Increased competition from companies outside of the banking
industry means that expectations of employees about career
progression and working conditions will shift. Parts of the
banking industry (particularly on the investment side) have
historically worked on a ‘churn and burn’ model, taking in
top graduates and burning them out by the age of 30. Banks
are beginning to think about whether they can challenge this
model, and to see whether they can keep talent longer. The
loss of knowledge, time and training through whole cohorts
leaving is incredibly costly to an organisation.
3.5.1. Skills gap
The banks we interviewed for our research have told us that
the industry is facing a massive challenge in terms of a skills
gap. Banks we interviewed said that the younger generation
– those currently in and who have just left university – are less
keen on working in banking, and partly ascribed this to the
bad press from the global financial crisis and its aftermath.
Until the early 21st century, bright graduates always saw
banking as a solid, stable and respectable profession with
high career prospects – yet now a career in banking has
fallen out of vogue. Research by the Great Place to Work
organisation and Fortune
(see table opposite)
have shown
that around the world, banks and financial organisations
rarely appear in the top ten employers of choice for the
region
7
– with technology firms dominating. Is workplace able
to help fill the gap?
Research has shown that younger generations actually want
to come back to the office – to meet people, hear things
going on around them, and to learn from others. Which
means banks need to redefine our workspaces as meeting
spaces rather than purely containers for work.
Financial HR leaders are already investing their resources
in understanding these next generations and building
their future workplace to make the most of this new talent.
This new talent has been broadly categorised into two
generational waves. The Millennials, who already have a
strong presence in the workplace, and Generation Z who will
be entering the workplace around 2020.
For financial institutions attracting and retaining talent
remains high on the agenda and a key success factor. As the
global economy improves, banks are beginning to refocus
on talent at the same time as centring their businesses on the
customer. As one bank explained, “Because the job market in
banking has been stagnant for the last few years, the focus
has been on retaining talent and building for economic
growth. But we will now see a return to the war for talent”.
Banks are now competing against the big technology firms
in the ’war for talent’ – up to 50% of their employees may
now be in technology related positions – and so have
been introducing organisational cultures, technologies and
workplace designs which are designed to attract, keep and
make the most of the best talent. Banks are now competing
for talent with businesses that allow flexible working such as
working at home, and so have to adapt to match this choice
and ‘work-life balance’ provision.
There is also a generational shift taking place. Not only are
there four generations in the workplace at the moment
– more than there ever has been – but the increasing
proportion of decision makers that are from generation Y
will change organisational cultures significantly. It will not
be long before there are five generations at work, and an
even greater need for different generations to work and
collaborate together. One bank summed up the view of many
of the banks we spoke to, explaining that, “we do not feel we
have utilised the potential of having four generations working
together to drive greater productivity and innovation through
inter-generational collaboration and mentoring”.
Employees of generation Y are less concerned with money
and more concerned with work-life balance than Generation X.
This runs contrary to the way in which banks used to reward
and retain staff – the traditional high pay and high bonus
culture may no longer be sufficient. A YouGov survey in
January 2012 asked graduates what made a good employer
– the top response was ‘a good working environment’, with
82%, followed by ‘good salary and benefits’ with 81%, then
‘good work-life balance’ on 76%, ‘training and development
opportunities’ with 69% and ‘career development
opportunities’ with 65%
6
.
3.5. Talent
7.
and
[accessed July 2014]
6.
/ [accessed July 2014]
32
The future of the financial workplace
|
September 2014
