Nishith Chaturvedi, VP – HR, NPCI

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

The world is evolving fast – in its culture, technology, social interactions and even banking. Choosing a career is not just about a job anymore. As the workforce is dominated by millennials between the age of 21-30, who have greater expectations, aspirations and an infectious level of confidence, companies are evolving in their employee retention and engagement approach as well.

In an industry such as banking, where security and confidentiality plays a major role towards success, emergence of newer technologies is becoming crucial for operations. Diving deeper into this phenomena will reveal that the requirement for fresh talent, open to exploring new technologies and adept in functioning efficiently in alignment with new applications and software in the digitised BFSI sector.

There are three crucial factors to build an efficient talent pool for the industry per se:

• Automation of roles

• Augmenting individual roles and clear demarcation of work areas

• Developing new skill sets through talent upskilling programs.

Moving our perspective to the employer, due to rapid digitisation and decision making on investments in technology and people, the overall BFSI sector is on the lookout for talent, savvy in technology application and handling. While the understanding about a particular function is provided during the academic years of an individual, the experience one can gain from a job is completely different.

A recent report by FICCI and NASSCOM titled ‘Future of Skills and Jobs in India’** notes that “the future of jobs in 2022 would be determined by the country’s response to 12 megatrends which includes, under globalization - the level of exports, rapid adoption of exponential technologies, increasing/shrinking overseas job market for Indian workforce and level of FDI flows.”

Banking sector is largely impacted by the emergence of revolutionary technologies, swiftly changing and adopting to customer requirements. The applicability of biometrics, wearable tech, facial recognition and AI enabled banking systems for hassle free customer services will take full scale with talent who are adept at handling such systems. Creating an efficient talent pool starts from the time of campus placements itself. Dedicated training programs, internal talent management framework, flexible work policies will add to become an employer of choice.

Specific to the BFSI industry, digital banking frameworks across economies is calling out for unified digital platform to stand out as a core competency for the new age workforce. This will be in addition to the existing core banking systems already existing in the industry for some time now. One more great fact about this industry is the ability to fill positions internally, offering a chance to upskill the employees and help them grow as banking professionals. A robust internal resource management framework helps in efficient succession planning for bans and other financial institutions. Notably, recent reports suggest that the average yearly salary increase is better in the BFSI industry, than any other for the year 2017.

Interestingly, many students have a pre-decided industry in their minds that they would want to work in. In the current employment scenario, students are sometimes restricted from applying to multiple companies, and the overall placement procedure across institutes often doesn’t let the students choose which company to sit for, in case a company of their choice is coming later in the season. Once a candidate is selected by an organization which came in earlier, they often lose on the opportunity to explore an industry of their choice in the later stages of placements. In this bargain, both corporates and candidates suffer.

Due to societal and monetary pressure, looming student loans and many other possible reasons, students often take up the first job offer they get, compromising their passion for innovation in a specific sector. A business solution must be churned out in order to evade this gridlock situation of passion and profession. If employers and institutions can come to a consensus in providing the best opportunities to candidates who have an interest in a particular field, it will open up the efficiency and creativity levels of young professionals tremendously.

It is only a matter of time till all corporates start their own talent engagement programs, much like initiatives like ‘Campus Connect’ by NPCI. These events will help both sides to evaluate each other as an employer and a potential resource who will contribute towards building a digital economy, and facilitate digitalization in its truest sense.