The International SAP Conference for Banking 2012 was attended by representatives of banks from many different countries and cultures. But all these banks have one thing in common: their ability to compete and succeed depends on recruiting, utilising and keeping the best employees.
And, across the world, the same factors are weighing on the human resources of banking.
The current skilled workforce is ageing: 30-40% will be eligible for retirement within the next five years. Banks need to retain their top talent as the workforce changes, and bring forward new potential – fast.
To complicate matters, this demographic shift is taking place at a time when the traditional career path has changed irreversibly. A career used to mean a steady progress through a series of promotions to retirement. Now, 50-60% of employees will go through their entire careers without a promotion – changing employers rather than internal roles.
In this environment, rewarding achievement is one challenge – but far from the only challenge. There is also the question of how to identify and quantify achievement, and, no less importantly, how to find and improve – or move on – those who are not performing.
Creating a culture of execution
There is no easy fix or single solution for these fundamental changes. Banks need to align their corporate strategy with the personal goals of their employees. They must then generate and apply analytics to measure each employee’s contribution.
A culture of business execution, where strategic goals are clearly communicated in measurable terms, has been shown to reap significant benefits. Turnover of top talent decreases, strategy is understood more quickly, and project completion increases. Research from SAP’s SuccessFactors has shown that a culture of business execution can return as much as 1% of a bank’s revenue as profit.
To achieve these benefits requires workforce planning to become a constant, dynamic process, with talent being tracked, rewarded and assisted as they move through a modern career.
Although it is clear that the next five years will be vital for workforce planning, no organisation can predict the future, or know precisely what skills will be required. However, a culture of business execution can help to ensure that changes in strategy can be rapidly adopted, by people with the skills to adapt.
To view the presentation from the International SAP Conference for banking, follow the link below
http://www.slideshare.net/SAPforBanking/peter-howes
