Financial Services Segment Burst: Vol 3

In the third volume of the Financial Services Segment Burst, we explore the top trends in the world of work focused on Financial Services. 

Crypto jobs are still in high demand

The highly volatile digital currency market has been facing severe price disruption recently. Nevertheless, the sector continues to grow, creating more job opportunities for specialised financial professionals.

The drop in cryptocurrency valuation has led to widespread layoffs in volume-based companies like Coinbase, but other areas of the industry are seeing a rise in job vacancies. In June 2022, 600 crypto-related jobs were posted on online job boards, compared to 388 in previous months. These crypto-focused jobs include familiar roles like software engineer, HR, legal, marketing, and compliance functions.

Business leaders say that these seemingly contradictory trends are a sign of the industry’s continued development. Talented financial professionals want to be challenged with high tech projects.

Companies must prepare accordingly if crypto-based technologies continue to gain ground in banking and finance.

Although traditional firms are not yet fully invested in crypto technology, they may want to consider the following to compete for top crypto talent:

• Increase digitalisation efforts and technology-based initiatives
• Invest in internal crypto and blockchain business units

Lastly, adding more skill-based roles and sourcing from alternative hiring pools like crypto.jobs and cryptorecruit.com will aid in talent attraction.

Benefits of outsourcing digital transformation

With global inflation at record highs and unstable macroeconomic conditions rattling most industries, firms struggle to develop effective in-house digital transformation programmes. Research shows that more than half of finance leaders don’t feel confident in their organisation’s digital transformation progress, and only 37% have a digital finance strategy in place.

Many companies don’t have the capacity to upskill and reskill workers in digital technology. This leads to slow transformation timelines and minimal return on investment. With little buy in from internal stakeholders, organisations struggle to agree upon a clear digital strategy.

One way firms can optimise digital transformation is to outsource. Some benefits of outsourcing digital transformation initiatives include vendor tech demos to assess current operations and leveraging vendors who can reduce the burden on internal resources.

Business leaders must find ways to enable the digital transition, or they risk losing customers and top talent to innovative competitors. Financial business process outsourcing (BPO) firms can improve service offerings and accelerate digital transformation initiatives. Employers should consult with BPO organisations, and total talent firms like Pontoon, to optimise cost savings and seize opportunities to upskill internal talent.

These high-impact adjustments will increase the success of digital transformation efforts establishing a clear and actionable strategy.

As an HR outsourcing firm, Pontoon delivers tech-enabled talent solutions for our clients that improve time-to-hire while reducing costs.

Case Study: How we enabled a media company to digitally transform

Pontoon collaborated with a European media group to optimise their digital offering, leveraging new supply chains to evolve tech enabled processes.

The results:

• Total talent customer savings of €3m
• Increased ability to engage tech worker market and speed to change

Read the full case study here.

Reimagining the future finance worker

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US financial activities have added 17,000 jobs in August and over 200,000 in 2022. This represents a 95,000-job increase compared to 2020.

In the EU, employment in global financial services continued to trend up in July, reporting just over 5.5m employed in Financial Services and Insurance. This upward movement mirrors a global rise in demand for digital roles in the financial sector.

Growing demand for finance workers means tougher competition among employers to attract and retain talent. Organisations must understand evolving employee expectations. By meeting worker needs, companies can avoid talent shortages and the practise of quiet quitting. So, what do finance workers of today want?

Based on industry research, financial services workers want:

• Flexible work schedules – Over 70% of workers want flexibility and remote work options moving forward
• Fair compensation – The potential to earn more based on skillsets and certifications
• Meaningful work – Making a positive impact on the local community
• Career growth – Regular feedback and upskilling opportunities to learn more about the finance industry
• Recognition – Praise for delivering results and completing complex tasks

Employers must reimagine their future workforce and address how, when, and why work is done. Leaders can actively listen to their employees and take a proactive approach when engaging talent. This can be done by regularly asking for worker feedback to gauge engagement and changing needs.

Organisations can collect feedback with quarterly surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one meetings with managers. If your company struggles to retain talent, exit interviews can provide insight into why employees leave and how to entice them to stay.