There’s little doubt that the Royal Commission has seen a noticeable change of behaviour in the banking world, both to the way banks treat customers and in their Employee Value Proposition (EVP). With banks capitalising on customer centricity, what does this mean for the future of talent acquisition and retention?

As a heavily regulated industry shored up by millions of dollars of protection in the form of compliance, risk management and fraud detection systems, banks have remained firmly under the spotlight both in terms of conduct and increased regulatory oversight. The evolving economic climate coupled with the pervasiveness of new technologies has brought about a new wave of change and a requirement to fundamentally pivot ways of working. Alternative business model are also constantly being scrutinised.

New innovation requires a different, broader way of thinking and specific expertise to drive this change. Amongst this change, has come about a renewed emphasis on the Employee Value Proposition, that is to say, what attracts new senior talent to the financial services sector. The changing demands and expectations of senior level talent is shifting, as quickly as the market and customer proposition evolves.

Banks and Financial institutions are increasingly reviewing their infrastructure and talent acquisition strategies determine how they can remain competitive in an increasingly challenging and regulated market. Human Resources teams are looking at talent acquisition to understand the benefits and opportunities that attract high calibre individuals, and are re-organising their internal structures and capability matrixes, to match a more innovative and customer centric way of working. The regulatory challenge remains, with organisations looking to offset this necessary speed bump with a mixture of digital transformation and talented individuals, to remain focused on the prize, deeper customer penetration. A clear pathway to enable financial institutions to meet targets, despite increased public and regulatory scrutiny, is to focus on not just the current needs, but how to deliver future value and recruit the right people at a senior level.

Increasingly, organisations should be leaning on a more diverse and agile talent search, taking into account not just skillset, but a diverse range of backgrounds, skills, experience and personality profiles to create connectivity between traditional FS skills and the culture of the organisation. Failure to do so, can create a history of more transactional appointments who don’t possess the innovation or drive to lead the EVP and create a culture of change. Organisations wishing to satisfy stringent change agendas and attract top leadership talent should remain focused on their selection process to meet the evolving criteria of working in a customer led financial institution.

Banking of the future will employ fewer people as traditional customer engagement is digitised, and it stands to reason that therefore, the calibre required of the senior team leading the organisation, will need to be higher than ever before, to support and drive this change.

As experienced, connected Partners to many financial institutions, Omera Partners are driving a revolution for the banking sector to start accessing a new realm of Executive talent, not currently being tapped into.  Through comprehensive search processes, network connectivity and psychometric assessments, these organisations are acquiring talent who are driven to innovate, positively impact on the future experience for staff and customers alike and who bring a fresh, diverse perspective to a heavily regulated market.