RBC Wealth Management-U.S. tops the list of large-company Best Places to Work honorees in its second year as a BPTW. It offers numerous benefits for its employees and has quickly adapted its business model and operations during the pandemic.
For more about why this company is a BPTW, we asked Shareen Luze, head of human resources:
How many jobs do you have open, and where do you post your job openings? We have 64 job openings as of June 18. Jobs are posted to our public and internal websites, LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor and local job networks. The Minnesota Job Network posts our jobs to many locations, including state job banks and community resources, including those designed to reach veterans, individuals with disabilities and persons of color.
What are some tangible benefits the company offers its employees? In addition to comprehensive health, wellness and 401(k) benefits, we provide programs to support individuals and families, including flexible scheduling options, a generous paid time off program that provides new employees with a minimum of three weeks paid vacation plus 10 holidays per year, backup child and adult/elder care services, and free gym memberships to multiple fitness centers throughout the Twin Cities and nationwide.
Do you have a formal or informal company policy regarding diversity and inclusion? Diversity and inclusion are core values at RBC. We realize that building a diverse business and fostering inclusion in that business takes a lot of hard work, which is why we take an holistic approach to diversity and inclusion, with a focus on building a diverse workforce, an inclusive workplace and diverse partnerships. Over the past few years, we’ve upped the ante on our diversity recruiting efforts by investing more time, money and spirit into drawing more diverse talent to our industry and to our firm. Our investments are starting to pay off and for the first time in years, we are moving the needle in a measurable and sustainable way, putting RBC in a leadership position in the industry. Some of these measures include:
- Ensuring that nondiscriminatory language is used in external job postings so that diverse candidates can see themselves in the role they are applying for.
- Employing inclusive recruiting guidelines that ask every hiring manager to interview at least one diverse candidate for all of their posted roles.
- Proactively reaching out to diverse communities, including college campuses and organizations
- Increasing our presence and sponsorship of diversity recruiting events for women, veterans, people of color, individuals with disabilities and LGBTQ candidates.
- Working more closely with our internal employee resource groups to encourage employee referrals.
How has the coronavirus pandemic affected your firm's operations? The coronavirus has really showcased the unique culture that exists at RBC, bringing everyone at the firm closer together even as we were forced to work physically further apart. We transitioned the vast majority of our workforce – including advisers and many traders – to remote-working arrangements within a matter of days, a huge feat given how our business operates on face-to-face and in-person interaction. The market turbulence brought on by the pandemic created an additional challenge for us as a financial services firm whose clients need us more than ever in such an environment. But working closely with our technology, operations and field leadership teams, we found unique ways to keep advisers connected and have given them the tools they need to continue to provide clients with the best service in the business.
We also had a unique challenge with respect to recruiting. Bringing in new advisers is key to revenue growth at our firm and many of those hires are made through a series of face-to-face meetings with firm leadership over the course of several months. Once the pandemic hit, this was no longer possible, so we launched an industry-leading digital recruiting platform almost immediately. As a result, our recruiting momentum has continued.
Have you had any layoffs due to the pandemic? At the onset of the pandemic, RBC made a bold commitment to employees that there would be no layoffs as a result of Covid-19 during 2020. This commitment was intended to give employees, who were already stressed about their health, juggling work with child care and other responsibilities, greater peace of mind.
Have you had any furloughs due to the pandemic? We had no furloughs.
If you implemented remote-work policies due to the coronavirus pandemic, how did you keep people connected? RBC moved to get the majority of our 5,000 employees across the U.S. up and running in their homes within a matter of weeks. Keeping employees connected and engaged was critical, which is why the firm took a multipronged approach. At the start of the pandemic, employees received almost daily emails from leaders with important information on business continuity plans, remote systems access and technology updates as well as on travel restrictions, protocol on client interaction, office closures, etc. Those updates are now weekly versus daily, but contain valuable information for employees in a fast-changing and unprecedented environment. Equally as important to a firm like ours was ensuring our financial advisers and clients had real-time information regarding the market turbulence sparked by the pandemic. That real-time information was provided in the form of daily calls and WebEx meetings, e-cards and regular market commentary from the group’s global portfolio advisory committee. The firm’s wealth planning group also launched a series of regular calls on wealth planning topics pertinent to the new environment.
