Addressing the Financial Skills Gap: Key Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

The financial services industry is facing an acute skills shortage in accountants, bankers, and financial analysts, a phenomenon exacerbated by rapid technological advancements, regulatory changes, and the shifting workforce expectations. 

This is creating a challenge for financial companies to remain competitive and innovative when attracting and retaining top finance talent. At Selby Jennings, we have explored practical strategies to help financial firms effectively address and navigate the skills shortage and hire the finance talent they want. 

Understanding the skills gap and identifying its causes 

To overcome the skills gap, it’s important to understand what’s causing it, and ultimately, it’s a combination of different factors.  

A digital transformation in financial technology  

There are a number of digital and technological advancements happening in the financial services industry, with new financial services products becoming available and new regulations adopted to better serve both consumer and company.  

While these changes in finance tech will of course become the norm over time, they contribute to a gap in digital skills in the short term. In a 2024 report, an “overwhelming majority of fintech executives believe cloud computing (80%), generative AI (78%), and new kinds of AI (76%) are critical” in innovating their financial processes and improving business resilience (ICAEW).  

Furthermore, these developments that are happening in the world of work aren’t necessarily being prioritized in training or education programs made available to finance professionals.  

New employee expectations for how they work 

Over the past few years, remote, flexible, and hybrid work models have been wholly embraced by financial firms, contributing to healthier work-life balances and unexpectedly altering employee expectations when seeking or staying in the finance roles available. 

A 2024 study by People Management found that a flexible working model, a main contributor to healthy work-life balances, has become more important to finance employees over steep salaries or pay rises when making career decisions.  

According to Zinkwork, skilled finance professionals are also prioritizing career development opportunities and positive workplace culture over generous compensation packages, making the acquirement and retainment of top talent incredibly competitive and critical.  

An expanding finance sector 

Other factors contributing to the shortage of financial skills include the rapid growth of the financial sector, particularly the shift toward mobile and online banking. This expansion has led to an increase in startups and fintech companies vying for market share, according to Investopedia. As a result, finance talent is increasingly stretched across this rapidly expanding industry.  

Additionally, there has been a shortage of accounting graduates in recent years, coupled with the growing number of retiring accountants. 

Top hiring strategies for businesses to address the talent crisis 

Competition for digital financial talent has intensified over the last few years. However, there are still some ways to stand out as a sought-after employer and attract the right talent with the right skillsets you need.  

Build a strong employer brand 

A compelling employer brand is incredibly important when it comes to attracting top talent, especially in a competitive market with a small candidate pool. As a financial firm, you should focus on highlighting your growth opportunities, fantastic work culture, plethora of benefits and training resources, and a commitment to innovation. You want your brand to be one of the top companies every candidate is applying to. 

Showcasing success stories and testimonials from current employees and making use of social media and industry events are a few easy starting points to increase your brand’s visibility and promote word-of-mouth references. 

Implement targeted recruitment campaigns 

A one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment isn’t effective in highly competitive job markets. Instead, adopting targeted recruitment strategies that focus on attracting and acquiring specific skill sets will refine your candidate search and ensure you are only attracting the candidates with the right experience and expertise. 

At Selby Jennings, we specialize in understanding key trends in candidate behavior and preferences. By leveraging our expertise, we can help you identify what candidates are looking for in a role and what skills and qualifications you should prioritize. This allows us to craft highly tailored job descriptions and launch focused hiring campaigns that attract the best talent. 

To learn more about how partnering with a talent partner can benefit your candidate search efforts, contact Selby Jennings today. 

Focus on employee development and upskilling 

You can keep ahead of the skills gap crisis by investing in training for your current employees. Not only will this make your current employees feel valued but conducting frequent skills gap analysis will help ensure your employees are acquiring all the skills and resources they need to perform the best they can. By providing training opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, you can help ensure your company and team are staying ahead of the skills shortages curve. 

Skills gap analyses are also important because they can help identify skill gaps in not just individuals but teams, and they can drive the decision to change or create new job roles to hire to better meet business aims. 

Adopt flexible working arrangements 

As mentioned, flexibility in the workplace is a top, non-negotiable career decision factor for financial talent, even more important than salary offerings.  

To tap into a broader talent pool and/or retain the skilled talent you’ve acquired, consider offering remote work options and flexible hours into your work models and offer what other competitors are perhaps not willing to offer or negotiate.  

Promote diversity and inclusion in your hiring efforts 

Embracing the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in your hiring efforts ensures that you are broadening your search to attract the best talent from all sectors and backgrounds, driving the success of your business. Running inclusion and diversity training programs as well as developing inclusive job descriptions help to encourage applications from underrepresented candidates. 

By prioritizing inclusivity in all its forms, you create a more accessible and equitable environment for all potential hires. 

Why choose Selby Jennings to help hire talent? 

Selby Jennings is a leading talent partner in banking and financial services, and all our consultants bring in-depth knowledge of top financial sectors. We take the time to understand your organization's unique requirements, culture, and values and combine them with our curated and screened pool of qualified candidates to identify potential hires who can deliver results for you. 

Our goal is to make the executive recruitment process as efficient and seamless as possible for you. We handle all the details, from scheduling interviews to conducting thorough reference checks, allowing you to focus on evaluating the best-fit candidates. 

For more than 20 years, clients and candidates have had peace of mind knowing that their hiring process is in safe hands. If you are on the lookout for top-quality financial candidates, request a call back today.