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Four in five HR leaders in UK financial services companies say their organisation is facing a skills crisis, which may affect their business transformation plans. This is according to people analytics company Visier, which warned of a “skills ticking time bomb” in the finance sector. Fifty-six per cent of HR professionals felt the current workforce needs more upskilling than staff who were on their payrolls a decade ago. Eighty-eight per cent witnessed skills shortages. This is affecting their plans for business transformation: 67% say that a lack of available candidates is holding back their organisation’s digital transformation strategy. Businesses could not overlook the skills crisis as they settled into new ways of working encouraged by the pandemic, said Daniel Mason, Visier vice president EMEA. “It should be a wake up call to the industry to see that a huge proportion of HR teams believe the industry’s skills shortage is holding back mission-critical transformation,” he said. “To keep up with customers’ constantly increasing expectations for digital services, and to retain current talented employees, businesses need full insight into their staff’s capabilities and identify where gaps need to be filled. Investing in learning opportunities and upskilling current employees will reduce churn and boost competitiveness.” HR leaders do not believe the issue will be addressed quickly and estimated that it would be solved in 3.5 years. They could also face a talent exodu