The pandemic, its after-effects, how it has altered businesses and industries worldwide, how it has led to rapid digitization and technological innovations and challenges alike, and more – we’ve witnessed it all over the last couple of years. However, one crucial aspect hasn’t changed – people will always remain the most crucial asset of an organization, and this is evident in how companies prioritize their workforce over profit margins. There has been a sea of changes in human resource management. At the same time, technological advancements are opening a new frontier of opportunities for organizations to amplify their HR functions – including recruitment.

New-age, technology-backed recruitment tools help attract, source, and employ better-qualified and worthy candidates, relieving recruiters of the pressure, and saving time and money for businesses. However, the availability of diverse tools and platforms working towards better recruitment has made it tricky to differentiate between each and narrow down the right one for your recruitment needs. Thus, having a better knowledge of the available tech and building a tech stack will help you improve your talent acquisition. Dive below to learn what exactly a tech stack is and how to build the ultimate one.

Recruitment tech stack – a new buzzword or a lifesaver?

With the hybrid and remote work cultures coming to light, it has become unimaginable to recruit employees without the help of technology. However, with new recruitment solutions popping up almost every day, it can get overwhelming for recruiters to select the right digital solutions for their hiring needs. Moreover, despite their best efforts, many recruiters find themselves armed with solutions that aren’t a good fit for their particular needs. This is where a recruitment technology stack comes into the picture. It is a combination of applications, tools, and platforms used to find, attract, and hire talent. Having the ultimate recruitment tech stack handy enhances the overall hiring process, enabling you to hire more qualified and worthy candidates – definitely a lifesaver for HR teams and professionals!

As there is no universal solution available or a recruitment tech stack that will work for every organization out there, you need to build your own. Although each company has its own unique hiring needs, it is possible to pinpoint certain commonalities to help organizations put together the right mix of tools and technologies that will work for them. Here are steps to consider while building your own ultimate recruitment tech stack.

Also Read: HR Software for Remote Employee Management – 5 Must-have Features

Steps to building an ultimate recruitment tech stack

A sound understanding of what a tech stack is can help you build a compelling one. Consider these steps to get an edge in the competitive recruitment world.

Asking these questions will help you understand whether the current solution is working to your advantage and what you should consider while buying new technology for your hiring needs.

• Identify needs and challenges

  Every great thing starts with a roadmap. To understand the solutions that will work best for your recruitment needs, you must have a robust plan in place. First, outline your entire hiring process and note the changes you need to make, such as particular business needs to be addressed, challenges faced by your human resource teams, and problems that require a solution. This will give you a thorough picture of what needs to be done and why. Once you know your destination, you can quickly get on the way.

• Create a technology backbone

  Building a tech stack needs a technology backbone to rely on. The solutions you choose should fulfill specific criteria, such as easy integration with other applications, strong built-in analytics, should be mobile-friendly, etc. Many recruiters agree with the fact that an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the foundation of the recruitment technology stack. It allows you to leverage data collection and automation to optimize the hiring process. It is an end-to-end HR software that automates the entire hiring process, helping HR teams manage their recruitment function better.

• Review the available solutions

  The technology landscape seems overwhelming when it comes to recruitment, with countless options available for different functions. However, your unique hiring needs decide the solutions you should be addressing. Here are the tools for various functions that you can consider while building your recruitment tech stack.

  • Sourcing
  • Recruitment marketing
  • Candidate screening
  • Candidate assessment
  • Onboarding
  • Other solutions

• Make key considerations

  While making a purchase, it is a normal human tendency to assess the product with some considerations in mind. Recruiting technology is no exception – your past experiences, challenges, and performance decide the next purchase. Here are things to consider while buying new tools for the best recruiting.

  • Can your team use the current tool without any prior training?
  • Has the performance changed after integrating the solution?
  • Can the solution be integrated with other applications?
  • On what scale did the tool optimize your processes?
  • How was the overall recruiting experience?
  • What needs to be enhanced?
  • Did you use all the features provided by your solution provider?
  • What is the one feature that would have made your experience better?

• Optimize the stack

  Once you embrace the new technology, start experimenting to get acquainted with the tool. Meanwhile, ensure to find ways to improve your tech stack. Analyze if you are meeting the desired results. And if not, what is the one thing holding you back? Even if you are completely satisfied with the technology you have bought, a future-centric point of view would definitely help. Your business needs and organizational environment will never be the same; ensure you get along well with the changes over time.

5 Must-have tools for your recruitment tech stack

Recruiting is far more than just filling empty seats – it’s a strategic imperative. Attracting new mindsets, not only benefits the company but the whole administration. Consider these tools while building your tech stack.

• Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

  The first thing you need to consider for your recruitment tech stack is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for managing the flow of candidates. ATS helps consolidate candidate information, track the source platform, and help employers stay compliant with EEOC policies. As a result, you can easily create and nurture a pool of candidates to call upon in the future.

• AI Sourcing Tool

  To fill open roles, sourcing is the first step where the awareness of company and open positions is built. It is also considered one of the most time-consuming tasks in a hiring funnel. AI sourcing tools automate the candidate search and streamline the process, ensuring the right candidates come across the right positions available.

• Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) Software

  CRMs organize the candidate data in a searchable database, send automated emails, and analyze the success rates of different recruiting strategies. In many cases, CRMs also allow scheduling calls to plan interviews seamlessly.

• Recruiting Chatbot

  It is a conversational interface that helps screen candidates answer queries, schedule interviews, and more. Some chatbots also allow checking the application status. In a nutshell, recruiting chatbots modernizes the candidate experience helping you hire the best talent.

