The incompetency of new brokers at ACB securities company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Nguyen Xuan Anh

THE INCOMPETENCY OF NEW
BROKERS AT ACB SECURITIES
COMPANY
MASTER OF BUSINESS

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Nguyen Xuan Anh

THE INCOMPETENCY OF NEW
BROKERS AT ACB SECURITIES
COMPANY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Tran Phuong Thao
Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019


Executive summary
Every company has their owned problem. Defining the existing problem that cause bad
impact on business is not easy. ACBS is known as one of the top securities companies in

Viet Nam. Recent years, ACBS has faced some downtrend in market shares and shortage
in human resources. The purpose of this study is to identify problem at ACB Securities
Company (ACBS), what issues ACBS is facing affect its business performance. From
using many techniques such as collecting data, in-depth interviews with related
shareholders, conducting surveys, etc. this study discovers what happen at ACBS and
give solutions to solve main problem. This study attempts to answer the relationship
between main problem and cause lead to the impact on business. By careful evaluate four
possible problems include benefit, sales pressure, career development and incompetency
of new employees, incompetency of new employees occurs as main problem contribute
mainly to the failure in business performance. Recruitment process, incorporate between
team members or inappropriate training program can cause to this problem. By
conducting deep interview of stakeholders, the research define inappropriate training
program as main cause. ACBS did not consider the value of training and formal training
activities did not invest much in business strategy
After evaluating some possible solutions such as send current trainer to attend outside
course in order to improve their teaching skill, create a new training department or
outsource trainers from outside. Best solution will enhance the business performance with
less change in company structure. In case of ACBS the combination of improve quality
of current trainers by attend outside course and outsource professional for difficult
training part is best fit to business strategy.


Table of contents
Page
Executive summary ..........................................................................................................iii
CHAPTER 1: Company overview ................................................................................. 1
1.1. ACBS development history ........................................................................................ 1
1.2. Organizational structure ............................................................................................. 2
1.3. Core activities in 2018 ................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: Problem identification ............................................................................ 4

2.1. Symptoms ................................................................................................................... 4
2.1.1. Fall to attract new employees as entry levels ..................................................... 4
2.1.2. High turnover rate of new staffs.......................................................................... 6
2.2. Problem analysis and problem mess........................................................................... 7
2.3. Possible problems ....................................................................................................... 8
2.3.1. Incompetency of new brokers ............................................................................. 8
2.3.2. Unattractive benefit ............................................................................................. 9
2.3.3. Working pressure ................................................................................................ 9
2.3.4. Unclear career development .............................................................................. 10
2.4. Main problem: Incompetency of new brokers.......................................................... 10
2.5. Main problem definition ........................................................................................... 12
2.6. Justification the importance of main problem .......................................................... 12
2.6.1. Shortage of young human resources ................................................................. 13
2.6.2. Staff unproductivity .......................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 3: Cause validation .................................................................................... 18
3.1. Cause and effect tree................................................................................................. 18
3.2. Possible causes ......................................................................................................... 18


➢ Inappropriate training program ........................................................................ 18
➢ Ineffective recruitment process ........................................................................ 18
➢ Incorporate between team members ................................................................ 19
3.3. Main cause: Inappropriate training program ............................................................ 21
3.4. Validate main cause ................................................................................................. 25
CHAPTER 4: Solution design ...................................................................................... 28
4.1. Alternative solution .................................................................................................. 28
4.1.1. Solution 1: Improve the quality of trainees through oust side training teaching
method courses ........................................................................................................... 28
4.1.2. Solution 2: Establish a new training team/department by hiring new trainees
who have experience in teaching ............................................................................... 30

4.1.3 Solution 3: Outsource trainers ............................................................................ 31
4.2. Solution suggestion................................................................................................... 32
4.3. Solution selection: .................................................................................................... 34
4.3.1. Solution justification ....................................................................................... 34
4.4. Action plan ............................................................................................................... 35
4.5 Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 36
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 38


