Attracting and Retaining the Best Talent
Our recruitment, promotion and compensation processes are designed to enable us to treat employees fairly with respect to pay and opportunity and our compensation decisions are differentiated based on performance. Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain talented, productive and skilled brokers and technologists and other employees to transact with our customers in a challenging and regulated environment that is experiencing ever-increasing competition for talent. We are investing in creating an inclusive and incentivized work environment where our people can deliver their best work every day.
Talent remains at the core of who we are as a company, and we remain committed to having a culture built around equal employment opportunity. We continue to work to enhance our ability to attract, develop and retain top talent with a range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, encompassing people early in their careers and experienced personnel, and hiring, retention, and development initiatives.
Equal Employment Opportunity
We believe that by cultivating a fair and inclusive work environment, we improve the performance of our business and enrich the experience of our employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and other policies and practices that seek to further our development of a productive and motivated workplace. We also participate in job fairs, college recruitment initiatives and job boards that are focused on reaching a broad applicant pool of qualified applicants with a range of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.
We consider all qualified applicants for job openings and promotions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin or ancestry, age, disability, service in the armed forces, pregnancy or maternity, familial status, marriage and civil partnership, genetic information or any other protected characteristic. We continue to develop initiatives to support these values.
Performance-Based and Retentive Compensation Structure
Many of our key brokers, salespeople, managers, and other front office professionals have a substantial amount of their own capital invested in our business. We believe that our emphasis on equity-based compensation promotes alignment of interest with shareholders, recruitment, and motivation of our brokers and other employees, and encourages a collaborative culture that drives cross-selling and revenue growth. Virtually all of our executives and front-office employees have equity stakes in the Company and generally receive grants of deferred equity as part of their compensation. We believe that by having investments in us, our executives and key brokers and other employees feel a sense of responsibility for the health and performance of our business and have a strong incentive to maximize our revenues and profitability.
We currently issue restricted stock units (“RSUs”), as well as other forms of equity-based compensation. We consider our RSUs and restricted stock awards to be highly retentive due to the long-term vesting and forfeiture provisions relating to these awards. These awards generally contain extended vesting schedules that vary based upon compensation level and role, which in most cases are largely dependent upon continued service through the vesting date of such awards.
From time to time, we may enter into various agreements with certain of our employees whereby these individuals may receive loans or bonus or salary advances under terms outlined in the underlying agreements. We believe that these advances and loans incentivize and promote retention of our employees.
Retentive Nature of Equity Awards
We consider our RSUs and restricted stock awards to be highly retentive due to the long-term vesting and forfeiture provisions relating to these awards. These awards generally contain extended vesting schedules that vary based upon compensation level and role, which in most cases are largely dependent upon continued service through the vesting date of such awards.
Employee Engagement, Communication, Career Management and Training and Development
We invest in our employees’ long-term development and engagement, by delivering training and development programs and fostering a culture where our people can thrive and maximize their potential. We require mandatory annual training in workplace respect and inclusion, and additional trainings on various topics including anti-money laundering, anti-crime, global sanctions, ethics, cybersecurity, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination. We also provide or support periodic job-specific and other developmental training and support for our employees so they can maximize their potential, as well as tuition reimbursement programs for eligible employees.
We provide virtual and in-person leadership training to managers on topics including management effectiveness, communication skills, interview skills and delivering effective performance evaluations, managing teams with a range of backgrounds and experiences, and other topics. This training is supplemented by a library of online training courses that managers and employees have access to on a number of topics to assist them in their career development and, if applicable, management skills. Our individual business lines offer ongoing learning and development opportunities tied to deepening the understanding of the subject matter expertise of their professionals. We also have intern and early career programs throughout the year in various parts of our business.
Our success depends on our employees’ understanding of how their work and engagement contribute to our strategy, culture, values, and regulatory environment. We use various channels to facilitate open and direct communication, including internal calls and meetings with employees, training and policy updates, employee resource groups, and social outings and events. We have also rolled out organizational Core Values (Integrity, Commitment and Opportunity), appointed Culture Champions in our London office and implemented other initiatives which seek to embed these values and drive an enhanced culture across our workforce.