The volume of interest in the Barclays Wealth Embark programme has been so large that only one in ten of those who apply move on to the next stage.

Barclays Wealth has been undergoing rapid growth over the past two years and has committed to a long-term investment strategy to recruit, retain and develop high quality talent. Chief executive officer, Tom Kalaris talks of achieving what he calls the "best team on the field" and this is clearly apparent in the UK private banking arena.

"We have great talent and we also have an aggressive hiring plan," managing director and head of UK private banking, Mark Kibblewhite told WealthBriefing.

"In this market talent is in great demand and we need innovative ways to attract the highest calibre individuals. Our flagship Embark programme takes capable talent with highly transferable skills and provides them with the necessary skill-set, overlaying industry knowledge and expertise. The programme involves a considerable amount of role playing to enable them to develop the interpersonal skills that are critical when dealing with clients."

"We launched Embark twelve months ago, and have put much effort and time into developing a programme that offers the right combination of skills training, content and course length. It is now on its third intake of 15 to 20 participants - sufficient to achieve critical mass, but small enough to retain personal connectivity," Mr Kibblewhite said.

Phil Smith, managing director of HR at Barclays Wealth added: "The Embark programme is about lateral hiring with a long-term strategic aim. Programmes like this are an industry imperative and a magnet for talent, without which, global growth objectives are unachievable."

Recruitment for the initial intake came from advertising in publications such as Financial News, The Sunday Times, the Evening Standard and select European titles and was not sector specific. For consecutive intakes, a more segmented approach has been used, to target specific communities:

"Our advertising encourages people to think differently about private banking and that includes our recruitment advertising", says Mr Smith.

Whilst there is no definitive size, shape or particular fit of the ideal candidate, Barclays Wealth aims to ensure that its relationship management workforce reflects the diversity of its clients:

"The strongest candidates tend to be those with an intellectual, technical and sales and relationship building function to their job", says Mr Smith. "They include those from the professional services world, management consultancy, the pharmaceuticals industry as well as finance staff in blue chip corporate environments. Those from an asset management and/or investment banking background clearly have a head start in terms of market and product knowledge. This makes the journey quicker, whilst still offering the individual a significant change of career direction. Outside of this we look for diversity, such as the world of sports and media, to face off into this client segment alongside our experienced bankers."

The process through which applicants have to go before they are successfully recruited into Embark is rigorous:

"From the point at which someone shows an interest and we have their CV, they undertake a series of assessments that look at culture, fit and presentation skills", says Mr Smith. "We test their transferable skill set, their ability to understand and explain complexity and the demonstration of a proven track record. This is intensive, but it is important to get it right because people are making a big career shift."

The volume of interest has been so large that only one in ten of those who apply move on to the next stage. Of these, only three in ten make it onto the Embark programme. Barclays says that the emphasis it places on choosing the right candidates is shown by the fact that only its most senior people act as assessors.

It is at this point that the bank says the real challenge of bringing a group of people with diverse knowledge, background and skill set to a common point of understanding of clients, the regulatory regime and Barclays Wealth's culture begins. But before starting the initial, intensive six-week programme, candidates are required to undertake a remote learning module “i-Embark”.

Mr Smith emphasises that training is not just a matter of letting candidates “buddy up” and undertake “on the job” training. He believes that the “on the job” model alone is not enough.

"The initial training phase of Embark is very intense - a bit like a mini MBA", says Mr Smith. "It is six weeks solid, dawn to dusk, including conventional teaching, distance learning, presentations and so on".

The first two weeks cover the economic backdrop and the financial services world to bring participants to a common level of understanding and much of the Investment Management Certificate content is covered. The next two weeks are based around products and how they are used, risk-based asset allocation, long-short, versus long-only strategies. As well as theory, there are practical exercises, tests and real case studies that aim to build live skills. Every day, there is a mock research analyst meeting at which each participant can be called on at any time to present.

"This keeps them on their toes and ensures that they are up to date with financial markets, as clients would expect them to be in the real world", says Mr Smith.

The final week is about clients and looks at taxation, law in different jurisdictions, trusts, asset allocation and solution forming with a client. Each Friday throughout the programme, Embark participants go out with a sponsor banker and this is where individuals start to build relationships.

The course concludes with an intense assessment day. Mr Kibblewhite points out that after six weeks intensive training, if someone does not make the grade in assessment, then wealth management probably isn't the career for them. He believes that people who have come through the Embark programme are extremely well-equipped for a live situation.

"They are able to quickly understand the latest concepts as well as our culture. We are entirely client focused and individuals that graduate from Embark will only “go live” when they are ready and skilled enough to understand clients' needs, goals and asipirations. This takes time and will vary depending on the individual. The final part of the course aims to bring people up the curve quickly by partnering them with a skilled banker and giving them exposure to live learning and debriefs. When they are ready, Embark graduates might start to manage a portfolio of clients with relatively straightforward needs, closely monitored by a senior banker. Others are skilled enough to immediately build their own book."

Mr Kibblewhite acknowledges that Barclays Wealth is fortunate in that it has the scale and bandwidth to invest in a scheme like Embark:

"A firm needs to have the capital and cash flow to run a programme like Embark properly. Doing it badly only creates a flow of weak talent and puts clients at risk" he says. "However, we estimate that over three years, the individuals that have been recruited through Embark will be accretive in real terms. Additionally, someone who has been through such a comprehensive programme has greater loyalty and is likely to stay for the long term."

In addressing the long term scarcity of talent, Mr Kibblewhite says that the ideal is to build rather than buy to create the shape of the business you want from the "awesome raw talent available".

"We see recruitment as an inverted triangle", he says. "At the moment, front office graduates make up the tip, Embark lateral hires make up the middle portion and existing bankers hired from competitors, the majority. In five years our vision is that the majority of the front office staff we recruit will be graduates, supported with a significant number of Embark recruits, and with experienced bankers being the smallest proportion of recruits. With this model we will have the right balance of qualified professionals to meet the increasingly complex and diverse needs of our client."