Attracting And Retaining Employees In The Financial Sector

Challenges Faced by the Financial Industry in Australia

Attracting and Retaining Employees in the Financial Sector

As opined by Damianos and Harker (2014), the financial sector refers to the sector which comprises of the organizations as well as firms that are concerned with offering financial services to the retail and commercial customers. Patterson and McEachern (2018) are of the viewpoint that the services offered by this sector or industry are not just limited to the retail and the commercial loans but at the same time consists of other kinds of services like insurances, pension plans, provident funds and other similar ones. More importantly, apart from the government sponsored and private banking institutions the industry also comprises of the insurance companies, real estate organizations and similar ones (Moffatt & Campbell, 2011). According to Tlaiss (2013), the prominence that the financial sector has attained in the contemporary times can be explained not only on the basis of the plethora of services that it offers but at the same time on the basis of the yearly revenue generated by it. As a matter of fact, the gross revenue generated by the global finance industry for the 2017 was $6.6 trillion and showed an increase of 6% increase in revenue in comparison to 2016 (Patterson & McEachern, 2018).

As stated by Nnamseh (2012), the industry just like the other industries of the world is currently suffering from various kinds of labor issues and also the employee turnover rate prevalent within the industry is very high. This poses a significant amount of danger to the growth as well as the development of the industry and thus different organizations are trying to take the help of the processes of recruitment of new employees to the industry and also to reduce the high attrition rate. This essay will explore the role of recruitment of new employees and also retaining them within the financial industry in the context of the challenges faced by the financial industry at the current moment.

One of the major challenges that the financial sector of Australia is currently facing is its inability of the organizations and also the HR professionals related to these organizations to attract fresh talented individuals to this industry. In this regard, it can be said that the financial sector of Australia before the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 used to offer employment to more than 11.4 million individuals from the different parts of the nation (Clark, 2016). However, post the crisis the financial institutions started terminating the employees so as to reduce their operational cost and many of these organizations even went to the extent of reducing their workforce by more than 50% (Turner, Glaister & Al Amri, 2016). The net result of this is that these organizations even in the present times when the situation had stabilized in a significant manner are not being able to get the adequate number of candidates to fill all the job positions within their organizations (Rabbi et al., 2015). This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the employees who were terminated in the 2007-2008 without any apparent fault of their, had not only moved on to the other industries but at the same time developed a distrust of the financial industry itself (Meyer & Xin, 2018). This in turn had greatly affected the employability sector of Australia and it was seen that as of 2018 more than 30% of the jobs of the different organizations related to the financial sector were lying vacant because of the inability of the HR professionals to attract new candidates (Patterson & McEachern, 2018).

Impact on Industry Performance

Van Zyl, Mathafena and Ras (2017) have articulated the viewpoint that the overall performance or the productivity of an organization depends significantly on the individual performance or the productivity of the different employees. Thus, it can be said that the labor issue that the financial sector of Australia is currently facing is likely to adversely affect the performance of the entire industry itself. This becomes especially important in the light of the shocking revelations of the Royal Banking Commission of 2017 had made it clear the different financial institutions like Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and others have been taking the help of unethical means to enhance their profitability (Elia, Ghazzawi & Arnaout, 2017). This can be seen as an attempt of these organizations not only to overcome the loss that they faced because of the financial crisis of 2007-2008 but also that they are currently because of the lack of skilled as well as professional employees. Thus, the HR professionals in order to mitigate this issue are actively trying to attract new candidates within the fold of these organizations.

Schlechter, Thompson and Bussin (2015) are of the viewpoint that the HR professionals so as to address the problem of labor are not only following the traditional system of recruitment and selection but at the same time are resorting to the use of the framework of e-recruitment as well. For example, it is seen that using the traditional system, the HR professionals advertise regarding the job openings in the newspapers, magazines and similar sources and also the job interviews are conducted physically on a face-to-face basis (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2016). On the other hand, there are organizations like Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and others which are actively taking the help of the framework of e-recruitment (Kakar, Raziq & Khan, 2017). The HR professionals through the use of this method advertise regarding the job vacancies over the official website of the organization and also over the various online job portals like LinkedIn, Monster.com and others (Bratton & Gold, 2017). More importantly, the HRs can also track the right kind of candidates over these job portals because of the information which are being offered by these individuals over their profiles (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2016). However, for the process of recruitment of fresh candidates the HRs and also the organizations related to the financial sector need to take into effective consideration various legislations of the Australian government pertaining to the recruitment of new employees. Some of the most important ones in this regard are the Anti-Discrimination Act, Equality Act, Fair Work Act and others in addition to the preference that they would have to offer to the people related to the protected class (Bratton & Gold, 2017).

