Over the past few years, one of the greatest challenges for HR departments has been the talent acquisition and the employee specialization in the Financial industry. Fintech is evolving rapidly, and companies need to stay on top of changes by the use of up-to-date software and hiring top experts in the field. But things are changing so fast that sometimes it’s very hard to keep up, especially for economy majors who need to become technology experts within a few years. Lately, the bitcoin revolution showed us just how much we depend on technology when it comes to developing new financial markets. It also shows, the importance of keeping up to date within changes in your industry and having a broad understanding of new technologies and trends, with everyone from HR, customer service and your sales department, having access to resources and industry knowledge.
Today, the Financial Services (FS) industry is facing several challenges, including rapidly developing technologies, over-regulation, and shifts in consumer spending. This being said, it’s likely to be talent management that becomes fundamental to staying on top in 2021 and future years.
Talent acquisition and management are some of the fastest-growing concerns in the financial industry with a need to upskill employees as a result of industry shifts. According to the 19th Annual Global CEO Survey for PWC, 70% of financial services CEOs see the limited availability of skills as a threat to growth. This is likely a result of changing skill sets as well as a significant increase in competition, which suggests it’s time to rethink talent management strategies and prepare your teams to embrace the developing industry landscape.
Changing demands in the FS industry have highlighted skills gaps, opening up opportunities to train and upskill staff, allowing both individuals and organisations to benefit. It’s not a new idea that employees thrive in a culture wherethey are encouraged to learn, it’s one of the foundations of staff development. Supporting your employees to embrace trends within the industry allows you to stay one step ahead, allowing you to develop a workforce that is informed of developments and changes in consumer activity and can identify opportunities. This investment improves staff retention, productivity, and output, which can only further benefit the wider team and company objectives.
In some circumstances, promotion within a team or an organisation is the natural next step for employee progression but it shouldn’t be considered the only desirable option. Supporting the development of specialised skills, and rewarding this financially, creates new experts within your workforce, but also enables individuals to take responsibility for their next steps. It builds out their expertise with skills and insight relevant to 2021 and the years to come.
Supporting your workforce through specialisation in specific derivative products, for example, upskilling individuals on spread betting, CFD and trading, is a way to embrace industry changes, ensuring talent is fully-prepared for further evolution in the FS industry.
Successful employee relations rely on embracing the notion that each employee will have a different inclination and drive. Understanding an employee’s ambitions, interests, and skills within the FS industry, and providing training and support in this area is something that both improves your company culture and can be maximised for growth.
In light of changes to the sector, some traditional companies will likely struggle to sustain competitive relevance, however, if opportunities are seized, this presents a chance to re-engage with the workforce and customers.
Developing talent to be able to adapt to challenges is likely to be the cornerstone to success in people management in the coming years. Especially in the FS industry, where change is happening so rapidly, upskilling your workforce encourages them to be forward-thinking and entrepreneurial, providing momentum for your organisation to be ready to maximise on opportunities.
According to an Accenture study from 2017, only the financial companies that overcome the classical bureaucratic management models will be able to stay on top, with liquid workforce that can learn new technologies within its core company.