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Talent and engagement challenges that affect finance and insurance 
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Tim Sackett

By: Tim Sackett on May 10th, 2016

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Talent and engagement challenges that affect finance and insurance 

Talent and Culture

Est. Read Time: 3 min.

Within the HR community, every industry has their own set of unique challenges. The common core of HR never changes, but regulation and reform play an extreme role when it comes to the global financial and insurance industries!

Most of us have the main worries of how do we attract great talent, how do we keep our great talent, and how do we engage and make our workforces the most productive they can be. Within those challenges, we are fairly free to do what we want to make that happen.

HR pros within the financial industry are constantly jumping over hurdles and navigating potential hazards to try and stay competitive for talent within an ever-changing marketplace.

In 2016 and beyond the global financial industry will be challenged with three large HR issues that are on the mind of every executive within the industry:

  1. Total Compensation
  2. Employment Branding
  3. Workforce Diversification

Most of us have simple compensation concerns and issues as compared to the global finance industry. New and constantly changing regulations within the financial industry make compensation strategy a full-time job for HR executives within these organizations. With the recent global banking meltdown still fresh on the minds of society, governments continue to play a major hand in regulating what organizations in the financial industry can pay and bonus their employees.

Thus, all of this becomes a major issue in talent attraction and retention, when so many are handcuffed on compensation decisions while competing against employers from other industries that are not hampered by similar regulations. Having solid, lock-tight processes are more important than ever to ensure your organization is on top of and following all of these regulations.

This leads to a need for financial industry employers to spend more resources and efforts in creating and driving active employment brands to keep ahead of the game in attracting the top talent from around the world. Banking and Insurance industries continue to carry around the stigma of the great recession. Those kids who are now graduating from top programs only remember negative stereotypes and the negative media they've heard for so long.

Organizations have to double the efforts of employers outside the finance industry to rise above the noise, and share their new story of how their institutions have changed for the better in 2016 and beyond. Great employment branding and recruitment marketing will help, but this challenge will continue in the years to come for the financial industry.

Finally, financial industry employers for years have been dogged by the perception that they mainly only hire white and male. Diversity and Inclusion are two of the biggest HR issues facing the financial industry currently. How do you attract these individuals to your organizations, but also how to you ensure you have inclusive leadership teams is also paramount to show real change is taking place.

Talent pipelining is one way to ensure your organization is making diversity and inclusion of your workforce a top priority. When you take a look internally at your pipeline of talent moving up within your organization, are specifically targeting and working with a vast array of talent - culturally, gender and age? What most organizations find is their pipeline is still primarily white, male and middle-aged. This must start to evolve or you'll continue to see talent flow into other industries that value what all workers are bringing to their organizations.

Want to learn how American Express is tackling some of their HR challenges?

Sign up for a SHRM webinar on June 8th at 12PM EDT with me and American Express VP of HRIS Adam Krahling to hear about how AMEX is addressing HR Service Delivery challenges from a global perspective!

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Register for the SHRM Webinar with American Express!
Register for the SHRM Webinar with American Express!

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About Tim Sackett

I’m a 20 year HR/Recruiting Talent Pro with a Master’s in HR and SPHR certification, currently residing in Lansing, MI. Currently the President at HRU Technical Resources – a $40M IT and Engineering contract staffing firm and RPO. Prior to joining HRU, I was the Director of Employment at Sparrow Health System, Regional HR and Staffing Director with Applebee’s Intl., Retail Health Recruiting Manager and Regional HR Mgr. with ShopKo Stores and Pamida respectively. I’ve split my career half between recruiting and half between HR generalist roles – also split half between the HR vendor community and Corporate America – So, I think I get it from both sides of the desk.