Millennials, reinventing Banking and Finance

Meet the youngest generation of financial professionals who are causing employers in the finance and banking sector to change their approach to HR and hiring – Millennials. In this first of a two-part series, we explore how this unique group differs from the workers of previous generations.

Who are Millennials?

American writer and speaker Marc Prensky, who first coined the term ‘digital natives’, describes Millennials as a generation born after 1980 who are ‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the internet. As a result of their interaction with technology from birth, Prensky claims that digital natives: “Think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.” By 2018 digital natives will constitute half of the working population in developed countries.

Also known as ‘Generation Connected’, this generation, like the previous ones, is a mosaic of individuals with different tastes and values, which vary country by country as a recent Hays survey showed. However, there is one trait that undoubtedly unifies Millennials – their reliance on technology. A Johnson Controls study showed 73.6% of this generation thought new technologies were addictive, while 77.3% reported that having advanced technologies in their workplace is important to very important. It is this great ease with technology that makes Millennials so valuable in a fast-changing world, and different from previous generations of ‘digital migrants’.

The benefits of hiring Millenials in banking and finance

The increasing innovation in the finance and banking sector alongside the rapid development of Fintech means Millennials’ technology skills are extremely valuable to employers. But the benefits don’t stop there, as my colleague Gerald Fahnenbruck, Team Leader for Finance Contracting in Hays Germany, points out – hiring Millennials also serves the purpose of better capturing a complex new market. “Millennials are future customers. As employees, they can help financial service firms better understand the needs of future bank customers and help them adapt to changing customer demand,” he says.

As consumers, Millennials have very different perceptions of the banking and finance industries than previous generations. According to the Millennial Disruption Index, banking is actually the sector of the economy at the highest risk of disruption from this generation. Of the Millennials surveyed for the index, 70% say that they expect the way we pay for things to be radically different in five years, while 33% say they will not need banks at all in the future.

“Millennials have a completely different relationship to money and their expectations as bank customers vary compared to other generations,” continues Gerald. “Financial service firms can benefit from their mindset and expectations and Millennials can help banks develop better products for their own generation. They expect integrated technologies, online services and support in helping them manage their finance in times of uncertainty.”

What are Millenials looking for from a prospective employer?

Millennials require to be fulfilled at work more than previous generations. According to research by the iOpener Institute, being involved in work that is challenging and interesting is a top priority for them. They also want to work for transparent and inclusive companies with strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. As EY says in its Digitisation of Everything report: “a company cannot just look good – it has to be good”.

The scandals rocking the banking sector over the past few years have deeply affected Millennials’ perception of companies operating within this sector. As a result, banks are among the brands they love least. A positive brand image is therefore of the utmost importance to engaging younger workers. “Millennials do a lot of research in advance about the companies where they apply for jobs through company blogs, websites and in the media. They will look at work life balance, career paths and company image,” notes Gerald.

In part two, we will cover how financial employers are ensuring they retain their Millennials workforce.

Author

Geoff Fawcett

Director, Hays UK

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Geoff Fawcett has been in the recruitment industry for over 16 years. He is currently responsible for Hays Financial Markets, which provides an integrated recruitment solution to London based Banking & Financial Services organisations. Specialist divisions include Finance, Operations, HR, Marketing, Purchasing, Secretarial, Risk & Compliance, Front Office, Finance Technology and Executive with in excess of 100 consultants.