Employee training is a vital part of my work with advisoryfirms. It's essential to the success of any business that employeesnot only know the job they are expected to do, but also are giventhe training to perform those jobs at the level that is expected ofthem.

Most firm owners understand and embrace this need for training.But there is another equally important component of employeetraining that is often left out of most training programs: the corevalues of their firm, and how those values are translated intoclient services.

Here are the basics that every new employee needs to be taughtabout the firm:

1. Core values. To create a successfulbusiness, as well as a nice place to work, it's important thatevery employee understand what the firm stands for and what'sexpected of them.

This doesn't have to be an elaborate document. Simply put intowriting the basic mission of your firm, the commitment to itsclients, and the type of behavior that's expected of employees andowners, alike.

You might emphasize things like honesty, friendliness,cooperation, etc. And of course, talk about your commitment to yourclients.

2. How those core values translate into clientservice. It's essential that every employeeunderstands what the firm does for its clients and why. Financialadvice may not be curing cancer, but it has a substantial impact onthe lives and happiness of clients, their children and theirrelatives.

3. Understanding the type of client you workwith. Instruct new employees on who the clients are andwhat they want from your firm. This certainly pertains to advisoryfirms with specific types of clients.

Most advisors have spent a significant amount of timeunderstanding their clients' wants, needs, likes, dislikes, etc.The more you can transfer this understanding to your employees, thebetter they will be able to work with the firm's clients — and keepthem happy.

4. The client experience. How do you want yourclients to feel, and what do you do to make them feel that way?

The most successful advisory firms have devoted a considerableamount of time and energy to answering this question — and tocreating a firm around consistently delivering the desiredexperience. Therefore, it's important that every new employee fullyunderstands this experience and exactly how you and your employeescreate it.

5. Advisory philosophy. You don't need toturn every employee into a financial planner and/or an investmentmanager, but they will be much better employees if they understandthe basics of the services that you provide clients.

6. The firm's specialty. While most independentfirms offer an array of financial services, they typically have oneor two services that are the hallmark of the firm.

That means it's important that every employee have a basicunderstanding of this specialty, and be able to talk about itintelligently, at least in general terms.

It also means you must have someone take the time to show newemployees what your firm does and how it does it. Armed with thisknowledge, their jobs will make more sense, too.

Whether it's answering the phone, scheduling appointments,helping clients sort out problems, or managing human resources,everyone in your firm will be much better employees when theyunderstand what everyone else is doing, and why.

7. Take this training seriously. Avoid thecommon three-hour data dump of everything you know — they aren'tgoing to remember half it.

Instead, break new employee training into bite-size pieces, beas clear as possible, and have a number of your senior people takeon various segments.

Remember — training new employees to do their jobs is important.Training them to be good employees of your firm is essential.

Angie Herbers is founder of the consulting firm, AngieHerbers LLL. Email her at [email protected] orcontact her on Twitter @AngieHerbers.