Human capital management
Ben Auty,
organisation and capability director, Lloyds Banking Group.
The industry is clearly awake to these difficulties. “What has been great over the last 12-18 months is the engagement from financial institutions,” Marks says. A case in point is Nationwide Building Society, which in 2021 announced it was organising an internship scheme in partnership with SWIoT. The institute, for its part, was founded to deliver timely, relevant, industry-based STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning in a range of tech-related areas, including cybersecurity, software development and DevOps.
DBS Bank is another institution looking to upskill its workforce. In 2020, it said it would train some 8,600 employees in emerging areas such as design thinking, data and analytics, AI, machine learning and agile practices, as part of ‘our range of initiatives to embrace the future of work amid the changes brought about by the pandemic.’. The previous year, BBVA said it was reskilling its staff with ‘new strategic skills’ to ‘reinforce, update or deepen their knowledge in the skills identified as pivotal to promote the transformation and the future of the bank’. This appetite for learning is further evidenced by the news that the Bank of England recently partnered with the Warwick Business School (WBS) to upskill bankers worldwide. Delivered remotely, the Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation programme, offering a master’s degree in Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation, covers comparative central banking and financial regulation, as well as big data and monetary data. Not to be outdone, Lloyds has also launched a Data and Tech Academy, which Auty says will reskill colleagues already in data and technology roles. He believes it can help the group increase the technical literacy of its workforce, allowing individuals to follow pathways to reskill and upskill. The long-term ambition is to create a single portal for diagnosing learning needs, connecting and collaborating and
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
transferring knowledge. Other initiatives include apprenticeships aimed at those entering the labour market, as well as for people eager to switch careers. Currently, the group has more than 1,000 apprentices working across its business. It also introduced the ‘Reboot’ hackathon brand, holding events held across the UK which are attracting more than 1,000 attendees each time, as well as a Returners Programme to help people who have spent more than 18 months out of employment get back into work.
These are just a few ways the bank, and sector, hopes to address the skills gap and prepare for a very different financial markets future. “As an organisation that’s undertaking the UK’s largest financial services transformation,” Auty says, “we know our people and their skills and capabilities are key to increasing the pace and performance of what we deliver for our customers. Our ability to react quickly, identify emerging customer needs and build the capabilities required will be critical for us and our future success.”
Given the increasing power the talent pool wields, up- and reskilling may be a logical solution. It can also prove more cost-effective than simply hiring. Research suggests employers can save tens of thousands of pounds per employee if they encourage them to learn – even as job satisfaction is increasingly linked to learning new skills. In July 2023, Ernst & Young published a paper urging banks to ‘win over a Gen Z workforce’. It said that by the middle of this decade, those in their 20s and early 30s will make up around a quarter (27%) of the workforce. If banks are therefore to attract and retain this vital demographic, they need to adapt, and even undergo radical change. Modernising banking jobs and transforming the learning experience are among the steps needed – something institutions themselves seem increasingly aware of. ●
Darran Marks, managing director, Swindon and Wiltshire Institute of Technology.
£49,100
The amount created in cost savings per employee in financial services if employers reskill rather than recruit.
PwC
1.2 EY 37
The median number of years someone currently aged 20–24 years stays with their employer. That compares with the 9.8 median for a person aged 55–64.
Studio Romantic/
Shutterstock.com
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