advisors to become closer and more communicative, he said. It’s also an opportunity for his team to “learn to appreciate what they have, be empathetic and serve others who have fewer resources and opportunities.”
“It’s the betterment of our companies through the betterment of our employees," Boyle added. "It’s up to all of us as leaders to make sure we’re adding to that development."
Darin Painter is a freelance writer and editor in Strongsville, Ohio, USA, and owner of the content development business Writing Matters (www.writingmatters.com).
Contact:
Joyce Chan, joycechanan@pruadviser.com.sg
Tim Boyle, tsboyle12@gmail.com
Fabian Chan, chanwengtuck@rep.greateastern.fa.sg