List of figures
Figure 1: ACBS’s organizational structure ...................................................................... 2
Figure 2: Statistic of Trade Pro program in 2017 and 2018 .............................................. 5
Figure 3: Number of interns and new employees from internship program from 20152018 ................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 4: Employee turnover rate from 2015 – 2016 ........................................................ 7
Figure 5: Employee population by age in 2017............................................................... 13
Figure 6: Employee population by age in 2018............................................................... 13
Figure 7: Age of employees at ACBS, SSI and VN Direct in 2017................................ 14
Figure 8: The gap between target and real number of brokers from 2016 – 2018 .......... 15
Figure 9: ACBS market shares from 2015 – 2018 .......................................................... 16
Figure 10: The training evaluation at ACBS ................................................................... 27
Figure 11: The application in job of employees after training ....................................... 27


List of tables
Table 1: Interview summary 1: recruitment process ....................................................... 20
Table 2: Interview summary 2: corporate between team members................................. 21
Table 3: Number of training program in 2018 ................................................................ 23
Table 4: The comparison between three solutions ......................................................... 34
Table 5: Action plan of selection solutions ..................................................................... 36

APPENDIX
APPENDIX 1: Research method summary ..................................................................... 41
APPENDIX 2: Interview transcript 1 .............................................................................. 43
APPENDIX 3: Interview transcript 2 .............................................................................. 47
APPENDIX 4: Interview transcript 3 .............................................................................. 49
APPENDIX 5: Interview transcript 4 .............................................................................. 50
APPENDIX 6: Interview transcript 5 .............................................................................. 51
APPENDIX 7: Interview transcript 6 .............................................................................. 52
APPENDIX 8: Interview transcript 7 .............................................................................. 53
APPENDIX 9: Interview transcript 8 .............................................................................. 54


CHAPTER 1: Company overview
1.1.

ACBS development history:

ACB Securities Company (ACBS) is a financial service company was established in 2000
as a 100% owned by ACB Commercial Bank under business license No. 06.UBCK
GPHDKD issued by State Securities Commission of Viet Nam. The initial investment
was up to VND 43 billion. ACSB has increased its investment fifth times during 18 years
operation:
− In 2005 ACBS changed its total investment for the first time, increased to VND
100 billion
− In 2006 ACBS the total investment increased for the second time to VND 250
billion.
− In 2007 the total investment changed for the third time to VND 500 billion.
− In 2008, the total investment increased to VND 1,000 billion for the fourth time
− In 2009, the total investment increased to VND 1,500 billion for the fifth time

At the same year in 2009, ACBS announced its brand positioning with three core values:
− Trustworthiness: being transparent and careful, always focusing on ensuring
customer interests
− Friendliness: being gentle and understanding, bringing satisfaction to customers
− Flexibility: being flexible with customer needs, adaptive to market change,
developing and applying new technology for the highest benefit of customers
Since its establishment, ACBS has been authorized by the State Securities Commission of
Viet Nam and has 6 mains securities service products in accordance with the prevailing
laws:
− Securities brokerage
− Securities dealing
− Securities trading
− Securities underwriting
− Securities investment advisory
1


− Securities investment portfolio management
ACBS vision and mission is bringing the best service with modern model of investment
bank to customers. ACBS take pride in contributing to development of transparent and
professional standards for securities industry, as well as the overall financial market (1).
1.2.

Organizational structure:

During its development, ACBS has increased its branches include one central branch in
District 1, Ho Chi Minh City and nine other branches and two transaction offices all over
Viet Nam. ACBS owned by Asia Commercial Bank (ACB). Under ACB there are some
main Boards to ensure ACBS operation complies with ACB policy and government such
as: Supervisory board, Financial Audit Board, Risk management board, Human resources

and benefits board, Board of ALCO, ACB Capital management company limited
(ACBC).

Figure 1: ACBS’s organizational structure
Source: ACBS annual report
2


The company structure divided into 5 main divisions which are investment banking
division, brokerage and investment division, business supporting division, supporting
division and operation division. Company structure improves the organizational model of
its branch network in order to provide a more precise distinction between sales and
operational activities. Each division has its own mission and task related to their role like
sales, operation, supporting and back office duty. Classification between divisions helps
ACBS enhance business operation and clear job description as well as easier for
management.
1.3.

