Addressing the Skills Shortage in Financial Services by Better Assessing Internal Talent

For the last two years, PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey has reported a skills shortage across many industries, including Financial Services. The most recent survey launched in February found 48% of financial services CEOs believe the limited availability of key skills is a serious threat to growth.

About 25% of those surveyed have delayed or even cancelled a strategic initiative in the last year because they did not have the right people to carry it out.

Can the skills shortage in Financial Services be alleviated by uncovering the hidden talent residing in your organization?

The skills shortage is real and has been widely reported for a number of years, but how much of the concern can be attributed to the fact that internal talent is not documented and being managed to its full potential? Could it be that desired skills are available, but unknowingly hidden in the organization?

Is the sheer size of the organization challenging your visibility into the range of skills and experiences that each employee offers? Is HR doing all that it can to work with managers to expose the skills required to achieve these important strategic initiatives?

Be the HR Superstar Who Uncovers Hidden Sources of Talent in your Organization

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Something as simple as centralized, online employee profiles can help identify key skills found within your existing workforce. Such employee profiles are easily searchable on attributes like education, internal and external work experience, certifications and licenses, language skills, career goals, and even hobbies and interests.

Much of this information is typically part of an applicant’s resume. After the initial interview process is over and you’ve made a successful hire, how often is the resume ever consulted?

For example: An underwriter in a Boston insurance company may have Portuguese language skills, and a love of travel and new cultures that could greatly complement upcoming growth projects in Brazil. The employee may not ever make these skills and interests known to her manager because it’s not relevant to her day to day job. Nor would she have visibility into future growth plans in emerging markets being formalized at the executive level.

If decision makers aren’t aware of those skills that extend beyond the scope of an employee’s immediate job description, and those skills aren’t found externally, the skills shortage is sure to be felt.

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As an HR professional currently feeling the pain of a skills shortage in Financial Services, the next time a strategic position needs to be filled, ask yourself if you’ve fully exhausted all possibilities of hiring from within. You may be surprised how many qualified internal candidates you have whose relevant skills are yet to be uncovered.

Read how Bank of Oak Ridge is circumventing the skills shortage issue by using talent management best practices to support and track development opportunities for employees.

I also invite you to learn about Halogen Software’s talent management solution for Financial Services. How is your organizing addressing the skills shortage crisis?

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