2 in 3 financial services leaders get headaches from recruiting millennials

They say Gen Y lacks necessary skills.

Generation Y or so-called millennials are proven to be the most challenging candidates to recruit for Singapore’s financial services companies – a sector already facing a growing skills shortage. 

According to independent research commissioned by recruitment company Robert Half, financial services organisations are adapting their recruitment processes to entice high-calibre millennial candidates.

Two in three (66%) financial services leaders in Singapore say Gen Y (those born in 1977-1995) financial services professionals are the most challenging to recruit. Over half (51%) say a lack of necessary skills is the main reason it is challenging to recruit experienced professionals, followed by demand outweighing supply (50%).

In terms of the specific roles that are the most challenging to recruit for, one-third (33%) of finance leaders say mid-management level roles will be the hardest to recruit over the next 12 months, followed by executive-level roles (20%) and non-management mid-level roles (20%). For functional roles, the most challenging to recruit for is finance (30%), followed by risk (20%) and accounting (15%).

Nevertheless, despite the majority (79%) of finance leaders believing a career in financial services is an attractive career path for millennials, there is still a lack of millennial talents.

Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard, managing director at Robert Half Singapore, said, “As the Baby Boomer generation is gradually exiting the workforce, employers can expect to face a growing skills gap, highlighting the need for companies to source employees from more junior generations and position financial services as an attractive career path for graduate-level professionals. Singapore’s workforce will eventually need to adjust to changing demographics – millennials are working smarter, using new technologies to streamline and deliver projects more efficiently - making this generation of professionals highly desirable in the financial services industry.”

As the war for talent continues, employers are adapting hiring practices aimed at sourcing highly-skilled millennial professionals. Over the past two years, more than two in three (66%) financial services employers have partnered with universities to source millennial candidates, 47% have increased their use of social networking sites as a recruitment method, and 39% are recruiting graduate-level professionals from overseas.

“To build the professional teams of the future, companies need to rethink their hiring strategies in order to attract younger professionals. In particular, firms need to act quickly to secure the best talent rather than allowing the recruitment process to drag out and risk losing quality candidates. Conversely, Gen Y financial services professionals should take every opportunity to equip themselves with the right skills needed to secure a role and gain valuable experience,” added Imbert-Bouchard.