Top tips for attracting talent in the financial services sector

The art of attracting talent in financial services is as nuanced as the financial services industry itself. If you want to hire the best of the best, you’ll need to stand out from the competition. In particular, it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from the big firms and overcome the powerful brand recognition that they possess.

Staying up to date on the latest trends when it comes to attracting and retaining top financial services talent has become particularly invaluable as the recruitment market is more competitive than ever before.

Here are just four ways that you can draw the right kind of attention to your company’s employment opportunities and foster initiatives that attract the right kind of talent:

1. Creating your employer value proposition

When it comes to attracting talent in financial services, Savvi Recruitment Director John Ennis recommends beginning with a thorough and objective employer value proposition. “Your employer value proposition is really the starting point of why somebody would come to work for your company as opposed to a different company. And I suppose that's the key thing I would see in the marketing, is trying to define your employer value proposition, not just specific to that role, but to the company.” Beyond a substantial paycheck and other tangible benefits such as health insurance and paid time off, a good employer value proposition should take a holistic look at the workplace environment, the values that it represents, and the support and recognition that it provides. Savvi Recruitment Partner, Therese Cadell, sums up the supreme value of a good value proposition by insisting that it should show “why the person should join, not just the team, but the company” as well as “what a career with that company would look like.”

2. Crafting recruitment messaging that is on brand

After establishing an attractive employer value proposition, it is important to reflect that value proposition in a highly effective recruitment message. John Ennis emphasises the importance of getting “the message to the talent pool that you're looking to attract” before adding that getting your company’s “brand across to them is the key thing.” While he acknowledges that there are many small things that business managers can do to extend brand outreach in the human resources sector, John Ennis recommends enlisting the expert services of a leading recruitment agency with extensive marketing capabilities.

3. Turning your employees into brand ambassadors

When it comes to promoting your brand image among in-demand talent, you simply cannot underestimate the tremendous potential influence of your current employees. As John Ennis puts it, “your employees should be brand ambassadors out there in the marketplace for your company.” In light of the always complex and typically subjective nature of the average employer value proposition, nobody can identify your company’s finest employment advantages better than people who already work for you. “Because when you're trying to attract people into a company,” says John Ennis, “it is really very much, in a competitive market, about what is the most attractive thing about this role.”

4. Partnering with a good recruitment agency

We not only strongly recommend seeking out the services of a quality recruitment agency but taking an active role when it comes to ensuring that agency addresses your financial services company’s specific wants and needs. As Therese Cadell puts it, “Obviously some people hire directly themselves, but because the market is so tight and candidate driven, if you are using a recruitment agency, you should take the time to have a call with the recruiter to paint a picture of the current team, describe the structure of the department and give an overview of the day to day of the role is. There is no such thing as the perfect candidate. You can't be too rigid in your requirements. So an experienced recruiter will be able to find you the best candidate in the market who is motivated to accept your role. So an experienced, seasoned, and knowledgeable recruiter will be able to go out to market and find the right candidate for you.”

Savvi Recruitment is a specialist financial services search and selection firm. We have a proven track record of developing and delivering employer-driven talent attraction strategies that work. Our clients access our extensive network of industry professionals and experienced potential candidates who are looking for their next career move.