• Virtual Assessment Tool

  Virtual assessment tools help speed up the application reviewing process. The modernized versions with AI allow the evaluation of writing samples, telephonic interviews, video calls, and virtual skill tests. Furthermore, predictive analytics, machine learning, and virtual assessment tools can help evaluate the skills and aptitude personalities of candidates.

The bottom line

It’s always a wise decision to put employees first while building a recruitment tech stack. The better the candidate experience you provide, the longer you will be able to retain candidates in your organization. With the technology landscape continuously evolving, partnering with an experienced talent partner like Exela HR Solutions can help you build a robust tech ecosystem that works to meet all your HR needs and helps you prepare for what the future holds.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Modern private equity and venture capitalist firms have been around for over half a century. With time, these firms have gotten better and more efficient at what they do by leveraging technology and expertise. This is why, nowadays, you won’t get to read any news about major PE or VC firms blowing up and ending up bankrupt. Advanced tech like machine learning, artificial intelligence, neural networks, etc., allows them to process and analyze data with extremely high accuracy, enabling them to make highly accurate decisions which helps them make massive strides that eventually result in fast and sustainable growth over a long period. Having said that, it is often noticed that this level of positive and aggressive change is not exactly translated over properly to other internal departments within these companies. In this article, we will be going through the important details of how PE and VC firms can leverage HR to find areas of untapped potential that can be accessed to find more growth.

Definitions and Distinction

The term ‘private equity’ is commonly used in a broad and all-inclusive sense by both proponents of the industry and its critics. Simply put, these are two fundamentally different forms of investment.

First, the early-stage investments in new endeavors that often operate in emerging or fast-changing sectors are commonly termed ‘venture capital’ or ‘VC’. There is a broad consensus that venture capital’s effects are generally positive, other than, in some instances, contributing to excessive speculative bidding up of share prices.

Second, and what is often referred to as ‘private equity’ per se, is the buying out of mature enterprises by large investment groups on the basis that a change in governance and management style (or an ability of the present management to operate more effectively) will lead to greater returns. The second category, in and of itself, is diverse. There are buyouts by outsiders, including leveraged buyouts (LBOs), management buy-ins (MBIs), and investor-led buyouts (IBOs).

Another different category of business called ‘hedge funds’ is also commonly clubbed in with the definition of ‘private equity,’ which is anything but accurate. In the most basic sense, ‘hedge funds’ are organizations that take large sums of money from the super-rich, a.k.a HNIs (High Networth Individuals), and give them to professional money managers, who invest those sums of money in the various types of global money markets to derive better-than-average returns. So, not exactly ‘private equity.

Also Read: Top HR Challenges in Financial Services Industry

HR Challenges in PE and VC Firms

• Lack of Internal Flexibility: Most VC and PE firms do not have a typical organizational structure like most other companies do. This is why the standard, template, HR activities and methodologies do not work very well.

  For example, compensation for a typical associate in a VC firm could look very different from associates in other companies who operate in other industries. Part of the compensation could be an offer for stakes in a client company and variable pay could consist of various different variables that do not fit in the ‘conventional HR’ spectrum. Another example is expense tracking. Complex expense tracking might require fairly high degrees of customizations to be made for the tracking to happen successfully.

• Lack of Talent Professionals: Most VC firms receive around 50-60 inbound profiles daily, including those of senior professionals and industry experts. Most of the time, they might not have the right opportunities for these profiles within their organization. But on the other hand, ignoring such gems would be a colossal waste of brand value if not used to match with portfolio companies.

  For example, a VC firm might have a portfolio of 110 companies that operate in different industries. The VC could then get an excellent profile for the role of a data scientist at a time when they are not actively hiring for that position. In such cases, the VC could sift through their portfolio of companies to identify which company is actively hiring for the data scientist role. Once identified, the VC could then forward the profile to those companies from their portfolio. This matchmaking often requires extra teams of expert talent professionals who are fully qualified to coordinate and communicate with all stakeholders involved.

• Lack of Effective Control on HR Departments of Portfolio Companies: While it may seem that VC and PE firms know what they are doing with their own HR department, more often than not, they have very little to no insight or control over the HR departments of their portfolio companies. This is a commonly known area of improvement in this industry. Think about it, every business on the planet is run by people at different levels in the organization. If there are no people or poorly managed people, there is no possibility of the business thriving in the long run. An HR department is, therefore, the most important part of any business, irrespective of location or industry.

Solution to these Problems

There are three different solutions to solving the HR problem in venture capital and private equity firms.

First, set up and manage a full-size HR team within the organization. The best part about going this route is that you have complete control over what happens in the HR department. Every micro-decision can be carefully thought through and reviewed before arriving at a conclusion. But on the contrary, the absolute worst part about this is the extremely high cost of setting up and maintaining a full-size HR team on your payroll.

Second, find software applications that fit your needs and solve all your HR problems. The best part of going this route is having instant access to important information in order to make important decisions. Most HR-related software applications provide solid insights based on the data that is fed regularly into the system. But on the other hand, the cost is still a huge factor in this option. Additionally, you still have to set up and maintain a sizable HR team to operate this enterprise-grade software. This adds to the cost.

Third, outsource the problematic areas of your HR. For example, you come to the conclusion that your internal HR team can handle recruitment activities without any problem, but when it comes to payroll management, they don’t seem to cross that invisible line into ‘good-enough’ territory. In such cases, you might choose to outsource the payroll activities of your business while still reserving the hiring activities for yourself to manage.

