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Careers & workplace advice from Hays

As the global economy continues to grow, businesses are transcending borders, as are their workforces.  As such, many of today’s job seekers are adopting a global mentality; they are aware of the fact that recruiting a “global citizen” is a priority for any hiring manager. Moreover, they can see the value an overseas role can bring to their CV, feeling excited by the prospect of rapid career progression in an exotic location.

Continue reading How appealing is your business to overseas candidates? →

Within any organisation, there can be a chasm between senior staff and the rest of the workforce. If senior members of staff aren’t careful, the more junior employees may find themselves feeling out of the loop and unaware of current and future plans. Such disconnect can stem from poor communication and lead to staff feeling ignored, and that there is nowhere to go with their ideas and suggestions. Such a lack of communication and poor relationships between staff and management can lead to an ‘us versus them’ situation, where teams simply don’t feel that they can talk to their managers and be heard.
Continue reading How to overcome the disconnect between management and employees →

So, you have been in your role for a while, and are starting to wonder how much more progress you can make at your current organisation. You know your job inside out, and are certainly performing well – but ask yourself – are you continually developing and learning within your career?

No matter your field, constant progression during your career is essential. Without it, your role will seem repetitive, your skills could become outdated, and you are hindering your chances of success when applying for roles elsewhere, as well as in the future.

To a large extent – career development is down to you. You need to know which areas you want to improve in, and what your long term career goals are. You will then need to proactively communicate these goals to your boss and suggest action points for achieving these.

Once you have done this however, your boss should use their experience, seniority and influence within the organisation to help you achieve your goals.  Therefore, in order to gauge how much your boss cares about your career progression, ask yourself whether they are taking these below steps when you approach them to discuss your development.

1. Your boss communicates regularly with you

If your boss really cares about your career progression, they will have proactively tried to create an open environment in which you feel you are able to communicate your thoughts on how you see your role progressing. They will also make their own suggestions and provide feedback on areas where you can develop.

A prime opportunity for this type of interaction could include one to one meetings. Do you have regular catch ups with your boss to discuss your professional progress or “career map”? If not, do you think they would be receptive if you asked for this to start happening? Open communication during regular meetings provides both you and your boss with the chance to discuss the steps necessary for you to fulfil your potential.

2. Your boss encourages you to challenge yourself

Does your boss give you the chance to take on more responsibility or stretch yourself beyond your current day to day responsibilities, and are these opportunities relevant to your career goals?  Think about any new tasks or projects that they ask you to undertake, which aren’t typical for your day to day role.  For example, if the destination on your “career map” is to eventually become a people manager – then your boss might ask you to train up new members of the team and introduce them to other people within the business. The ability to welcome and integrate new team members is an essential people management trait.

In allowing you to take on tasks outside of your comfort zone, your boss is demonstrating to you that they want you to develop, and are willing to help you get there.

3. Your boss connects you to the right people

Another way your boss can help you meet your career goals, is by using their senior status to connect you to the right people. To use the same example as above, if you want to become a people manager, this will involve being promoted up the ranks within your company, therefore your boss will know who you need to impress. Moreover, they will know how to get you in front of these people to show off your skills, whether it is in the form of giving presentations, representing the team during meetings, or inviting you to corporate events.

Ask yourself – how often does your boss connect you with the people who can influence your career progression?

4. Your boss says yes to training

How supportive is your boss when it comes to training opportunities? As I mentioned in the introduction, it is down to you to find out what your goals are and proactively search for actionable ways to achieve them, and ideally your boss will supplement these with their own. One of these ways could be via certain training courses relevant to your career goals.

It is important to bear in mind that training courses can be a big investment of company time and money, therefore sometimes circumstances won’t allow. If your boss’s hands are tied on this basis, they should at least explain their reasoning, and suggest alternative ways to up-skill yourself which don’t impact time and budget as much.  These could include webinars, podcasts or training and mentoring sessions with relevant members of staff.

You are taking the initiative to learn new things in order to develop your career-your boss should understand and recognise this ambition, see the value it could bring to your organisation and therefore help you out wherever possible.

5. Your boss gives you credit

If you do something well, does your boss publicly praise you or take the credit for themselves? You need to know that your boss has your back and that they aren’t just following their own agenda. A key indicator of this is your boss commending you in front of the wider team, attributing relevant successes to you and being happy to let you take credit where credit is due.

6. Your boss welcomes promotional opportunities

The ultimate test – if a promotion comes up within your team which seems perfectly aligned to what you want – how does your boss react? They know you will want to apply for this opportunity. If they think you are suitable, do they encourage you to go for it? If they don’t think you’re quite there yet, do they give feedback and offer to help develop you accordingly?

What if an opportunity comes up elsewhere within the business that you would be perfect for and they know it? This situation is the definitive indicator of whether your boss cares about your career progression.  If they are willing to help you move elsewhere in the business for the sake of your career development-then they truly have your best interests at heart.

