4 Ways Financial Services Companies Can Compete For Top Talent

Today's post comes to us from board member Dan Schawbel, Research Director at Future Workplace and the New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself.

Over the past two years, we've worked with Kronos on multiple studies that have examined the critical topic of employee engagement. In our most recent study, we focused on employee engagement specifically in the financial services industry. Surprisingly, we found that nearly two-thirds of employees feel that the 2008 financial crisis still impacts how they view the industry. The better news was that three-fourths of employees believe that the industry can recover from the tarnished image.

So how can employers in financial services make themselves attractive to the talent they need? Here are four ways:

1. Become more transparent: We asked employees in the industry how their employers can be more transparent and they said by encouraging community (49%), eliminating layers of titles (33%) and hiring transparent employees (30%). When managers are transparent, their employees trust them more, work harder for them and stay longer.

2. Provide more flexibility: In the study, we found that 42 percent of employees say that their management can best support them by giving them more flexibility and 80 percent say they wish their employer offered more flexibility. Employees are looking for telecommuting, flexible schedules, job sharing and other programs that help them live a more balanced lifestyle. Flexibility will become even more important as more than a million millennials become parents each year.

3. Make philanthropy a priority: Employees, especially younger ones, want to work for a company that gives to charity, supports their local community and promotes volunteering. We discovered that over half of employees say they need their company to have a strong philanthropic mission. Employees desire meaningful jobs where they can make a difference regardless of position in the company.

4. Innovate: Innovation has become one of the biggest buzzwords in corporate America. In our study, we found that 79 percent of employees say that working for an innovative company is important to them. You can't change the world, or even make a lot of money, if your company is stagnant. Companies that support creativity and collaboration will be able to better compete and have higher levels of employee engagement.

For more on our study visit: https://www.kronos.com/about-us/newsroom/study-finds-employee-engagement-critical-fixing-financial-industry