The best part of going this route is that you have clearly identified what works and what doesn’t in your HR department. What doesn’t work is handled by experts outside your company, while what works is handled by experts inside your company - a no-brainer, win-win situation. The worst part about this arrangement is that you might lose some control over day-to-day decision-making.

An extra, fourth option also exists that is more effective than all the previous three options combined.

Outsource all of your HR activities. Everything, from recruitment and payroll to compensation and training, is handled by experts outside your company. This is the most cost-effective and practical solution that new and upcoming VC and PE firms use most of the time. Even more important and valuable than cost-savings is the absence of people management headaches that take up management’s resources and time.

Exela HR Solutions offers end-to-end HR management for businesses of all sizes across multiple geographies and industries. Get in touch with our experts to learn more about our offerings.

Sources: google.com | en.wikipedia.org | reddit.com | twitter.com | quora.com | freshworks.com | linkedin.com | journals.sagepub.com | statista.com

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

The advent of COVID-19, its adverse effects, shutting down doors for physical work, and the new era of hybrid and remote work – we’re all quite familiar with these terms and scenarios. Perhaps, we have learned to live with the new reality. But is it the same for HR teams? HR’s career revolves around employees – their needs and requirements. Casting our minds back to 2019, no one would have imagined that we’d be living in a world where working from anywhere would be the new norm.

Back in the day, we happily seemed to be going about with our 9-to-5 work life, content in our physical workplaces. Nevertheless, according to a survey, 99% of respondents desired to work remotely – if not permanently, at least for a shorter tenure, throughout their career. Coming back to the era we are living in, the dream of many has come true – now, 83% of employees prefer remote work over working from the office. While some organizations are returning to the offices, others are opting for a permanent work-from-home model or hybrid work arrangements. That being said, managing teams remotely comes with its own set of challenges. Establishing a positive organizational culture and a unified team is challenging from afar but imperative for business growth. To manage teams better, retain talent, and drive business growth, organizations must bring unique attributes to the table to simplify the job for their HR teams.

Here’s how HR can effectively manage larger teams situated across the globe with ease using smart technologies and intelligent features that come with HR Outsourcing and Management platforms like Exela’s EHRS:

HR software for remote team management – 5 must-have features

Employees and business owners worldwide have been navigating a new, remote reality for the last two years. The hybrid and remote work models are building new discussions around the best practices to manage remote teams, retain worthy talent, and grow business. One might find the right candidate for the available positions, but how can one ensure they blend in easily? How does one onboard several employees at the same time? Would they be able to engage with the brand without in-person interactions or face-to-face assessments? The first step to virtually hiring employees is to elevate your online presence and brand image. Does online presence only count in social activities? Of course not! It is a great medium to communicate your organizational values, goals, and culture. HR management software has made it a lot easier to handle daily activities with grace. They offer multiple features to make the processes hassle-free.

Here are 5 must-have features for HR management software to make remote team management efficient and effective.

• Employee Onboarding

  For employee or any recruiter, onboarding is one the most significant tasks. What does it take to onboard a new employee? Is it just shooting out an email with the subject line “Welcome Aboard?” Signing the legal paperwork for employment? It is far more than we can imagine. The very first time an employee interacts with the organization is through the onboarding process – so there shouldn’t be any room for errors. Recruiters must ensure the new joiners get all the information they need about the organization – its values, culture, technologies, vision, and goals to help them fulfill the expected performance requirements. A smooth, delightful experience can help reduce employees’ time-to-productivity, enhance engagement, boost morale, and increase loyalty. Exela’s HR solutions have it all to fulfill all your recruitment needs – from finding the right talent, hiring, and rolling out offer letters and recruitment papers to onboarding; you can outsource everything under one roof.

• Employee Self-Service

  Nowadays, everyone desires transparent communication and operations, as do employees. As a result, employees seek on-demand access to their required employment lifecycle information on portals. To gain employees’ loyalty toward the organization, it is crucial to give them access to information such as employment data, tax documents, leave balances, shared company documents, holiday lists, employee benefits, and more. This helps employees check the status of their benefits and leaves, request time offs, and regularize attendance, saving HR departments countless hours. Organizations can make this happen through HR software that allows access irrespective of the geographic location, with the only requirement being an internet connection and the employee self-service feature.

• Payroll Processing

  Calculating salaries with fair consideration of leaves and tax deductions such as PF, PT, and TDS, rolling out salaries to each employee, and providing payslips – seem like tedious and multifaceted tasks to do. Along with other HR tasks, paying salaries on time and managing documentation amidst the chaos of remote work scenarios can be challenging. Earlier, HRs used to take around 3-14 days to complete the payroll processing – this is something that is hard to imagine in today’s era, where everyone is working remotely from different locations and time zones. This is why good human resource management software is a necessity. It gives HRs the leverage to automate HR processes with less manual intervention and minimized errors. Payroll processing via an online HR solution would reduce weeks’ worth of work to just a few hours! In addition, HR software that provides payroll processing features allows you to integrate attendance and time modules with the payroll function to help you get accurate numbers.

