Gaining an edge in the competition for talent: Inclusive recruitment in financial services survey

Financial services organisations need to 'walk the diversity talk' to tap into complete talent market

Financial services organisations are falling short

FS organisations are seeking to broaden their talent pool as skills needs change and competition for key people increases. A crucial part of this is increasing the attraction to women and groups less well-represented in the workforce, including people with disabilities and people from ethnic minorities.

Yet, while some report strong progress, the survey findings indicate that diversity and inclusion is still more of a high level commitment than a reality on the ground within many FS organisations.

Based on a dual employer / employee survey conducted by PwC, this report on inclusive recruitment gives some elements of responses to why so many FS organisations are failing to broaden recruitment, and looks at the strategies and practices being adopted by the leading FS organisations to gain a decisive edge in the competition for talent as a result.

Please download the report below to find out more. 

Challenging stereotypes 

Candidates want an honest picture of the employment experience and culture before making a decision on where to work. As our survey highlights, nearly 70% of female participants working in FS looked at the diversity of the leadership team when deciding to accept a position with their most recent employer, and over half of them asked about their diversity and inclusion policy during their interview. 

  

High level commitments aren’t enough

How can your organisation make real progress in broadening recruitment?

Root out biases:

The financial services organisations that are most successful in attracting women and minority groups have adopted a more systematic approach to identifying and tackling the biases that impede inclusive recruitment. 45% of FS respondents to PwC’s 2017 inclusive recruitment survey have introduced training about unconscious bias for all their interviewers.

What gets measured gets done: 

monitoring data on the proportion of women and minority groups at each stage of the talent pipeline helps to identify the issues most in need of tackling.

Manage diversity and inclusion as a reputational risk: 

Transparency over diversity and inclusion is important for both men and women in deciding what employer to work for. As such it’s important to recognise this as a reputational risk, rather than just an HR issue.

Cast the net wider: 

Employers point to an insufficient candidate pool as the biggest barrier to hiring more women but nearly half of the FS employers in our survey have no programme for professional women returning from career breaks.

Use technology to broaden your talent pool: 

The latest artificial intelligence (AI) systems can help you to cast your talent net further and target individual candidates. They can also offer a more accurate match between position and candidate, cutting out a lot of the unconscious biases.

  

Contact us

Bhushan Sethi

Strategy&, Principal, PwC United States

Tel: +1 (646) 471 2377

Katy Bennett

Reward and Employment Director, PwC (UK)

Tel: +44(0)20 7213 5168

Taylor Goodman

Director, Organisation & Workforce Transformation, PwC United States

Tel: +1 212 461 9377

Follow us