Visier: 88% of HR leaders say financial services is facing a skills crisis

The pandemic and associated disruption to the world of work really emphasized the skills gaps that already existed. This is particularly true in the financial services sector, according to a recent survey by people analytics company Visier.

Visier’s survey of 250 HR leaders working in the UK’s financial services sector, which was carried out by Censuswide in May, found that 88% believe their company is facing a skills crisis.

They also noted that there is no quick fix and that it may take up to 3.5 years to solve the skills gap.

56% of the financial services’ HR leaders also noted that the current workforce needs more training the workforce of the early 2010s.

Unfortunately, the leaders also noted that the skills were not only absent in their organization, but in the wider pool of potential talent. 67% of them argued that the lack of available, skilled talent was holding back their company’s digital transformation strategy.

However, it is clear that employees working in the UK financial services sector do not feel like their current employer is prioritizing their career development.

55% of the more than 1,000 employees surveyed by Visier said they were worried their career would stall if they didn’t develop new skills and more than a half were planning to look for new jobs at new companies in the next year (25% had already started applying for a new role).

HR leaders (86%) agreed that companies should have done more to support their workers over the past 12 months.

Talking about the findings, Visier EMEA vice-president Daniel Mason commented: “The financial services industry is sitting on a skills ticking time bomb.

“As financial services companies settle into their new ways of working, whether that is remote, office-based or a hybrid approach, they can’t afford to overlook the biggest threat to their ability to grow – skills.

“It should be a wake up call to the industry to see that a huge proportion of HR teams believe the industry’s skills shortage is holding back mission-critical transformation.

“Investing in learning opportunities and upskilling current employees will reduce churn and boost competitiveness.”

These UK-specific findings come as the UK Government is refocusing on reskilling and upskilling the UK workforce, particularly with a focus on digital competencies necessary for success in the future of work.