Also Read: New HR trend: HR entrepreneurs

• Analytics and Reporting

  Data is only as good as you can use it – there isn’t any value in tracking the HR information when you can’t use it to your advantage. You can draw enormous benefits by analyzing employee information and data – their requirements, interests, and disinclinations. In addition, this data will further help you plan training and development sessions, add to the list of benefits, tweak processes, incorporate new tools or technologies, and increase employee productivity and loyalty. Specifically, in the era of remote work, it is imperative to understand your employees and acknowledge their needs in order to retain worthy talent. Good human resource software must come with analytics and reporting features, making it easier to analyze, comprehend, and plan accordingly. Customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, automated data gathering, access controls, and financial analysis are a few of the analytical functions in human resource management software that enable you to make data-backed, informed decisions and enhance overall performance.

• Workflow Automation

  From communication and coordination to document sharing, scheduling meetings, integrating security standards, and task management – HRs deal with dozens of complex tasks on a daily basis. Furthermore, with the emergence of new challenges due to the remote work culture, it has become way more complex than it previously was. Most commonly, repetitive tasks tend to drag down efficiency and productivity. This is where automation comes into the picture. As we already know, automation makes work easy, secure, and efficient. The same applies to HRs – while shuffling through countless tasks and working hours, automation can bring a sigh of relief for HRs handling remote teams. For instance, you might automate the weekly or monthly reminders for any pending tasks, disseminate emails to keep everyone on the same page and spend more time planning activities to increase employee engagement instead. Your HR management software must allow you to automate mundane, time-consuming, repetitive tasks, allowing you time to focus on more priority work instead.

Wrapping up!

When you get just about every HR service under one umbrella, it marks the end of most of your HR challenges. Exela’s state-of-the-art HR Solutions can help HR departments save countless hours spent on repetitive administrative tasks, allowing time to focus on business strategy, employee development, and employee engagement. It provides a one-stop solution for all HR needs, such as recruiting, onboarding, payroll processing, compensation and benefits management, HR business and partner services, and a lot more. Try Exela’s HR solutions today!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Entrepreneurs – Most probably the people who set up a business or take ahead the initiative to create a product or service in the hope of profit. But is that it? Do entrepreneurs only satisfy a business need? Definitely not! Good entrepreneurs have the ability to find a solution to any given problem, irrespective of the context. In a nutshell, entrepreneurship is more of a mindset than a business model that works on innovative thinking. Having an entrepreneurial mindset is a crucial aspect in today’s ever-evolving world, where every minute speaks of new innovations.

Human resources are known to be the domain that works on deeply rooted processes and lacks creative, innovative thinking. HR departments generally deal with basic needs that need leaner, easier processes, which can restrict innovative thinking. However, having an entrepreneurial mindset is pivotal for Human Resources (HR) as they are a core function of any organization. So, how can we give that entrepreneurial twist to the age-old methods of human resources along with a zest for innovation, creativity, and dynamism? Dive into this new HR trend that has been emerging in the industry lately called ‘HR Entrepreneurs.’ Here’s everything you must know about it.

What is an HR entrepreneur?

Irrespective of the size, industry, or type, the HR department is one of the most crucial aspects of any business, necessary for employee well-being. Right from the hiring, payroll, benefits, and layoffs to keeping up with the state and federal tax laws – HR professionals have to manage everything. In such an environment, having an elegant and aesthetic setup isn’t enough to foster an entrepreneurial culture – continuous motivation and inspiration to drive high performance are imperative. Moreover, when your base is firm, you can always reach higher heights. Similarly, as HRs build the foundation of an organization, they can definitely rev up their entrepreneurial journey.

Ideally, there isn’t a specific definition of an HR entrepreneur. HR entrepreneurs are HR professionals of any level who have:

• Strong professional HR knowledge
• Good business knowledge, such as customer service, project management, and more.
• Understanding of the industrial environment and market in which the business operates.
• Constant look to benchmark the organization against industry standards and quality.
• A business mindset with continuous hunger to drive better results and ROI.
• Strategic thinking to excel in business requirements and thrive in a modern yet ever-changing business environment.

Also Read: Benefits of HR Outsourcing: How Small Businesses Can Ace their HR Functions

4 Ways HR professionals can thrive in their entrepreneurial journey

HR entrepreneur is a new emerging buzzword that is all the rage when you look through the trough of the latest HR trends. While it is evident that having an entrepreneurial mindset is crucial, it is of paramount importance for HRs to step ahead of the age-old methods and embrace new technologies and creative thinking. If you are looking to step into the business world, here are four ways you can embrace an innovative mindset to always stay ahead of the curve and thrive in your entrepreneurial journey.

• Constraints – not a barrier anymore!

  Overcoming constraints enables you to innovate better. If you are just like the other HRs, most specifically, solo practitioners, you might never find enough to go around – not sufficient resources, money, time, or more. Ironically, this could be a good thing as a challenge can spur an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset. Instead of freaking out about the impediments, embrace them and use them to your advantage. If you can find solutions to any problem, innovate things, and creatively handle operations with limited resources in hand, you can thrive in your entrepreneurial journey.

• Don’t stay in your lane

  HR needs to work closely with other employees in order to provide their needs and requirements. Though HR work within their community, they must hone holistic business and communication skills in order to push forward on their entrepreneurial journey. The focus should always be on enabling everything through HR to better understand the business – finances, operational details, market scenarios, competitors, and market trends. HRs who go beyond the usual with innovative thinking can see long-term business opportunities. People in the HR community who have a business-savvy mindset, who can survive in the competitive market, who can take responsibility, who understand how a business really works, who believe in optimizing the risks, and who have a customer-centric approach, are true entrepreneurs.

