Future of banking technology

There is an influx of digital transactions, powered by an increasing number of digitally empowered customers. Banks are exploring innovative solutions to delight customers and make banking easier and more convenient for them. Banks are aggressively investing in digital products and processes because of a rise in competitive pressure and customer expectations. Fintechs and digital-only banks that offer superior customer experience are giving stiff competition to banks. An increasing number of customers are migrating to digital channels that now form the bulk of banking transactions.

While these trends increase dependency on tools and reduce reliance on manpower, banks continue to need technologically proficient personnel who can provide seamless customer experiences across devices. This translates into a huge demand for tech talent – from information technology engineers and security officers to guard against cyber threats to data scientists who analyze massive data and churn insights to personalize the digital experience of customers

It is not just commercial banks who are in dire need for tech talent; investment banks are hiring tech pros to analyze and build their digital businesses.

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The future of banking is digital-first

Banks must have a digital-first approach to keep pace with customer expectations. The future of banking will be defined by digital transformations that help banks automate processes and lower costs, drive agility and quickly launch products and services, and provide personalized and superior customer service in near real-time across multiple touch-points.

How can talent assessments help?

According to a recent CareerBuilder report, five of the top 10 jobs that companies can’t find enough qualified employees for are tech jobs. So, regardless of the industry, unless the tech talent shortage disappears somehow, companies that can identify and hire the tech talent they need are going to have a major competitive advantage. To keep up with their technically savvy customers, banks must find ways to recruit and retain technical staff, and this can be done with the help of talent assessments. Using pre-employment tests or talent assessments to recruit candidates can significantly reduce the time taken to hire a candidate. Talent assessments are also known to select candidates that are more engaged and have a higher likelihood of success on the job. With talent assessments, banks that have no previous experience hiring a technical staff can conveniently screen and select candidates to join them.

Assessments also provide the flexibility of testing candidates for a variety of skills, which is especially important for corporate and investment banks. Bankers need to possess a wide range of skills including excellent numeric/quantitative skills, high attention to detail, superior written and verbal communication skills, and good problem-solving abilities. This is needed to understand customer requirements, propose solutions, products, and services, provide advice related to M&A and markets, and prepare accurate reports. Investment and commercial banks can leverage talent assessments to test candidates for high technical, verbal, and numerical aptitude critical to superior performance as a banker. Talent assessments are also used to assess the skills of existing employees. This can be matched with the banks’ future requirements to create a plan for training manpower on systems or processes, so their skills are not redundant and are continually growing.

How are banks currently using talent assessments?

Banks currently use a variety of tests to recruit their staff. They use a mix of numerical tests to test the applicant’s number crunching abilities, logical reasoning to test critical thinking, and verbal reasoning tests to check for comprehension. Some also use situational judgment tests and personality profiling to check for company fit. With the increase in demand for data scientists and analysts, some tests also assess data analytical skills, mainly the ability to compile, structure, and make sense of data obtained from multiple sources. While numerical tests are more black-and-white in the sense that there are clear right and wrong answers, with the others, a scale is used to measure how close the answers are to the banks’ expectations.

Change with the changing times

Banks are evolving rapidly and so are their needs. If currently, the need for tech staff is not much, it is guaranteed to rise exponentially in the coming years. As the demand for tech talent increases across industries, corporate and investment banks will need to focus on a robust assessment process to quickly screen and select candidates. In this respect, talent assessments are the perfect tools to assess candidates for multiple skills per industry standards, in the shortest time and at a venue and time of your choice. These talent assessments can also be used to assess skill gaps for existing employees to devise ways to reskill and train them for the future. Banks must adopt a digital-first approach in their talent assessment to be ready for the next wave of transformations that are expected to hit them.