Core activities in 2018:

ACBS continues to take focus on retail brokerage operation as the foundation, in
conjunction with strengthening institutional brokerage and proprietary trading. ACBS also
focus on developing information technology with new products and flexible margin
trading policy.

Offering customers the best services, ACBS has the regular system

upgrade; fast and convenient transaction as well as IT system investment. To enhance the
brand positioning in the market, in 2018 ACBS has many activities to connect investors,
brokers and new graduated students who have interest in financial industry. ACBS had

successfully launched TRADE PRO competition. This is a contest for both academic and
practical, offer many opportunities for fresh graduated students. Furthermore, at the end
of 2018 ACBS continued to hold TOP TRADER program. Unlike Trade Pro, Top Trader
is for professional investors compete in financial market. The program had increased
ACBS brand positioning and enhanced the trading and investment of investors at ACBS.

3


CHAPTER 2: Problem identification
2.1. Symptoms:
Many companies are spending lots of time dealing with problem. The purpose of this
research is find out the problem occurs in ACBS to help its business perform smoothly
and increase the productivity. In business and life, we tend to notice the symptoms of a
problem before we understand its cause. Through discussing with some core managers as
well as staffs at ACBS we see that they have some business decline. The writer focuses
on the retail brokerage division who handle the retail customers. At ACBS the retail
brokerage division takes more than 50% of total employees. The writer finds out two
symptoms that need to be noticed:
• Firstly, fall to attract new employees as entry level
• High turnover rate of new employees
This part will go deeper to explain more about these symptoms
2.1.1. Fall to attract new employees as entry level
➢ Fall to attract new graduated students from Trade Pro program
TRADE PRO competition is a contest for both academic and practical, offer many
opportunities for fresh graduated students. The contestants are third year and fourth year
students who interested in finance. The purpose is to create talent for future human
resources. In the contest, every candidate was given two million VND in securities
account. In certain period, they have to trade and use these initial investments to gain
more profit. At the final round, 40 candidates have highest profits will present in front of

the juries about their investment strategies. Forty contestants in the final round will have
chance to become a trainee in ACBS and will be trained in skills as well as knowledge to
become brokers in future. In 2017 and 2018 Trade Pro was successfully held and picked
the top forty candidates to attend the trainee program. After the trainee program, just two
of the top 40 agrees to work for company and becomes employee at ACBS in 2017 and in
2018 the number is three. Below is the statistic of candidate in trainee program:

4


450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

2017
2018

Number of
candidates

Trainees

Official

broker(s)

Expect

Figure 2: Statistic of Trade Pro program in 2017 and 2018
Whereas:
− Number of candidates: total number of candidates during the program
− Trainee: number of trainees are qualified to attend trainee program
− Official broker(s): number of trainees become employees at ACBS
− Expect: the expectation of employees from Trade Pro
By launching Trade Pro, ACBS expect can finding new employees from fresh graduated
students. The purpose is to train them and build a network can provide talent for future
human resource. By evaluating data, there is a big gap between the expectation of
employees and the number of real number. From nearly 400 registers, ACBS will pick 40
candidates who have best result to become trainees at ACBS. ACBS sees young people as
a subject of human resources in developing and expanding its business. Trade Pro is seen
as potential source and program to find out young talents from fresh graduated students
However, launching Trade Pro to attract more employees was not successful as
expectation.
➢ Large number of interns left company
Every year ACBS has large amount of intern students. An internship is an official
program offered by ACBS to potential employees. Interns work either part time or full
time at a company for a certain period of time. Internships are most popular with
5


undergraduates or graduate students who work between one to four months and have a
goal to gain practical work or research related experience. ACBS thinks this is a good
way to find out talents. This is because interns already have an idea of the inner workings
of ACBS. Moreover, they’re familiar with the business’s trends, goals, and structure.