• Ask questions

  Being an entrepreneur requires you to wear everyone’s hat – you have to play multiple roles at the beginning. Business leaders face numerous issues diving through administrative tasks, business needs, and stringent security requirements. However, they find their way through obstacles. How do entrepreneurial leaders get so comfortable with the facts? How do they never run out of ideas? No one’s a born entrepreneur – you need to get into that position where you can always make tough decisions. It is easier and wiser to gain insights from people you work with, your competitors, the market, etc. Asking them questions and getting insights from each aspect of the business would help you stand out in the long-term business landscape. To be in the position of an HR entrepreneur, you must have solutions to every problem your business might face.

• Lead the change you want to see!

  Today’s business landscape is rapidly changing, and so is the workplace. With a world full of ongoing innovations, cutting-edge technologies, and phenomenal talent, you can’t just wait for your turn; you need to lead the change. It is well-proven that when you visualize something, you are in the driver’s seat. Anything happening in the HR department is an opportunity to create future-proof ideas and be in the position of a leader. Aggressively pursuing opportunities, even in HR practices, has the potential to invoke the inner leader in you. If you are visualizing a goal and leading the way, you can thrive in your journey to become an HR entrepreneur.

Starting out on your own requires wearing many hats. However, if you want to thrive in the market with a successful and profitable business, the administrative tasks must be handed off to talented HR. For HR entrepreneurs, it is easier to manage a business on their own. But after a certain point, prioritizing business needs becomes crucial. The situation asks for someone entirely dedicated to management-related tasks. This is where a trusted brand, a powerhouse of HR experience and skill, can step in to bring in the proverbial cavalry. Such a service can handle HR activities skillfully, strategically, and often at far lower prices than if you had to set up an HR team internally. Exela offers a wide range of HR services to streamline your HR operations. This allows you time to focus on the actual business, your core strategies, and your innovations. Talk to our experts about the best HR practices that your business needs.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

In a world full of evolving innovations, ever-changing consumer expectations were already expecting the financial services industry to speed-up the process of digitalization – and then COVID-19 happened. The financial services industry, barely known for adaptability, had to make sweeping changes. A major shift was seen in employee productivity and efficiency – everyone was forced to work from home. For years, we had been living in a perception that an office is a focal place to maintain productivity and culture. Now, with remote and hybrid work becoming a norm, it is imperative for HR teams to bolster a digitized experience for employee engagement and productivity.

As the pandemic has revived these major work trends, it has fallen upon HR professionals to navigate through these large-scale shifts and reconsider their approach. The increased need for employee diversity and to reskill the workforce has added to an already full plate for HR professionals in the financial services industry. Initially, it was limited to maintaining workforce engagement and efficiency. Now that the need to make thriving changes has surpassed, HR teams must acknowledge a few challenges and stay abreast. Let’s take a closer look at some of the HR challenges in the financial services industry.

HR challenges in the financial services industry

The role of HR professionals is changing at an ever-increasing pace. HR teams have come a long way, from handling employee documentation to having a strategic position in organizations. As the financial services industry prides itself on cutting-edge security, it is of paramount importance for HR professionals to prudently bolster the changes. Social unrest, mental health crises, layoffs, and an economic downturn – COVID-19 incorporated a highly disruptive period for the workforce, creating a set of new challenges for HR professionals. Let’s take a glance at a few of these HR challenges in the financial services industry:

• Growing Skills Gap

  The skills gap has been a significant issue in the finance industry. According to a PwC Survey, 70% of CEOs in the finance industry perceive the skills gap as a threat to growth - while 74% are concerned about the lack of skills in the finance industry. You might incorporate leading platforms and technologies to provide an unparalleled consumer experience, but your workforce should be well-versed in using them. Though this may sound daunting, HR professionals should emphasize on employee upskilling and hiring competent talent. Exela HR solutions provide a great experience with the recruitment process and helps you find the right talent for your organization, at the right time.

• Retaining millennial talent

  According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings soared from 276,000 to 538,000 in January 2022.

  These numbers demonstrate the need for HR professionals to rethink their hiring and retention strategies. Retaining employees has become pivotal.

  87% of financial organizations reported that they faced hurdles in retaining talent past year.

  A report says that the cost of replacing an employee is one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. This cost incorporates the costs associated with recruitment, training, operational inefficiencies, impact on employee morale, and more. As a results, financial services organizations must employ a variety of employee retention strategies to hand on to their best talent. In addition, today’s market is employee-driven, which needs the finance sector to level up its hiring process to attract and retain diverse employees.

• Providing Long-term Remote Work Opportunities

  According to a PwC Survey, only 29% of the financial services companies allowed 60% of their employees to work from home at least once a week. Post-pandemic, the number of financial services companies went up to 69%, with 60% of their employees working from home.

  96% of financial services professionals would accept a pay cut to get permanent work from home.

  With employees now having the leverage to work from their comfort zone, HR leaders need to rethink their strategies. HR professionals need to consider the challenges remote or hybrid work will incorporate, such as the need for effective collaboration, supporting tools or platforms, time-tracking applications, learning platforms, childcare essentials, etc. Analyzing these challenges would help HR teams find the perfect solutions to help employees work remotely with productivity and efficiency.

• Creating a workplace culture

  86% of millennial employees would prefer a healthy workplace culture that inclines with their values over income.

  In today’s fast-paced business landscape, maintaining a decent organizational culture is crucial – workplace culture matters to both the employer and employees. Sometimes furnishing smart tools, employee benefits, and competitive compensation are also not enough to retain good talent. HR professionals should ensure they communicate company values transparently with the employees and align their work path with company culture. Highlight the workplace culture through organizational processes that encourage a healthy work-life balance, which has become necessary.

