how to be a banking and financial services talent magnet.

The 2019 Randstad Employer Branding Research launches at a pivotal moment following the Royal Commission into the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The inquiry discovered vast legal misconduct within Australian financial institutions and the government has responded with a hard-line approach towards institutions that fall below community standards.

Every year, Randstad’s Research dives into what people find attractive in an employer, zooming in on preferred companies from the survey insights of almost 11,000 Australians.

Between the big four banks this year, there has been a reshuffle in most attractive employers with ANZ taking out the top spot as the sector's most attractive employer and last year’s top employer Commonwealth Bank dropping to number five.

Despite a difficult start to the year for organisations across banking and financial service organisations, the sector attractiveness has remained relatively stable, seeing a marginal increase of two per cent from last year. However, with the strong media coverage of the Royal Commission, there’s no wonder why financial health has moved from first place in the sector’s top jobseeker drivers.

From last year’s research, it's clear that job seekers continue to value the latest technologies and the prevalence of career progression opportunities that join financial health as the sector’s top drivers.

For those wanting to attract the best talent in 2019/20, investing in these drivers will place their companies as the go-to choice for job seekers. With our understanding of what job seekers want, here are four trends we believe all finance sectors should focus on now.

commitment to customer trust

With the published findings of the Royal Commission, companies hoping to regain customer trust in their products will also need to consider how their potential candidate pool perceives their reputation.

The organisations showing a real focus on customers and promoting a community first approach will reap the benefits economically and within their recruitment efforts.

candidate movements in job demands

The Banking and Financial service sector has been highlighted as an area that will expect fall out from a combination of the Hayne Royal Commission and increased automation. The heightened regulatory climate of the sector means that certain job families are in high demand and the sector will need to strengthen branding to attract talent for roles that may not be experiencing much popularity.

It is predicted that compliance and operational risk professionals will be one of the most in-demand roles in the banking and financial service sector. Other positions that may see high demand include dispute resolution managers, and project and change managers as recruiters seek candidates to work on transformation projects, as a result of remediation, innovation & digitisation programs in the sector.

At the same time, those working in risk and compliance and other similar positions are the most likely group to be attracted by other sectors given the transferability of their skills.

With 30 per cent of Australians planning to change employer in the next 12 months, organisations should aim to offer competitive salary and benefits, work life balance and job security as the top reasons Aussies stay with an employer.

Companies wishing to fill roles will benefit from investing in their customer on-boarding experiences to ensure the experience is as good as it can be.

As a start, companies can optimise their career sites to be mobile as possible to capture candidates from those applying whilst on a bus to those applying on their laptop.

training and development initiatives

The digitalised world is impacting the workforce and with many workplaces composing of up to five generations as of 2019, training and development programs are necessary to equip and upskill employees. In particular is the new generation entering the sector aged 18-24 years who value good training (46 per cent) when choosing an employer and leave because of lack of career growth opportunities.

Companies educating their employees on banking codes of conduct will greatly benefit with an informed workforce to avoid the steep penalties of government reforms.