L&D - Product and Market Training in The Brokerage Industry.

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Product and market training is a vital aspect of the brokerage industry since employees need to have a good understanding of complex financial products and markets to perform business-as-usual (BAU) activities. Therefore, most brokerage companies regularly arrange product and market training for their employees to give an understanding of the complex finance instruments and the product portfolio.

The human resources department needs to synergize with other departments and needs to identify special training needs in other departments. Based on the training needs identified the HR department needs to construct a tailored training plan. Subject Matter Experts play a vital role by giving their input towards training requirements. 

Some Brokerage companies maintain their own university to keep employees up to date on the financial industry.  A university that maintains in company`s intranet gives easy access for employees to learn more about organization and industry trends. Refer to the below grab from the web page that interactive brokers maintain as their campus to educate people.




(Reference: ibkrcampus, 19th Oct 2023)

Another aspect that brokerage companies educate employees is Via webinars.  Webinars consist of various interactive methods such as polls, surveys, live chat features, slides on the subject matter, small video clips, and speeches from industry specialists and subject matter experts. The below grab indicates an upcoming webinar on interactive brokers. Refer to it to have an understanding of the effort that is put towards reaching the required audience before the event is conducted.



(Reference: ibkrcampus, 20th Nov 2023)


Sometimes brokerage companies create video tutorials to educate employees as well as customers. Refer to the video tutorial from Interactive Brokers. Video learning is able to attract more reach as it helps to make learning more fascinating. Refer to below video tutorial below from Interactive Brokers in order to understand how interesting they have made the content.


(Reference: YouTube, May 2021)


However, when using video tutorials HR department needs to ensure that the purpose of the training has been met without any diversion.  According to CIPD

If practitioners wish to use technology as more than an information system, an assessment should be made of the theory behind the tools, identifying if it has the features needed to deliver learning experiences. (Reference: CIPD, Nov 2017)


Maintaining a Podcast about complex financial instruments also has resulted in enhancing employee knowledge. Listening to a podcast would be much easier due to the busy life schedules of employees. The flexible nature of podcast learning helps to integrate learning into employee’s day-to-day activities. Portability may result in enhancing continuous learning and employee engagement.  Podcasts can be designed as an interview with a guest who is an expert on financial instruments and market analysis, where employees are able to gain more insight into the current trends in the market. Another advantage of podcasting is employees have the option to select the required topic and skip the topics that they may feel are not required at the moment.

Click on the link below if you would like to listen to a podcast aired by Interactive Brokers


Amazing Singapore Economy


(Reference:podbean, 15th Nov 2023)



In a nutshell, methods used to educate employees in brokerage can be categorized according to the VAK model. Video tutorials can be catered to visual learners, podcasts can be catered to auditory learners and webinars can be catered to kinesthetic learners. Therefore it seems the brokerage industry is trying to capture the audience to educate them using various methods of reaching them. 








References

“Discount Bonds.” IBKR Campus, 20 Nov. 2023, ibkrcampus.com/webinars/discount-bonds/.

“Financial Education and Market Commentary.” IBKR Campus, 19 Oct. 2023, ibkrcampus.com/.

“Practical Usage - Bull Market – Short Put.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 May 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj61KxqRDmA.

Development, PodBean. “The Amazing Singapore Economy.” IBKR Podcasts, 15 Nov. 2023, www.podbean.com/ep/pb-iyb7r-14f96e7.

The Future Technology - CIPD, www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/reports/the-future-of-technology-and-learning_2017_tcm18-29348.pdf. Accessed 23 Nov. 2023. 
























Comments

  1. Supun RupasingheNovember 24, 2023 at 9:38 PM

    Really liked your blog on training in the brokerage industry! The use of webinars, videos, and podcasts is cool. Have you thought about adding practical stuff like case studies for a hands-on approach? It could make learning even more interesting. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hashanka Gunasekara - HR360December 20, 2023 at 3:44 AM

      Thank you Supun for your valuable input, correct agreed with fact that including case studies on product and market training failures would make the article much interesting. However, it was quite challenging to find out product and market training scandals in brokerage industry due to the confidentiality.

      Delete
  2. P S Jeramy Hashan - E196542December 9, 2023 at 8:41 AM

    i agreed with your blog on training in the brokerage industry but only podcast and webinar need to have some physical study method also encouragable

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hashanka Gunasekara - HR360December 20, 2023 at 3:48 AM

      Thank you for your viewpoint, Jeramy! Correct on floor training is an effective method of training. However, due to the dynamic nature of the brokerage industry mostly brokerage companies use hybrid training methods. This might be due to the sensitivity between new technology and the industry.

      Delete
  3. ShankaviDecember 17, 2023 at 10:21 PM

    I have extensive experience in the brokerage sector, and I can't stress enough how important it is to have strong Learning and Development (L&D) programmed, particularly when they are customized for Product and Market Training. The brokerage industry is dynamic, with new goods entering the market on a regular basis and market trends changing quickly. To be competitive in this environment, one must constantly learn and adapt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hashanka Gunasekara - HR360December 20, 2023 at 3:52 AM

      Thank you Shankavi, Agreed on the emphasized fact. Learning and development is paramount important as the industry is driven mostly by the FinTech. Throughout the history firms that learn and adopt has been surviving in the industry.

      Delete

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