They are easier to get into their job role and do not take much time to learn. By observing
ACBS’s daily business researcher saw that ACBS has lots of interns who work part time
for ACBS. Every team has their own interns, takes responsibility for training and
providing a complete educational experience. Usually, at the end of internships, the team
leader will offer them to work for ACBS. But the number interns agree to work for ACBS
is small and most of them move to work for other competitors like SSI or HSC. Below is
the chart showing number of interns from 2015-2018

60
50
Number of interns

40
30

Number of new employees
from internship program

20
10
0
2015

2016

2017

2018

Figure 3: Number of interns and new employees from internship program from 20152018

From period 2017 to 2018, ACBS want to expand market share and expand business
branch so it need more new employees. This is the reason why the number of interns in
2017 and 2018 increase rapidly. The retain intern ratios is below 15% as the entry level
hires.
2.1.2. High turnover rate of new employees:
New employee or New hire” mean new employees within 4 months working at ACBS.
Meanwhile “entry level” means position for fresh graduated students or employees do not
6


have much experience in stock and finance market. The probation period for new
employees at ACBS is two months. The probationary period allows both employee and
employer to see if they are a ‘good fit’ to each other. For employees, probationary periods
are there to see if they enjoy working for the employers and whether the employee is a
suitable match for their skills and abilities. The chart below show the statistic of new
employees and number of new employees have 1-6 working months quit job

50
Number of new brokers
(experience + non
experience)

40
30

Number of new brokers as
enty level

20
10

Number of new employees
have 1-6 working months
quit job

0
2015

2016

2017

2018

Figure 4: Employees turnover rate from 2015 - 2016
2.2. Problem analysis and problem mess:
Lack of experience
Employees
confused about job

Fall to attract
new employees

Incompetent new
brokers

Unskilled employees
High sales target
High competitors
High new hire

turnover rate

Inflexible working hour
Low commission

Working pressure

Unattractive benefit
High competitors

Low salary
Feeling unmotivated
Unclear policy

itors
Unclear career
development
7


From two symptoms related to human resources matter, especially from non-experienced
staffs. The writer interviewed some brokers and related departments at ACBS to find out
the problem occur in ACBS. In the problem mess, there are many responses about the
problem. For example, when researcher interviewed Mr. Thien - a broker team leader of
ACBS about the reason why new staffs do not have long term commitment with ACBS,
he answered “ACBS does not have a clear strategy for training new staffs and does not
focus on personal development”. Or Ms. Dung – a broker at ACBS - she responded to the
same question “the company set unreasonable sales target for brokers”. And some people
complaint on the benefits of ACBS like low salary or commission. The writer also
interviewed former employees to find out the problem. Mrs. Duong quit the job for one

month and works for SSI (one of competitors of ACBS), she replied she did not see any
chance to develop in future so she decided to quit the job. Among many problems was
provided from many different perspectives, there are four problems that need attention:
incompetency of new employees, working pressure, unattractive benefits and unclear
career development.
2.3. Possible problem
According to Sandhya (2) there are many factors affect the employee turnover rate such
as culture of organization, compensation, career development. Carsten & Spector (3)
suggested there is a big ability that employees leave job due to the dissatisfaction in their
job. As stated by Mathew (4), the match between employee skills, personality and job
demand can increase business performance. According to the collective of interviews with
employees at ACBS, in general, the company is encountering four issues which are
benefits, career development, high working pressure, specifically the incompetency of
new employees
2.3.1. Incompetency of new brokers
Competency are define by Boyatiz (5) as “an underlying characteristic of a person that
could be a motive, trait, and skill, aspect of one’s self-image or social role, or a body of
knowledge which he or she uses”. In contrast, Incompetence means the inability to do a
8


job to a satisfactory standard. Cordin (6) reported “one in four employees do not
understand certain aspects of their job role and major knowledge gaps remain
unaddressed in many organizations”. Mr.Khoi – sale manager of ACBS evaluated new
brokers are lack of experience and need to improve to adapt job requirements. New
brokers are young and usually they do not have lots of experience to perform their job.
They are unconfident and afraid of receiving new challenges.

