Almost two-thirds of employers in the UK financial services sector are struggling to attract young talent, research has revealed.
According to Davies, a professional services and technology consultancy, 70% of respondents to its survey said they had a positive and supportive culture, yet 63% thought more encouragement was needed to attract younger people into finance.
The top challenge when attracting recruits was meeting their salary expectations, the survey found. Forty-three per cent of senior leaders said this was an issue.
Other issues included offering a balance between remote and on-site work (38%), offering comprehensive benefits packages (36%), demonstrating clear career development opportunities (35%) and caring for employee mental health (33%).
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Financial services companies were also worried about digital skills gaps. Although 65% of people in middle management or lower positions thought they had sufficient skills to excel at their jobs, 63% of senior managers thought a lack of digital skills issues was hampering their workforce.
Almost a third of senior managers said a lack of digital skills was “a very serious issue”.
David Leen from the regulated markets division at Davies, said firms would have to overcome these challenges if they wanted to remain competitive.
“Offering competitive salaries is important but businesses must focus on developing a rounded offering to present to prospective and current staff if they want to win the fierce battle for talent,” he said.
Craig Potter, senior partner in professional education at the company, added: “That such a high proportion of managers have identified the need to attract younger talent to the sector shows that this is an ongoing and urgent challenge.
“Financial services organisations must be able to compete with other industries to attract the most talented individuals. As such, they need to have strategies in place not only to recruit younger colleagues in the first place but to develop and nurture them effectively, paving the way for a new generation of senior leaders.”
Earlier this week a CIPD study found that more than half of employers feel that young people are not ready for the workplace, lacking important social skills or not knowing how to behave at work.
Further research by learning consultancy The Smarty Train revealed that almost a third of graduates and apprentices leave their first roles within three years.
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