Building the perfect finance team isn’t easy in today’s world. Significant skill shortages lead to increased competition for top talent; employees search for better benefits and remuneration, and shifting market dynamics continually present new challenges for teams.
Companies must invest in development to stay ahead of the competition, attract and retain challenges, and rapidly adapt to new technologies, regulations, and market changes.
Investing in developing your finance team by offering them the right compensation, benefits, and access to learning opportunities supports your company’s future. It helps you foster a culture of continuous improvement, avoid complex recruitment issues, and stay resilient in a complex environment.
Understanding the Current Talent Landscape in Finance
The finance landscape is fast-paced, dynamic, and ever-changing. In the past couple of years alone, we’ve seen companies increasingly prioritising technical skills in finance professionals alongside soft skills like resilience and adaptability.
The priorities of financial professionals have changed, with many talented professionals focusing on flexibility, work-life balance, excellent compensation, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Many companies are struggling to attract and retain the right expertise.
While many factors can positively impact your recruitment strategy, focusing on development is one of the best ways to ensure you thrive in this difficult landscape.
Top financial professionals are ambitious individuals who want to constantly advance in their careers, grow, take on new challenges, and see the positive impact of their work.
Combining various development strategies, from salary benchmarking to offering the right remuneration, career development options, and workplace benefits, ensures a better chance of building a powerful talent pipeline.
The Strategic Role of Offering Development
Offering development opportunities to finance talent makes sense for various reasons. First, it ensures your team can adapt quickly to changes in the finance landscape. Today’s teams need to hire resilient, adaptable employees who can pivot quickly to embrace new technologies (like AI), adhere to the latest regulations and creatively resolve problems.
Investing in employee development and training can help your team members develop the skills they need to perform at their best. You can empower teams with new technical skills related to digital literacy, accounting, and more. Plus, you can ensure your staff have the soft skills they need to thrive in any role.
Focusing on development as a core part of your employee value proposition also:
Improves Access to Talent
Skilled employees in the finance sector are in high demand. Today, the employer with a strong brand, excellent company culture, and strategic approach to recruitment beats the competition. A comprehensive approach to “development” focusing on competitive compensation, innovative benefits packages, and robust professional growth opportunities appeals to top talent.
It ensures you can attract ambitious professionals who want to invest in their long-term careers and future with your business. Plus, it can help you attract passive candidates to your talent pipeline, reducing recruitment costs and complexities in the future.
Increases Employee Retention
Today’s job market is extremely agile. Thanks to the rise of remote and flexible work and increasing demand for finance talent, professionals have plenty of opportunities to switch roles quickly. One study found more than half of finance professionals were considering changing jobs in 2023 because they wanted to invest in career development.
Showing your employees that you’re invested in their growth and willing to give them the opportunities they need to develop new skills helps you hold onto critical team members. This means you can spend less time recruiting and more time growing your company.
Enhances Company Performance
We’ve noted that focusing on development can boost company performance by providing employees with essential skills. However, focusing on development also enhances performance in other ways. For instance, it can help you uncover individuals in your team with leadership skills or the capability to thrive in new roles.
The right strategy can lead to a strategic succession plan, which ensures that you can always quickly fill your team’s crucial gaps with existing talent.
Crafting Competitive Compensation Packages
When focusing on development opportunities for team members, most business leaders concentrate initially on learning and training. While these factors are important, most employees won’t see opportunities to grow in your organisation if you don’t offer the right compensation.
Salary benchmarking has become increasingly crucial for business leaders to ensure they offer fair, competitive wages to their team members.
However, adhering to marketplace standards is not enough. It would be best to look for ways to boost employee engagement and motivation with salary structures. For instance, offering access to performance-based benefits can be an excellent way to encourage your team members to invest in their development and accomplish more in their roles.
Creating clear policies for salary negotiations, promotion opportunities, and succession strategies will also ensure your team members can see a clear future with your business. They’ll be able to see the financial benefits of remaining loyal to your company.
Innovating Benefits Packages
While salary is important, today’s financial professionals seek more than a competitive monthly income. They also want access to benefits that improve their job satisfaction and align with their priorities.
Traditional healthcare and retirement programs are still appealing. Still, many professionals are also looking for companies that offer access to wellness programmes and solutions that help them boost work-life balance. They want flexible work arrangements, like hybrid and remote work or four-day work weeks. Combining great compensation with innovative benefits accomplishes various things.
Not only will it make your employer brand more compelling, but it will also help boost your chances of retaining talent and keeping teams motivated. Creating benefits packages tailored to specific segments of your target employee group can even help you to expand your reach.
For instance, you might offer unique benefits to Gen Z professionals seeking flexibility, millennials, and experienced executives.
Encouraging Professional Growth and Development
Perhaps the most important step in attracting and retaining talent focused on development is creating a company culture that supports continuous learning. In a rapidly evolving landscape, finance professionals rely more on skill development than ever.
Providing access to mentorship programs, networking opportunities (for personal development), online courses, and training initiatives unlocks your team’s full potential. Supporting leadership development programs and funding industry certifications enhances team performance while showing employees a clear path for their future.
Based on the development initiatives you implement, you can constantly recognise and reward team members, boosting motivation and engagement. You can also pave the way for internal career progression, enabling team members to move into new roles and embrace different responsibilities.
Development Opportunities and Your Employer Brand
Ultimately, investing in development opportunities for your finance team ensures you can prepare for changing market dynamics, build a more resilient team, and reduce talent turnover. However, it also significantly impacts your employer’s brand.
Now more than ever, employees are evaluating their potential employers carefully, reading online reviews, monitoring websites and social media feeds, and checking job sites to ensure they focus on “employers of choice”.
You differentiate your brand from competing companies by investing in a development-led strategy, offering competitive compensation and rewards, great benefits, and diverse learning opportunities. You can even use your efforts to enhance your recruitment marketing strategy, sharing insights into employee development on your website and social media pages.
Your team members may even help you find new employees by acting as advocates, sharing their stories with talent, or referring new graduates to your team.
Offering Development for Sustainable Talent Acquisition
As skill shortages continue to plague the finance landscape and talent turnover increases, there’s never been a more important time for companies to focus on development. Offering development opportunities and clear paths to success to your team enhances your talent retention and attraction strategies, reduces recruitment costs, and improves team performance.
The right strategy will elevate your employer brand, making it easier to fill your talent pipeline with crucial candidates as your business grows.
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 understand employer and employee needs and match them perfectly.
To learn more, contact one of our team members today or call us at 01282 930930.