Therefore, human

resources competencies are seen as critical factor to create competitive advantages
2.3.2. Unattractive benefits:
Meanwhile, some employees complained about their low salary and commissions. Mr.
Quang – a candidate who denied an offer of ACBS because the salary he received is not
enough for his living cost. He said “ACBS is a good company but the base salary offer for
junior broker is not suitable for me to live in Ho Chi Minh City. Meanwhile the
commission is fluctuated depend on sales performance. That is so risky. Furthermore, I
have received other offer with higher benefit”. Employees with young age they tend to
more active and love working in flexible working environment. Especially sales person
whose job is related to customers need dynamic working hour and other additional benefit
like healthcare. Because of this nature, brokers need more space and flexible time to
connect and develop their customer network. An intern at ACBS – Mr. Phong complained
“I think I will quit the job here because there are many strictly policy that brokers must
follow. For example, whenever employees need to go out to meet customers or open new
accounts they have to tell their manager and the working time is inflexible”. Other
complains about the benefits do not improve through recent years. The base salary for
broker is unchanged two recent years and the commission does not have many
improvements. Meanwhile, the living condition and inflation rate increase every year.
2.3.3. Working pressure:
Stock broker is a pressure career. They have to face with many challenges from high sales
target. The initial quotas that brokers face are usually the hardest to reach most firms
continually reset these quotas and expect their brokers to make them on an ongoing basis.
For young and less experienced brokers, the challenge is bigger because they do not have
9


many experience and customers. The beginning always difficult and those who bear these
pressures can suffer till the end. Ms. Thao decided to quit the job after short period
because she cannot bear the pressure from sales target. Furthermore, high competitors
make the development of customers is more difficult. Ms. Thao said “stock market is

competitive market and require brokers work really hard to increase the market share”.
Therefore, many brokers must rely upon business from friends and family in order to get
started. New brokers can also expect to spend many nights and weekends pounding the
pavement and marketing themselves.
2.3.4. Unclear career development
A career system will create employees' loyalty and longevity. New employees must see
the benefit from career development and the chance to get to higher position. Mrs. Duong
quit the job within one month and works for SSI (one of competitors of ACBS), she
replied she did not see any chance to develop in future so she decided to quit the job.
Unclear career development may lead to unmotivated employees and they will make a
question why they stick with this company while there are no chances for them to
increase their value. Clear promotion path is a way to show the respect to employee
contributions and appreciate their value. There are three level a broker can reach in there
career at ACBS. A junior employees or sales person who do not have securities brokerage
certificate will begin as a customer service position. Employees have securities brokerage
certificate become “broker”. A senior broker who has experiences and matures in capacity
become a “team leader” lead 4-5 staffs. A sales manager supervises 3-4 sales teams. For
broker and team leader position, each position is divided into three levels. Depend on
sales target they will be promoted or demoted.
2.4. Main problem: Incompetency of new brokers
Among four possible problems are listed, incompetency of new employees acquired by
manager level aspect and the others from employee perspective. The following part will
check the feasibility of each possible problem:
Unclear career development: When asking employees if they can fulfill to the job
requirements, 46% of them said they meet the basic requirements, 15% said they
10


completely meet the requirements, 5% evaluated themselves perform over the
expectation, 34% said that they need time to familiar with the job. With the group that

