The Talent That Makes a Difference: Challenges and Opportunities in the Financial Sector
The financial sector in Colombia and LATAM is currently facing challenges and opportunities for the future, such as digital transformation, financial inclusion, and international expansion.
Undoubtedly, this sector contributes to sustainable economic growth and remains aspirational for many executives seeking to build upward career paths within it.
For instance, business models such as Fintech, neobanks, and digital banking, which are increasingly prevalent, present specific challenges. These include focusing on the use of disruptive technologies that allow for rethinking the physical-digital integration of their services and products into their core business.
Additionally, there is the collection, processing, and storage of large volumes of data and the use of Big Data, as well as fully digital commercial platforms designed to identify new specific customer needs, optimize value propositions, and enhance user experience. The use of robots to automate mainly transactional processes and remote work as a tool for operational efficiency are among other challenges.
Consequently, human talent management departments in financial sector companies have been incorporating best practices to identify, attract, evaluate, and retain key talent to address these challenges. This involves redefining roles and tasks to ensure increasingly qualified talent focused on achieving superior performance aligned with corporate strategy.
One of the main priorities for talent management teams is to strengthen the holistic development of their employees, encouraging them to move beyond the transactional day-to-day focus of fulfilling specific job functions. This is not intended to replace people but rather to free up their time to dedicate more effort to strategic and influential activities. In other words, the aim is to connect them more deeply with the overarching purpose of the business, supported by two current trends: Upskilling (improving existing skills) and Reskilling (acquiring new skills) to tackle emerging challenges in an ever-changing context.
In this regard, some prioritized skills for key talent in various roles within the organizational structure of financial sector companies include:
- Critical Thinking: The ability to question assumptions, identify biases, and use logical reasoning to solve problems, make decisions, and propose new, more accessible services and products for diverse segments.
- Flexibility and Agility: Staying ahead of new trends, incorporating agile methodologies, and leveraging technological tools to enhance process efficiency.
- Leadership and Social Influence: Acting as facilitators for achieving common goals, creating impact without necessarily managing large teams, and mobilizing, inspiring, and challenging others to exceed expectations.
- AI and Big Data: Staying up-to-date with trends and the evolution of artificial intelligence frameworks and data analytics to create value propositions and improve user experience and security.
- Empathy and Active Listening: Essential for providing better user experiences and fostering a strong service-oriented attitude by putting oneself in the customer’s shoes and building more inclusive solutions.
- Curiosity and Lifelong Learning: A constant drive to acquire new knowledge, rethink concepts, and propose new and better ways to achieve results.
- Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Critical for creating value by optimizing processes, reducing costs, and raising quality standards across products, services, or processes.
In conclusion, the role of talent management departments is crucial to addressing the ongoing challenges in each economic sector and its unique characteristics. The ultimate goal is to generate greater value by aligning business strategy with people strategy through processes that attract, evaluate, and retain talent.