What to do next

Ask yourself the above questions to indicate how much your boss cares about your career development. If you answer yes to most of them – then you have a good boss who is supportive of your personal development and future career goals. Therefore, it is important that you make them proud – they have invested their time and budget into developing you, and will want to see results. Make the most of any new challenges, training and development opportunities that you take on, and feed back to your boss on how it has helped you.

If you answered no, then it’s time to have that conversation with your boss. Are they able to alter their management approach and support you more in realising your career goals? If not, then it may be time to move on and find somebody who can.

If you do decide to look for a new role at an organisation which can truly develop you, don’t forget to emphasise your ambitions on your CV, when speaking to a recruiter and during the interview stage. Find out how much these prospective employers can accommodate your career goals, and let this be a deciding factor when choosing between them.

You should also check out some of the below articles surrounding what to assess during the job search stage:

 

I’m pleased to see that Big Data is starting to become more and more like business as usual for many companies, including Hays. And, although the journey has undoubtedly been harder than any of us initially expected, it’s great to see how organisations are now taking the steps needed to develop and upgrade their staff, toolset and the amount or type of information they collect, to enable them to really take their data capabilities to the next level.

Continue reading Big Data 2.0 Will Be 2017’s Trend To Watch – Is Your Business Ready? →

Analysts at Gartner predict there will be 25 billion smartphones, smartwatches, wearables, connected cars and other connected devices by 2020. From household appliances to ATMs, all these devices will constantly gather user data, and communicate that data in what is known as the “Internet of Things” – or IoT.

IoT will change the world of financial services beyond recognition. Candidates with the right set of skills to exploit this opportunity have a bright future ahead.

IoT: a more customer-centric approach

Machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity represents a revolutionary opportunity for the financial services sector to understand their customer much better and offer them the most appropriate products, based on their actual behavior, minute by minute.

“This is good news for everyone,” claims Romain Doutriaux, Chief Marketing Officer at Dataiku, a startup that creates software to help data scientists process information and make sense of big data, and whose customers include Axa Group and LCL (Le Credit Lyonnais).

“These days, most consumers and definitely the customers if financial services firms expect services to be centered around them and their needs. IoT will fine-tune products, for instance by offering specific pricing for a loan or an insurance contract, but will also help in fraud prevention, churn defection (customers turning to other companies), as well as contributing to a more accurate segmentation of customers,” he says.

Indeed in the banking sector, IoT technologies are currently used mainly to monitor customers according to Tata Consultancy Services. “To understand and engage with customers, 65% of the banking respondents use mobile apps and 16% track wearables. The next common IoT application is monitoring the supply chain with 38% of the respondents using it to keep tabs on a complex web comprising branches, ATMs, partners and so on” the company notes.

Banks investing massively in IoT

Tata says that banks and financial institutions have identified that deciphering what data to capture and how to gather, process and analyze it is the key to success with IoT. They are now investing massively in solutions to deal with the huge rise in connected objects.

Tata Consultancy Services reports that financial institutions have reported an average IoT budget of US$117.4 million which is 0.4% of total revenue. Its study reveals that they are planning to spend US$153.5 million by 2018. “A large amount of their IoT budget (32% in 2015 and 29% by 2020) will account for monitoring financial products and services. Also, this year they plan to allocate 30% of their IoT budget to monitor customers. This allocation is expected to increase to 34%  by 2020”.

Wanted: data experts

“With connected devices everywhere, by 2020 data monitoring, analytics and control will be used widely in marketing,” says Romain Doutriaux. The latter believes that in the financial services sector, data science will also be used in auto insurance customisation for instance. “There will be a black box in your car monitoring your driving, your speed, etc. The data generated will be able to offer very targeted pricing,” he says.

Doutriaux thinks the use of connected devices in lending is an “ongoing” development. “If you have a wearable device like an iWatch, your bank could use some of the information it generates to offer you more interesting contracts. Banking apps will monitor your expenses, what you spend on, at what moment, where etc. It will help determine which banking solution is right for you”.

However, Doutriaux also notes that currently financial services companies are having difficulties recruiting candidates with the right skills to take IoT further. “Yet, in 2017, IoT will be the most important source of innovation for banking and financial services,” says Romain Doutriaux. “Most of our customers find it very difficult to recruit data scientists, whose skills are a mix of good knowledge of business and mathematics. IoT will also increase the need for statisticians, actuaries, data analysts etc.,” he says.

A skills gap

So why is it so difficult for banks to recruit the right workforce to harness the power of IoT? “Financial services companies like banks and insurers have existed for centuries. Suddenly this long-standing industry and the people who have worked in it for decades and are supposed to be experts are being challenged by the GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) and the Fintech world. There are seeing young folks who know lots about IT and not much about banking challenging them,” Doutriaux remarks. He thinks that what banks need to fight back is more agility, being more customer-centric and developing digital skills in-house.

However, he is noticing a shift, with financial services companies creating more chief innovation officer roles. “To master IoT you need more than tools. You need people who can learn quickly, adapt, be involved with project they would not have been involved with in the past” he concludes.

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