they complain about unclear career development, there is a additional interview with their
cases. When asking Ms. Duong who quit the job because she did not recognize any career
development for her future, she said this is a high competitive job, if she work at ACBS
she will do not have change to develop in higher position. So the researcher asked about
how many percent she thinks she meet the job requirement, the respond is about 50%. By
evaluating, this not about ACBS does not give chance for employees to develop, it is
about the quality and ability of employees prevents their development.
High working pressure: with the group of people who quit the job at ACBS and move
to competitors of ACBS such as SSI or HSC, they complain about the working pressure at
ACBS. By considering other competitors, ACBS or other companies have the same
pressure. So why former employees cannot bear the working pressure at ACBS but they
move to other company with similar industry and pressure. Among securities companies,
SSI and HSC are evaluated as companies have highest working pressure, with active and
dynamic team as well as clear strategy, the elimination is high. However, their employees
are trained and equipped enough skill and knowledge so they can suffer with pressure.
Unattractive benefit: comparing with industry, ACBS is paying higher than industry
average. Brokers have 2 incomes include base salary and sales commission. Base salary
provide employees with average living condition and commission based on the result of
customer trading fees. If employees get more trading fees from customers the higher
commission they will receive. Sales commission is similar between securities companies.
Furthermore, ACBS has changed and improved the commission policy for brokers
recently, so this is not the main reason make new employees left company
Incompetent employees: employee competencies are those characteristics or traits that
are acquired by employees such as knowledge, skill, ability that are differentiate from
average performance. Therefore, unqualified to perform job takes the highest percentage
in which can be a proof of the main problem for high rate of leaving. In order to help
their clients buy and sell the right stocks at the right time, stock brokers must be able to
11

analyze the particular investment and tailor it to the client’s needs. The better advice a
stock broker can give the client, the more money the client will make and subsequently,
the more trades they will make. Brokers must quickly learn the complexities of placing
trades and orders, and the rules that govern this process. They must also assimilate a great
deal of administrative detail pertaining to handling cash, paperwork, and securities within
a very short time, in addition to keeping up with market and product news on a daily
basis. Those who recommend individual securities must also learn how to research their
offerings effectively. Currently, new brokers at ACBS are those who just graduated from
universities, they have background in finance or related industries. They are new and
unfamiliar and have less experience in securities market. In order to help them understand
company process and products, ACBS needs to equip them to improve their ability.
2.5. Main problem definition:
McDowall suggested where employees were lacking key skills they cannot afford to
perform in their current job (7). Competent employees are important for organization
performance, company need to identify the best way to retain qualified employees. When
employees are new and they do not have enough skills as well as experiences, they need
to be equipped by the supporting of company. Once they got their tools, they will feel
confident to perform their job. Sekiguchi (8) define person job fit as the match between
employee’s abilities and job demand or the desired person and the attribute of a job.
Competency is best described as the demonstration of acquired skills against an expected
outcome. Competency is achieved through the combination of multiple levels of
knowledge acquisition. This could include training courses, prior education, skills
development and more. New employees are lack of skills and experience, they do not
know what to do with their job and how they can perform tasks smoothly. Competencies
are a significant source of data relating to employees' qualifications at the individual level
and in the business. Therefore, incompetency of employees leads to many bad
performances.
2.6. Justification the importance of main problem

12

From many symptoms, interviews as well as many surveys, the main problem of ACBS is
incompetency of new brokers. Experience and knowledge are tools for organization to
support employees attaining and maintaining their ability to do their job. For new
employees, the first compulsory thing is to connect, familiar with colleagues, procedures
and working environment of an organization. They have to understand the basic nature of
their job to overcome the failure feeling. If they keep these negative feeling they cannot
do well their tasks. As a result, this main problem causes many consequences for ACBS’s
business.
2.6.1. A shortage of young human resources
In the high competitive industry like finance industry, the expansion of market share and
develop wide business network is essential. From 2016 until now ACBS strategy is
expand its business and open more branches so the need of large number of new brokers
is inevitable. Furthermore, ACBS aims to focus on retail brokerage so the demand in
human resource is high.

Employee population by
age in 2017

Employee population by
age in 2018
10%

12%

Under 30
29%

Under 30

39%

30-40
59%

Above 40

Figure 5: Employee population by age in 2017

30-40
51%

Figure 6: Employee population by age in 2018

As you can see in the chart, the age between 30 to 40 takes 51 percent and under the age
of 30 only take 39 percent. More than fifty percent of employees are above 30 years old.
Meanwhile, more than fifty percent of brokers at SSI are under 30 years old (9) (10). The
13


data shows that the workforce at ACBS is aging. There will be a shortage in young
brokers to expand its business. Compare with its competitors like SSI and HSC, these
competitors have the younger workforce.