One of the firm’s greatest successes with respect to keeping employees connected, however, involved our advisers. Financial advisers are accustomed to conducting business face-to-face with clients, so working remotely was a major adjustment for them and many felt lost. Firm leadership organized a series of peer-to-peer calls where advisers from across the country were able to share tips and tricks on working remotely, connecting with clients, maintaining focus, prioritizing their own mental health, etc. The calls have been immensely popular and have grown in size and scope, with many advisers pointing to them as a bright spot in their days.
What additional resources have you offered employees during the pandemic? We have provided a number of benefits to employees since the start of the pandemic. Those include:
- $300 stipend to allow employees who are working remotely as a result of the pandemic to purchase home office equipment to improve their working space
- Emergency school closure leave for parents of children impacted by Covid-19-related school closures. The leave consisted of up to 20 PTO days for impacted employees.
- Special daily compensation program of $50 per day for employees working on site during the crisis, whether in our branches, operations centers or any location and role where working from home is not an option. The per diem was created to help cover expenses for employees who must work on-site, e.g. extra cost of transportation, food or other expenses, along with other challenges related to coming to work during the crisis.
- In recognition that this is an unusual year and it may be difficult for some employees to use their allotted paid time off by the end of the year, RBC is allowing employees to carry over up to 10 days of PTO instead of five at the end of the year.
- We moved to cover Doctor-On-Demand virtual visits at 100% through June 14. This enabled employees to visit a doctor without leaving home.
- Free, confidential support for stress, depression and other concerns through Sept. 30 for all RBC employees and their family members (ages 13+)
- Covid-19 testing covered at 100% for RBC medical plan participants.
- Compensation continuity for employees working reduced hours as a result of child care obligations and employees whose job cannot be performed remotely.
When and how did you start bringing employees back to the office? If you haven’t returned to the office, when will that happen and what will it look like? As governments ease stay-at-home restrictions, RBC is developing plans to gradually return employees to RBC premises. Following guidance from RBC enterprise, local government and health authorities, we are taking a gradual approach to ensure we proceed at the right pace, with employee health and well-being as our No. 1 priority. The timing of employees’ return to premises will vary by location and take into consideration many factors, including first and foremost, individual employee comfort level and personal circumstances, public transportation, landlord guidelines around building capacity and physical distancing, and the nature of each role. While some branches are increasing staff levels, for the safety of our clients and our employees, RBC is encouraging advisers and other staff to continue to use virtual meeting capabilities rather than resume in-person meetings. In addition, we have asked that other guests such as wholesalers, nonessential vendors, employee family members, etc., not be invited into the branch for the time being.
How will your use of remote work versus in-office work be different post-pandemic? After the past few months of working remotely, it’s become even more clear that not every employee has to be in the office every single day. Remote work has also shown us more than ever how interconnected work and home life are. Before the pandemic, employees were still getting calls about sick kids they needed to come pick up or a loved one they needed to drive to an appointment. Those demands are just a little more visible to colleagues and managers today. Enabling a greater portion of the workforce to work remotely will not only aid in ongoing social distancing efforts, but it will also promote greater flexibility for employees who, for a multitude of life circumstances, can’t always be in the office from 9 to 5.
Still, wealth management is a people-centric business. While we’ve been able to shift operations so the majority of our branch personnel can work from home, doing this long term isn’t ideal. Our value is in the personalized advice we give clients, and that advice thrives on the relationships advisers build with their clients. But what we’ve learned is those relationships can be fostered in a digital environment. We’ve seen our advisers use technology to stay connected with clients in new and creative ways, and we think that will only continue, even after things go back to the way they were.
No. 1 RBC Wealth Management-U.S.
Two-time winner
Score: 91.9411
Top local executive: Michael Armstrong
Minnesota employees: 1,680
Business: Provides advice and wealth management solutions to individuals, families and institutions
City: Minneapolis
Web: rbcwealthmanagement.com