• Maintaining employee engagement

  Employee engagement is the foremost factor that comes into the picture when considering remote or hybrid work culture. In today’s business scenario, remote or hybrid work has become a necessity, and maintaining employee productivity and engagement is a critical challenge for HR professionals. Here are some practices that would help your employees keep engaged:

  • Provide a smooth, online onboarding experience with the help of intelligent tools and technologies.
  • Conduct employee engagement activities virtually to keep them motivated.
  • Acknowledge issues the employees might be facing and put together a realistic, future-proof plan that will favor both the company and the employees.
  • Keep them up-to-date with all the advancements and provide a learning platform.
  • Communicate company values and culture transparently to gain employee loyalty.

Also Read: Understanding and Supporting Flexible Work So Your Workforce Can Thrive

How can Exela HR Solutions simplify HR’s journey in the finance industry?

Bolstering an agile approach while addressing employee needs and always staying ahead of the curve in terms of flexibility will foster a more efficient, engaged, and dynamic workforce. A few might still have doubts about time management, as developing an entirely new approach does take time. Exela’s HR Solution have answers to all your queries about simplifying HR’s journey. We bestow you plenty of time to focus on the actual business while our team will streamline the challenges your recruitment teams are facing. Here’s how Exela can help you thrive in the modern business world:

• We introduce you to the right talent at the right time to serve your particular business needs.
• We provide a more streamlined onboarding process to help new joiners understand the tools, information, and values associated with your company’s reputation.
• Assistance with payroll processing with a more holistic approach, including basic pay calculations, tax filing, transparent employee communications, statutory compliance, and more.
• We help your employees get rewarded fairly with a personalized analysis, robust benefits plan, and smooth employee experience.

Exela HR solutions have it all to streamline your HR processes so that you can spend time on the actual business. Right from searching for the right talent, recruiting, and onboarding to employee benefits and payroll processing, Exela provides a holistic experience. Talk to our experts now for your HR needs.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Hiring managers and talent acquisition professionals put applicants into two distinct groups: active and passive. Both groups behave differently, and today, we will be learn their behaviors so that it may help us make valuable decisions related to recruitment.

Hiring strategies often change when dealing with candidates that belong to either of the two groups. But no matter the method, hiring the best candidate matters the most.

Applicants are expected to have different levels of interest and motives while applying to your company. This is why your recruitment strategy cannot be the same for all candidates. Instead, it should appeal to different people differently, according to their needs and interests.

This way, you will make sure you attract top talent and keep them interested in working for your organization without making any unnecessary efforts.

Choosing an expert recruitment process outsourcing provider like Exela HR Solutions will make your job even easier.

Just tell us what you need and when you need it, we will use our robust HR infrastructure and expansive talent networks to get you the talent you need.

ACTIVE CANDIDATES

Simply put, applicants that are actively looking for jobs are active candidates. This group can be motivated to look for other opportunities due to multiple reasons.

Fired? The employer went out of business? Not satisfied with the current pay? Not sure about the employer’s stability? Is the work environment toxic? Rejoining the workforce after a long time?

These are some of the main reasons why candidates decide to go active.

According to a recent LinkedIn survey, a fourth of all employed applicants are active, but 66% of all active applicants are employed. This means that a majority of the people are happy with their current job, along with the fact that only a minority of job seekers are unemployed. This is because people who already have a job are majorly the ones actively looking out for open positions in other companies in order to advance their careers.

Posting about open positions on social media and job portals is still the number one method used by recruiters to find active candidates. These public forums have the capacity to make businesses reach a very large group of people quickly. Using just the right keywords while posting about your open position can amplify that reach even further in front of a few hundred more candidates. But the biggest drawback of this method is that there is a lot of filtering required after applicants have applied, in order to identify the real talent from the fake ones.

To avoid this hassle completely, many businesses will often partner with a trusted recruitment process outsourcing provider like Exela HR Solutions, which helps businesses find active top talent as quickly as possible.

Another big mistake hiring managers commit while combating this problem of weeding out unqualified applicants is to purposefully design a complicated and confusing application process. This might seem like a great idea on the outside, but in reality, it isn’t. By doing this, the company in fact, loses out unnecessarily on a lot of top talent. Why make your own job harder? Design a simple and easy-to-apply application process so that you don’t lose out on the best people.

A simple application process will always attract unqualified candidates. But make sure you have a team set in place for following up. One-to-one follow-up experience gives a positive perception of the company in the minds of the candidate. On the other hand, a poor candidate experience can damage the reputation of your company and may affect your hiring results negatively in the future.

Also Read: Answer these questions to improve employee retention and loyalty

PASSIVE CANDIDATES

Passive candidates are applicants that already employed and are not actively looking out for newer opportunities. Almost 75% of the total workforce falls under this category, a LinkedIn survey concluded recently.

The people who fall under this group are not actively looking out for newer opportunities. Targeting this group sure sounds counterintuitive, right? It is, yet it is often recommended we pursue such talents. Why? Because the biggest upside to targeting passive candidates is that they are isolated and are not aspiring to pursue any other offers or companies. Half the battle is won right here. The other half is generating curiosity and interest in the minds of the passive candidates. The initial contact can be soft and informal to let them know about your company as well as the reason why you chose to contact them. Appreciate their past experiences and let them know how your opening is relevant to their experience. This definitely generates curiosity and interest. Once this aura is established, it becomes easier to ask them to be available on a video or audio call to have a quick chat.