One of the major issues that the different organizations related to the financial sector in Australia are currently facing is the high employee turnover rate and also the loss of some of the most talented employees of the organization to rivals. Turner, Glaister and Al Amri (2016) have articulated the viewpoint that the entity of employee turnover is dependent on a plethora of factors, namely, job satisfaction, organizational culture, job design, salary, compensation, incentives and others. A closer look at the factors which affect the entity of employee turnover reveals the fact that the majority of these job roles belongs to the duty of the HR professionals. Thus, the place held by the HRs within the framework of the contemporary financial industry and also the job roles performed by them become even more important. It is pertinent to note that the employees within the financial are often required to work for long durations and although they are offered lucrative wages yet the monthly targets that they are given are very difficult to achieve (van Zyl, Mathafena & Ras, 2017). The net result of this is that the employees in order to achieve the targets that have been given to them had to work overtime and thereby fail to maintain an effective balance between their personal and professional lives. More importantly, this inability of the employees to maintain an effective work-life balance coupled with the extremely long hours that they have to work so as to achieve their monthly targets often creates dissatisfaction among the employees regarding their job (Schlechter, Thompson & Bussin, 2015). This in turn makes them quit the present job that they are doing and accounts for the high rate of attrition prevalent within the financial sector of Australia. In addition to these, in the present times it is seen that the majority of the Australian financial institutions like Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, ANZ and others have evolved a “greed culture” which requires the employees to enhance the profit earned by the organization at any cost regardless of whether the measure that they are using ethical or not (Elia, Ghazzawi & Arnaout, 2017). However, it is seen that this unethical style of work is not in synchronicity with the morals held by all the people and thus they feel comfortable to leave the job rather than use those unethical practices.   

Role of E-Recruitment

Kakar, Raziq and Khan (2017) have stated that the low level of job-satisfaction which exists among many employees of the organizations related to the financial sector of Australia not only reduces their monthly or yearly performance but at the same affects the morale of the other employees. More importantly, the organizations as well as the HR professionals spend a considerable amount of their resources for providing training to the employees the primary objective of which is to teach them the kind of skills that will enable them to perform as per the expectation of the organization (Meyer & Xin, 2018). However, if these employees leave after the training program then it becomes a loss on the part of the organization since it had spent its resources on the employees hoping to derive profit from them (Rabbi et al., 2015). Thus, the HR professionals in order to reduce the attrition rate of the organizations would have to enhance the job satisfaction of the employees. For the attainment of this particular end, they can take the help of the process of motivation, leadership, effective job design and others which will positively enhance the performance level of the employees and thereby their job satisfaction level (Turner, Glaister & Al Amri, 2016). In addition to this, offering effective as well as job specific trainings to the employees would also help them in a significant manner to reduce the high attrition rate (Maheshwari et al., 2017). More importantly, the HR professionals would also have to take active initiatives for the improvement of the existing workplace or organizational culture which is being followed within the organizations and make it to more congenial so that the employees would be able to work in a better manner (Schlechter, Thompson & Bussin, 2015).

There are various measures through which the organizations related to the financial sector of Australia can attract more employees to their organization and also reduce the rate of attrition of employees. Firstly, extensive usage of innovative technologies for the purpose of recruiting new candidates is likely to help the HR professionals to not only reach out to a larger number of candidates but at the same time would make the entire process less time as well as cost consuming (Clark, 2016). For example, currently it is seen that the HR professionals are using the process of e-recruitment for the profiling of candidates however the usage of the same for conducting online tests, video interviews and others is likely to help the HRs to address the labor issues faced by the organizations in a significant manner. Secondly, for the enhancement of the job satisfaction level of the employees the HR professionals can take the help of various measures like employee engagement, rewards and recognition, effectively motivating the employees and others which are likely to make the employees feel positive regarding their work (Bratton & Gold, 2017). In addition to these, the use of the concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) by the HRs is likely to benefit both the organization and also the employees (Kakar, Raziq & Khan, 2017). The effective usage of this concept will enable the HRs to strategically align the individual objectives or goals of the employees with the overall objectives or goals of the entire organization. The purpose of this is not only to enhance the performance level of the workers but at the same to integrate them within the framework of the organization and thereby make them feel that they are a part of the organization itself.

Consideration of Government Regulations

Conclusion

To conclude, the HR professionals are playing an ever increasing role within the spectrum of the different contemporary organizations. The result of this is that they are no longer relegated to the background rather they are playing an active role in the business operations of the organizations. In this regard, it needs to be said that two of the most common challenges or the problems that the majority of the contemporary firms are currently facing are labor crisis issue and the problem of employee attrition. These two problems or challenges become even more important when the financial sector of Australia is taken into consideration. It is pertinent to note that for the resolution of these two problems faced by the majority of the organizations related to the financial sector of Australia, the HR professional would have to play a pivotal role. For example, they would have to make extensive usage of the process of e-recruitment and help the organizations to hire adequate number of employees who are needed to complete the work of the organization. Secondly, for the reduction of the attrition rate of the organization HR professionals needs to improve the job design, workplace culture, training, leadership, employee engagement and other factors which are likely to enhance the job satisfaction level of the employees. Thus, it can be said that in the present times the HR department has become an integral part of the business enterprises.   

References

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