Age population of ACBS, SSI and VNDirect in 2017
70%
60%
50%
40%

30%
20%
10%
0%

SSI
VNDirect
ACB

Under 30

30 - 40

Above 40

Figure 7: Age of employees at ACBS, SSI and VNDirect in 2017

ACBS has the largest number of employees above 40 years old and smallest number of
employees under 30 years old. As Mr. Khoa, sales manager of ACBS commented the
brokers of ACBS have the average age of 35, compare with the market, the team is aging
so ACBS need to rejuvenate the human resources. He also complaint the sales teams are
becoming stagnant if compare with SSI or HSC. Through talking with some brokers and
observing the working style of them, the writer sees that some brokers are inactive and
seem like unmotivated. The motivation in working is important factor contribute to the
high business performance. Study showed that training helps new employees understand
the structure, function and value of an organization. It also affects the employee’s attitude
so they shape the initial thought of new employees and make them feel more connective
with their job (11).

14

70
60
50
Target Number of
brokers

40
30

Total number of brokers

20
10
0
2016

2017

2018

Figure 8: The gap between target and real number of brokers from 2016 – 2018

There are always the gap between number of brokers needed and the number of new
brokers recruited from 2016 to 2018. Furthermore, ACBS is building its strategy is more
active and flexible so the demand of new staffs is increased a lot. Due to the inappropriate
training programs, the attractiveness of career at ACBS is to become less attractive. Large
number of new brokers left during probation period make the recruitment is more
challenge. Although ACBS is ranked as one of securities companies has good reputation,

the recruitment is still difficult. As a result, the shortage of human resources causes some
bad effect on business performance. When people leave a company, although they are
new or old employees, it often affects to others employees. This may stem from
overworked employees who have had increased workloads and responsibilities due to a
lack of an active or trained workforce. Gaps in staff mean there aren't the correct number
of team members to do the job, this means productivity simply drops.
2.6.2. Staff unproductivity:
The mental abilities tend to decline during adulthood and it occurs for both low and high
ability level at the same level. The decreased cognitive abilities of older workers can lead
to lower productivity, unless their longer experience and higher levels of job knowledge
can outweigh the decline in mental abilities (12). Many studies show that old employees
are less productivity than young employees (13) (14). Therefore, the shortage of young
broker impact on the business performance as shown in the graph below:
15


ACBS Market share
5
4
3

ACBS
Market share

2
1
0

2015

2016

2017

2018

Figure 9: ACBS market shares from 2015 – 2018

Market share of ACBS in 2015 is 4.5% and continued decrease from 2016 to 2018. In
2018 the market share is only 3.46%. In the high competitive market, many securities
entered to this market so maintaining its position is difficult. Therefore, ACBS must have
enough human resources as well as develop the customer network to adapt to the change in
the market. The pressure of expanding market share and open new branches make ACBS
need more brokers to task. However, ACBS is facing its challenge of develop young and
dynamic broker teams who is the core successful factor of expanding its business.
Sometimes, old employees seem to be inactive, ACBS needs to add more young brokers to
improve active working environment. Full-service brokers offer a variety of services,
including market research, investment advice, and retirement planning, on top of a full
range of investment products. For that, investors can expect to pay higher commissions for
their trades. A business owner looks at an employee's behavior to determine his ultimate
productivity and contributions to the business. Positive attitudes among employees make
workdays more enjoyable. Tasks are performed to a higher standard and without
complaint. Young people have many ideas and ways to get customers. For example, young
brokers at ACBS find many ways to connect with customers by using modern technology
and application. A competent broker will know the details of several alternative lenders.
Their knowledge is not limited to just the well-known ones. Furthermore, they know what
types of enterprises each lender focuses on. So they create a strong customer data base and
find new customers. Meanwhile, experienced brokers tend to maintain relationships with
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current customers and do not focus on develop new customers. This is also a disadvantage
for ACBS in expanding market share strategy. In 2019, if ACBS will not improve its
training programs these problems still happened and it not easy to compete with other
competitors who have advantage in young sale teams.

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