Another great way to tap into the “untapped potential” of passive candidates is through referral programs. Existing employees are already interested in bringing over their talented friends and colleagues to your company. The cost of acquisition is zero, and you build a well-balanced work culture, an overall win-win.

Exela Technologies is a leading global recruitment process outsourcing company. Our robust HR tech and well-built networks can help you find your next candidate without any hassle. Our expert HR professionals are well-versed in attracting all types of candidates and can help you source the right talent for your company at the right time.

Learn more about our Offerings.

Sources: google.com | en.wikipedia.org | linkedin.com

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Close your eyes and go back to the times you’ve opened resignation emails from your most productive bunch. Remember those specific instances and try to recall the emotion that first cropped up. No, this isn’t a guided meditation. But, your trip down memory lane will lead to some conclusive revelations about you and your company’s talent retention ideologies.

Understanding your Attrition Control Strategy

Assuming it was your top performer who decided to call it quits. Yes, the same one who shouldered the team’s targets and ensured KPIs got met by averaging the team’s productivity at acceptable thresholds. What is your instant reaction? Do you:

1. Counter their new proposed remuneration till you get a favorable outcome?
2. Entice them with a role or designation swap?
3. Treat them like a traitor with poor work ethics and/or arrange for a loyalty convention program?
4. Respect their decision and let them know their contribution will be cherished?

What’s your Retention Strategy?

So, what did you choose? Would you snoop around precariously to figure out the benefits of their new offer letter? What's important to them and which of their priorities are being addressed by their desire to switch? If it's all about better pay, did it occur to you that maybe you should top that? If they want more flexibility such as work timings, shifts, or location-wise, are you willing to offer suitable options? Or maybe you could arrange for internal projects and upskilling programs that will enlarge their professional portfolio and quench their thirst for noteworthy experience. Or perhaps it's time to show them who's more powerful, the organization and the management or the ones serving at the organization? Connivingly put them on a guilt trip regarding dedication and loyalty, maybe? How about introducing a loyalty bonus for top-performing employees?

Sure, you have a plethora of other options too. But, these would have been the most likely ones. There's no wrong answer so please be as honest as possible when you introspect. It's normal and sane to wish your effective workforce stays with you. There is productivity-based loss, time-related losses, and you also have to factor in the costs of hiring and training newly onboarded employees to desired levels of competency. Yes, a big fat loss is lurking over the horizon! So, there's nothing wrong with wanting them to stay. Talent retention and attrition control are vital to an organization’s sustenance and growth. But, if you react in a way that upholds their dignity and respects their decision after previously exhausting the other options, you're probably a Type 1 company.

Type 2 organizations tend to make decisions based solely on the effect on their organization. Bottom line and the company matter alone. Nothing else matters. Jobs get done by hook or by crook. But, if your answer was option 4, you’re a Type 1 organization. Type 1 organizations understand the value human capital brings in and prioritizes employees. They craft policies and workflows while considering the well-being of their employees. They're not necessarily charitable institutions; it's just that they realize the competitive edge and value that skilled and proficient labor carries. Not just that, they act upon that realization and proactively formulate employee retention strategies to hold on to their competent staff.

Also Read: Negative Attitude in the workplace? Effective HR Solutions That Work!

Effective Employee Retention and Attrition Control Strategies 

So, back to the example we began with, why would Type 1 companies do nothing significant and let their staff walk away? The answer is very simple. Type 1 companies pay their employees based on the prevalent market rate and their specific individual market value. Unlike most companies that offer compensation based on what a professional was earning in their previous organization, a Type 1 organization factors in other computable factors affecting KPIs apart from an employee’s last drawn CTC.

Every company has an appraisal limit. This usually averages around 10-20%. But, the hiring policy allows for an increment varying from 30% to a steep 100% hike. Instead of being rigid about these policies, Type 1 companies factor in productivity and profitability-based values that individual employees bring in. This keeps the workforce highly motivated, engaged, and loyal to the company. Employees understand although they're working for a salary, that salary is based on their potency and contribution, and their company values their efforts proportionately. If any employee still finds a reason to leave the organization, Type 1 management must move past talent retention and respect that decision.

Okay, let’s not cry over spilled milk now; it’s time to react. Your star performer wishes to bid adieu. What next? How do you deal with the vacuum that is created after your star employee leaves? Do you:

1. Fill in the slot with someone who has an upgraded set of skills?
2. Hire someone with skills and qualifications on par with your former employee?
3. Or maybe go the cost-effective way and hire an absolute rookie with no experience?

If you chose option 3, you clearly belong to the Type 2 category. A Type 1 organization will always try to fill the open position with someone who has a better skill set. It is but consequential that this type will enjoy an overall boost in productivity, enhanced and more effective customer service, and a bump in revenue due to their decision to scout for better talent. Type 2 on the other hand, with their poorly skilled recruit, is more likely to lose revenue and talented employees to their competition. Not just that, it paints a poor image among all the other employees watching their actions. Staff begins to realize that productivity does not matter and probably goes away unnoticed. So the remainder of your competent employees within that specific team may begin to feel demotivated. Soon, this attitude spreads like a contagious disease and your entire work culture will reek of indifferent staff.

Employee Retention strategies to Future-proof your talent pool

Let’s say, you managed to find a suitable candidate that matches your requirement. Phew, that was tough. This realization perhaps prompts you to safeguard your company from similar separation shocks in the future. Sure, forecasting and strategic planning are essential staples in every business toolkit. But, how do you wish to go about it?

