sungard_talent_dilemma_mini_white_paper_final.pdf
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SECURITIES BROKERAGE SELECTThe talent dilemma: why a talent shortage may be Wall Street’s biggest challenge
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02 SunGard The talent dilemma: why a talent shortage may be Wall Street’s biggest challenge
Finding the right talent
Finding the right employees is never a simple matter — and it is growing increasingly difficult as global competition intensifies. In the 2014 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey of global employers, more than a third of those surveyed reported they could not find the type of talent they needed, hurting their abilities to service clients.3
After the financial crisis, firms were forced to reduce head-count related to middle- and back-office functions, and thus lost many workers who possessed a deep understanding of the underlying business and its functions.
The forced reduction in staff has been augmented by a higher rate of retiring workers as the baby boomers move on from their careers. These employees built their careers on understanding both the business and operations that drive financial institutions. Not an easy thing to replace.
While today’s employees are more digitally savvy and confident in their abilities to manage technology, they don’t have the in-depth knowledge of the business function and how their roles fit into the larger picture in the financial services operation, and thus are less equipped to handle complex exceptions and quickly solve business challenges.
The implication of aging systems
Over the years, under investment in key middle- and back-office systems has resulted in service-based infrastructures that now cannot meet the increased demands placed on them by new regulatory and compliance mandates, as well as complex derivatives and securities products, and today’s global needs for real-time integrated processes.
As a result, customers of these outdated systems are expending valuable resources on patchwork processes instead of investing in newer systems that offer much-needed solutions, such as business process automation, data intelligence, mobile applications, and a complete range of front- to back-office offerings that provide greater automation and efficiency.
Outdated systems hurt firms’ growth and also push today’s tech-savvy talent away from careers that involve day-to-day interaction with these systems.
INTRODUCTION
The financial crisis did more than hurt the bottom lines at
financial services firms; it also seems to have lessened the
appeal of the sector to a new generation of employees. But
while much media attention has focused on the efforts of
investment banks to match the draw of companies such
as Apple and Google, financial services firms face an even
more pressing issue: a scarcity of the right talent in the
middle and back office.1
This constraint may end up greatly affecting firms’ growth
prospects. About 70 percent of financial services executives
see the limited availability of key skills as a threat to their
futures, according to PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey
on key talent findings. That figure was up from 59 percent a
year earlier, indicating that there is growing pressure to solve
the talent problem.2 And because the industry remains in
a low interest rate, high-cost environment, the limited talent
resources firms do have are often focused on day-to-day
transactional tasks instead of providing strategic support
to the business.
The financial services industry’s talent dilemma comes at
a time when banks, broker-dealers and other financial firms also
need to solve other significant challenges, including growing
technological complexity in their middle- and back-office
operations, higher capital requirements and compliance costs,
aging technology systems, intensified regulatory oversight
and requirements, and heightened global competition. It’s no
wonder firms are seemingly desperate for talent — there is little
room for error in tackling these challenges, and no one wants
to face these pressures with a B-team.
If we look at regulatory pressure in particular, the post-2008
financial crisis rules (and associated costs to comply with
those rules) have forced firms to reduce spending on revenue-
generating opportunities. Instead, a significant portion of their
staffing and spending is now allocated to compliance. Not only
is the need to focus on compliance putting limits on a firm’s
ability to dedicate resources to strategic growth initiatives,
compliance as a discipline is proving a tough career-path
sell, especially for today’s digitally savvy millennial generation
looking for opportunities in sexier industries.
1 HTTP://WWW.IBTIMES.COM/CHANGING-LANDSCAPE-WALL-STREET-FEWER-BANKERS-
SMALLER-BONUSES-1822980
2 HTTP://WWW.PWC.COM/EN_GX/GX/FINANCIAL-SERVICES/PUBLICATIONS/ASSETS/
FS-PUBLICATION-A-NEW-TAKE-ON-TALENT-FEB-2015.PDF
3 HTTP://WWW.MCKINSEY.COM/INSIGHTS/EMPLOYMENT_AND_GROWTH/CONNECTING_TALENT_WITH_OPPORTUNITY_IN_THE_DIGITAL_AGE
SunGard The talent dilemma: why a talent shortage may be Wall Street’s biggest challenge 03
Finding the right partner
Today’s talent scarcity and technology challenges, while formidable, also present opportunities for financial services firms that can act strategically and combine short-term needs with long-term vision.
Successful firms are taking a hard look at their strategic mission to better understand where their true business lies. The most forward-looking firms are leveraging business partners that provide middle- and back-office services but those that offer a depth and breadth of offerings and professional services to help them solve many of today’s global challenges.
Whether it’s a unified platform for trading, collateral management, risk and compliance, asset servicing and middle- and back-office processing for derivatives and securities, or on-site consulting, this partner model is helping firms to keep the resources they do have focused on business priorities.
These services and solutions should work hand in hand as easily in New York, London and Germany as they do in Dubai, Sydney or Singapore. When financial institutions leverage a partner with a world-class infrastructure and truly global industry expertise, they not only reduce operating cost and risk, but they have the capacity to focus on running and growing their business, launching new products, or entering new geographies and markets.
Engaging with a trusted partner whose business and experience is in solving global financial technology challenges is a smart step toward relieving the pressure of the financial industry’s talent dilemma. It’s where you’ll find some of Wall Street’s hidden talent.
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About SunGard’s operations and technology solutions
SunGard’s suite of global post-trade operations and asset-servicing solutions helps financial services firms in the securities and derivatives markets efficiently manage their middle- and back-office processes and workflow. SunGard’s scalable solutions help automate interfacing with exchanges and clearinghouses as well as matching, settling and booking trades, helping to improve straight-through processing across the enterprise. SunGard helps firms around the world increase transparency and reduce operational complexity, risk and cost. For more information, please visit www.sungard.com/posttrade
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