The last few years have been nothing short of an enormous challenge for banks and credit unions. Among everything they’ve faced, hiring and retaining talent remains difficult in 2023.
Recently, lenders have struggled to attract job seekers as many banking employees have chosen other career paths throughout what’s been named “The Great Resignation.” As a large portion of the workforce began searching for alternatives to traditional work environments, financial institutions were greatly affected by this transition.
In fact, recent survey results from Arizent showed that seven in ten banking leaders reported that attracting top talent was a challenge and 16 percent reported that it was an enormous challenge. As banks and credit unions continue to battle the war for talent, many are seeking ways to recruit new employees.
As financial institutions prepare for this year’s round of “Best Places to Work” awards, we took a look at last year’s lists to identify key trends among America’s top employers.
Top Qualities Among Best Places to Work
We found that, among the top companies, many of them ranked highly in the following categories: flexibility, support, opportunities for growth, innovation, and honorable missions.
- Support: The need for consistent support from their employer was a quality that many employees sought out in new roles. Support can be exemplified in many different ways. One of the most important ways that lenders can offer support to their employees is ensuring employees have all of the tools they need to be successful. For financial institutions, the focus is primarily on technology enablement. Today, efficiency is more important than ever, and empowering employees with technology that makes their jobs easier will not only ensure employees are happy in their roles, but also improve overall productivity within the institution.
- Opportunities for Growth: Additionally, providing opportunities for professional development and career advancement were qualities that were emphasized by top employers. Institutions that continue to operate on legacy processes will limit their employees ability to grow within their role. When these employees are solely focused on manual, routine tasks like data entry, they don’t have the time in their days to execute more meaningful work that will help shape the future of their careers.
- Innovation: Today’s job seekers aren’t willing to settle for institutions that aren’t forward looking. They look for a work environment that is constantly moving forward and adapting to the latest changes in technology. Those that choose to innovate will not only raise employee satisfaction and productivity, but will also see an increase in customer satisfaction.
- Honorable Missions: Finally, employees seek employers that are working towards honorable missions. For many, it’s important that their personal values align with those of the company, and they feel that they’re executing meaningful work that will make an impact on those around them. Financial institutions have the unique opportunity to serve their communities through the support they provide their small business customers.
Leveraging Technology to Attract and Retain Top Talent
Among these qualities, there are a few common themes that job seekers are looking for in an employer. They seek a place where they can grow and thrive, where innovation is valued, and support from management is welcomed. They also want to work at a place that is making an impact and offers the flexibility needed to be successful in their role.
This starts at the management level by fostering an environment with growth and innovation at the center paired with employee enablement and support. In business banking, oftentimes employees are operating on legacy processes that hinder these things.
With tedious and manual data entry processes taking up the majority of these bankers’ days, it can be frustrating and difficult for them to feel that they are making an impact and receiving the level of career development that they would like in this environment
Technology like Numerated empowers banks and credit unions to provide a best-in-class user experience for not only their business borrowers but also their back office employees.
With Numerated, employees are empowered to spend more time on high value tasks that foster career growth and less time on tedious, repetitive tasks.
Learn how you can start off 2023 by building an experience that will attract and retain top talent by contacting us today.
