Attracting talent for business growth is critical. Not just any talent, though. A growing business needs resilient employees. We explain more in this week’s post.We’re living in a time of uncertainty; Rising inflation rates, redundancy and potential recessions are causing issues for employees and their employers.
To create and maintain a productive, high-performing finance team, you need more than just employees with the right skills. You need team members who demonstrate resilience. Resilience is essential for any employee in today’s fast-paced and stressful working environment.
It ensures staff members can bounce back from challenges, adapt to changes, and deal with mounting pressure. Resiliency is particularly essential in the financial sector, where regulations, technology, and standards constantly change.
The question is, how do you hire and nurture a resilient, adaptable workforce?
The Value of Resilience in the Financial Workforce
Resilience in the financial workforce refers to an employee’s ability to accommodate change, respond positively to challenges, and preserve performance in difficult times. This is particularly important now when the financial and business environments are volatile.
The economy is struggling, digital transformation is influencing how we work, and even hybrid and remote working trends are changing how teams operate. A lack of resilience prompts rapid turnover and lost productivity in finance.
The current landscape has already driven an increase in voluntary turnover, with rates rising to 15.4% in 2022. This creates major talent gaps for companies, which are difficult to fill in a skills-short marketplace.
Focusing on hiring and nurturing resilient employees allows businesses to unlock a range of benefits, from higher performance levels to increased staff engagement. In fact, one study found that resilient employees are more loyal to an organisation, more productive, and less likely to abandon a company in difficult times.
Since your company’s ability to thrive in a difficult market depends on your ability to access and retain skilled employees, fostering resilience could be crucial to weathering the difficult economic environment companies face today.
Identifying Resilient Candidates in the Hiring Process
While resilience can be taught and increased over time, professionals in the financial landscape have already developed a significant level of adaptability. The easiest way to detect these candidates is to work with an experienced financial recruitment team.
These teams know how to pinpoint more resilient candidates by looking at factors like:
1.    Behavioural Indicators
The first step in recruiting resilient employees is understanding how to define and detect resilience. Employees’ skills, prior experience, and financial credentials can tell you much about their potential in a role. Still, they rarely offer insights into their ability to thrive in uncertain circumstances.
Instead, it’s important to look at behavioural traits. Examine how candidates have responded to past challenges and experiences. If they were made redundant during the pandemic, how did they use their time to expand their skills? How committed are they to continued growth and development?
2.    Responses to Crucial Questions
The questions you ask during an interview can offer valuable insights into a financial candidate’s level of resilience. Competency-based questions can help you determine how professionals have dealt with issues that required resilience in the past. Examples include:
- Tell us about when you overcame the challenge of meeting a tight deadline.
- Explain your biggest challenge in the workplace so far and how you’ve overcome it.
- Tell us how you dealt with a previous setback or failure in your financial role.
- Explain how you ensure you’re adapting to the changing economic landscape.
- Can you describe a time when a change at work affected your process? How did you adjust to the new environment?
3.    Emotional Intelligence
Researchers have found a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and resilience. Emotional intelligence is about mindfulness, awareness, and understanding and responding effectively to your feelings.
People with a high EQ can cope better with stressful situations in a changing financial landscape. Financial recruitment teams and employers can use emotional intelligence assessments to measure a candidate’s “EQ” when hiring.
Fostering Resilience in Your Finance Team
Once you find resilient employees to add to your financial team, the next step is determining how to maintain that resilience. Even the most adaptable employees can struggle when exposed to constant uncertainty and challenges.
To foster resilience:
1.    Invest in training and development
Investing in training and development opportunities for your financial team drives several benefits. It enhances your employer value proposition, making you more appealing to a wide range of employees looking for growth. It also ensures your team members can access the skills and resources they need to thrive in uncertain times.
Training initiatives can focus on everything from teaching employees how to use new financial software, providing insights into changing regulations and cultivating emotional intelligence. Sourcing insights from your team about the kind of training they need can be helpful.
Conversations with new and existing employees can help business leaders determine which challenges team members struggle to address on their own.
2.    Develop a supportive work environment.
Just because employees are resilient doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from the support and guidance of the right team. A supportive environment fosters employees’ resilience, helping them handle complex situations and stress. It can also reduce the risk of burnout in your team.
To create a supportive work environment, focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ensure every team member feels respected and valued in your company. Concentrate on encouraging consistent communication and collaboration, creating an environment where everyone has a voice and can air their concerns and opinions.
Implementing wellbeing initiatives such as physical and mental health support systems may also be helpful. Even offering flexible working methods can help employees adapt to difficult periods and make the most of their schedules.
3.    Create mentoring and coaching initiatives
Finally, creating a coaching or mentoring program can be an excellent way to improve your company culture, strengthen workplace bonds, and facilitate resilience. Coaches and mentors can guide new or struggling employees, helping them understand workplace changes and sharing advice on handling stress.
Coaches and managers also ensure employees always have someone to speak to if they struggle with complex challenges or impending burnout. At the same time, acting as a coach or mentor can give your team members a sense of purpose that increases their engagement in the workplace.
Building a Resilient Finance Team
Resilience has always been important for employees in the fast-moving finance sector. However, cultivating resilience is more important than ever in today’s uncertain world. Business leaders need to hire, nurture, and retain resilient team members to thrive in a complex landscape riddled with uncertainty and economic change.
Work with an experienced financial recruitment team like Rebus to find resilient employees capable of weathering the challenges in the financial industry. Then, commit to supporting your team with the right coaching, training, and development initiatives.
Thanks,
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly.
To learn more, contact one of our team today or call us on 01282 930930.
