The big draw varies depending on the employee and might be anything from stock options, which are particularly popular in the US; generous salary settlements; more flexible working hours with a change to the typical 9-5 view of a job, to higher levels of autonomy often associated with working for a nimble, agile business with an enticing focus on innovation and disrupting the status quo. While employee benefits are key in attracting candidates and retaining them within the organisation, the prevailing business culture is equally, if not even more, important.
Keeping Employees in the Fold
Recruiting staff is only part of the battle though. Fintechs also need to be able to retain them over the long-term. That means offering them the training they need to progress within the organisation but also build the skills required to get more out of what they are doing today and gain more insight into how they might want to develop in the future.
With this in mind, in-house training courses should offer a broad selection of different options to match the needs of every employee. Courses should be carefully structured rather than ad hoc. Employees should be able to quickly and easily see what is available to them. New recruits might want to quickly build a rich portfolio of different skills, for example. Experienced workers, on the other hand, might be looking to move out of their comfort zone and try something new. They might, for example, be a business analyst, and be looking to try out becoming a tester, developer or a product owner.
Whatever the precise scenario, the best fintech training schemes should offer a wide range of choice. It is critical that fintech employees are given the chance to improve and expand their skills. If they feel that there is little prospect to advance their career and/or their own skillsets, employees will be more inclined to leave and get a job elsewhere.
This opportunity for freedom of choice needs to extend beyond the training sphere, however. Typically today, fewer and fewer employees want to be ‘shoe-horned’ into a traditional hierarchical approach and pushed into managerial jobs that might not necessarily suit them. Flat structures that empower workers to express themselves and remove all managers and team leads, are becoming ever more popular. Rather than being constrained by technology, employees should be freed up to experiment and to express themselves without fear of failure.
For fintechs, the key must be around developing an empowering management philosophy where staff are encouraged to take risks together with a stimulating and inspiring workplace, where creativity thrives. From development, right through to product, sales and marketing, it’s important that people are actively encouraged to excel and grow in an agile, collaborative and inventive environment where talent is recognised and rewarded.
It’s all part of a twin track approach which fintechs will increasingly need to adopt if they are to survive and thrive in the future. Getting their recruitment strategy right is critically important for fintechs if they want to be competitive in the future but it will be equally key for them to nurture their employees, provide relevant training and engagement opportunities and focus on staff engagement, if they want to succeed in the long-run. It’s yet another example of the importance of workplace culture – this time in staff retention. Having a competitive benefit programme is a ‘nice to have’ but if the prevailing business culture doesn’t appeal upfront, people won’t join the company. And conversely, if it fails to challenge and nurture, people will leave.
London-based Fradeom is web-based technology firm involved in B2B Payments, Transaction Management, Expense Management, Reporting and Analytics, Software as a Service, Commercial Card Technology, Card Management, and Online Statements.