“Employers and employees who are not willing to broaden their horizons will have little chance of emerging as winners in the long term.”

This seemed to be the consensus at the Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) “Focus on Talent” webinar, held on 27 September.

Lynn Robbroeckx, LFF secretary general, made the comment in her opening remarks. She also mentioned the scope of the problem: “The majority of employers today--and in financial services more specifically--are facing the highest talent shortage in two decades.”

Expert speakers from the financial sector spent the next hour discussing these hiring struggles, and more broadly the changing norms within HR and employee life. Here are seven takeaways from the event.

Don’t pigeonhole people

Several speakers touched on the reality that, nowadays, many employees are looking for challenges and growth in their professions (or, compared to past generations, they want more of it and sooner). Sally Nelson, chief people officer at Fidelity International, said that giving people those opportunities and letting them build on their transferrable skills is critical. “It’s really important not to pigeonhole people and keep them in narrow swim lanes,” she said, “but to give them your backing, and to test them out in broader roles.”

Take an individualised approach

Daniel Frank, COO of Baloise Assurances Luxembourg, agreed that many employees want more challenges and faster, but also advocated an individualised approach: “We know them. We know who they are,” he said of those more restless employees. “Not everyone is like that,” he added. “Some people just want their routine work, and to do more or less the same job for the next five to ten years.”

For those who want new challenges every two or three years, he said, Baloise finds new challenges or even jobs for them, but keeps a personalised and almost coach-like relationship. “We also talk to them, proactively, and make them aware they they--in our opinion--sometimes might be a bit too impatient.” Some employees, he said, must be encouraged to finish what they have started.

Democratise career development

For Nelson and Fidelity International, internal mobility has been a primary focus in 2023. Three years ago the company launched a “talent marketplace,” an internal programme that lets employees explore options on their own terms.

 “[It has] helped us democratise career development,” said Nelson, explaining that via the programme, employees can have the “autonomy and freedom” to search for international jobs or to have such opportunities pushed to them. They can also be paired with a mentor or work on a “short-term, gig-style project” to gain exposure elsewhere in the company. All of this happens alongside their regular work. “We’re seeing the benefits of this investment starting to pay real dividends,” she commented, “both from a development point of view, but also, more importantly, a productivity point of view.”

Let people learn the company (not just their job)

Thanks to automation and artificial intelligence, many repetitive or simple tasks are no longer done by humans. However, as Baloise’s Frank pointed out, such tasks were once the purview of new joiners, who would master the basics before attempting more complex roles; as such, the lowest level isn’t quite as low anymore. “They’re missing this kind of basic training,” said Frank, explaining that Baloise has taken a new approach by giving its new joiners a wide view of the whole insurance value chain. “[We send] them to different departments,” he said, including operations, conflict management, customer care, claims management and sales. “So that [they] really understand the business and not--as in the past--just one piece of the puzzle.”

Hold “stay interviews”

Everyone has heard of an exit interview, but Malcolm Horton--talent acquisition director at Linklaters London--talked about “stay interviews,” i.e., discussions with employees about why they have stayed at the firm, what will keep them there and whether the firm’s offer is (still) in line with their expectations. “Not everyone expects the same thing,” he said. “But having transparency about what is on offer means a lot more open dialogue, and time spent on that, than we necessarily had many years ago.”

Indeed, Horton pointed out, things like stay interviews are part of a trend where organisations must have more conversations with their employees. He added that it has become important for managers in particular to be trained on how to have these types of conversations.

Don’t be agist

The question of sexism came up in the webinar, prompting Gwladys Costant, partner at GoToFreedom and co-president or Fr2s, to report that “100% of our clients in finance are asking us to balance our shortlist of candidates with half women, half men.” For some jobs, she added, it remains difficult to find female candidates.

However, she then pivoted the topic to agism. In her work, the most expensive candidates tend to be women with about ten years’ experience, whereas the women struggling most to enter the job market are those around 50 years old. “That’s the same for men, actually,” said Costant. “It’s not discrimination about gender. It’s more about age… there is a discrimination about age in the finance industry… companies want to have more young people.”

Use data to assess people

One recurring idea at the webinar was the use of data to assess people, ostensibly because--ideally--it doesn’t have the same bias as human beings do. “We know how deep unconscious bias goes,” said Nelson. “And to overcome it, we need to apply a much more data-driven, consistent way to view our talent.”

Going deeper into the potential of new technologies in HR contexts, Nelson talked about evaluating employees to more nuanced degrees. “Today we can measure satisfaction and participation. In the future, we’re looking to be able to measure behavioural change and value creation. Much harder to measure.” Fidelity International is “investing heavily” in its data capability, she said.