1. Wait for background check calls to provide maleficent reports regarding your employee who wishes to sever professional ties?
2. Revise your company’s HR policy stretching the notice period for high attrition level slabs to an unviable six months?
3. Train the rest of your team members well enough so they can fill in for each other and switch roles in the absence of a colleague?

If you chose options 1 or 2, sure, that ought to deter them! That’s quite a vindictive shock absorbent suspension buffer. But, a Type 1 organization would never do that. That’s because Type 1 realizes that both the company and its people are vital to the survival and growth of any company. Instead of chasing former employees, it would be prudent to allocate your time and resources towards formulating a backup strategy that stands to improve the general productivity of the entire team. That’s option 3, by the way.

Okay, enough with the attrition control nightmares, let’s consider another situation. How does your organization deal with employee feedback? Which of these responses best conveys your strategy?

1. Say what now? We’re listening to the worker bees; what for?
2. Of course, we have office picnics and an annual festive meet where employees usually compliment us on the arrangements and are very grateful for the celebrations.
3. We schedule monthly/quarterly/annual employee engagement meetings where top-level management is accessible to all employees. The minutes are recorded and every matter is pursued with appropriate solutions and active status tracking.

Making employees feel heard is only half the battle won. If you stop there, you’re a Type 2 organization. Making employees feel heard is good but if you are not reinforcing that with concrete change, your employees will put you in the Type 2 bucket. But, what's wrong with being labeled as Type 2, you ask? It's just that Type 1 is a more sustainable business model. In this case, feedback that is actioned builds trust among the workforce, which contributes to building resilient teams that stay loyal. It’s relatively difficult for a Type 2 model to sustain the test of time because employees blow where the wind takes them. It’s all about the wages then, period!

Is Redemption possible?

So, what if you’re the classic example of a Type 2 organization? Fret not! Type 2 organizations can easily convert to Type 1 structures with a little tweak in management vision and company mission. It’s all about genuinely attempting to put employees at the forefront of decisions, which is understandably hard. We're not saying thou shalt pamper thy employees. Sure, nobody is indispensable. But, Type 2 organizations have a rather extremist opinion in this sphere. Type 1 is more practical and balanced in its approach.

Trying to find Balance?

Exela HR Solutions offers end-to-end expert HR services to businesses across different locations and industries. We have technical as well as value-based customized solutions that can bring about as much transformation as you require to future-proof your workforce and facilitate employee retention. Get in touch to learn more about our offerings.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Employees aren't robots! They're humans, and humans are social beings with interconnected limitations. We are not pre-programmed to function per optimal conditions suited to a particular job profile. We have inhibitions, strengths, motivations, goals, boundaries, families, social networks, weaknesses, concerns, and challenges. That doesn't mean we cannot be productive. It simply implies that if you want to maximize productivity out of your bunch, you need to consider these influencing factors. While you cannot reduce the scope of these influences, you certainly can award employees with some workforce flexibility to cope with these external influencing factors.

So, what exactly is Workplace Flexibility?

In general, flexibility refers to the ability to effortlessly adapt to new or sudden changes as and when they pop up. An employer who offers flexible working may allow staff to work at their convenience as far as timings and venue are concerned as long as tasks are accomplished. On the other hand, an employee may respond to such leeway by offering employers the flexibility of working at short notice on some project that may require immediate attention or even working overtime because he trusts the employer to compensate with time off or additional pay. Flexibility by the employer will result in flexibility by the staff. It's a circle! If you give your team the freedom to work according to their preferences, they'll respond by working more efficiently and better than the outcome of dictated terms. So everyone wins!

And what all does workforce flexibility encompass?

While the pandemic highlighted 'remote work,' this isn't the only form of flexible working. If the 'where,' 'when,' and 'how' are adjusted to suit both employer and employees, we can assume some degree of flexible working is happening at the organization. This means staff gets more room to choose:

1. From where they wish to work:

   This can be from the office, home, or even a café. They could even work from another continent if it pleases them and is feasible for operations. At the end of the day, it's not about where you work from if you consistently deliver quality work. If your staff is happy sitting under a banyan tree amid a circus and that environment is conducive to their creativity, let them decide what's best as long as the job gets done! If a mother feels more productive working from home where she can attend to her little ones simultaneously, it shouldn't bother anyone as long as she matches the productivity levels that would have accompanied working from a desk.

2. When they wish to work:

   If employees meet deadlines, why should employers care if their staff choose to work all night against the circadian rhythm? If employees are available to attend to work calls and complete their assignments without hampering any workflows, an employer may consider allowing them to begin their work day when the staff deems it best. Some companies don't care when you begin your work as long as you clock in eight or nine hours daily. Some organizations also allow employees to do split shifts. And some companies even allow staff to choose their off days and work rotational shifts to better plan and save their leaves.

3. How they wish to work:

   Some companies allow professionals to take a brief sabbatical beyond the minimum maternity and paternity leave. Or even if an employee wishes to study further and upskill, on returning, these employees are welcomed with the same benefits they were accustomed to without having to worry about having a break in service or losing out on loyalty benefits and job assurance. Some workplaces even offer a 4-day work week with extended shifts so staff can enjoy a more satiating weekend and return refreshed and rejuvenated to be their productive best. If you find top-quality talent who wishes to devote their time to multiple sources of income, you may offer them a freelance or part-time option, so you don't lose out on good talent. Of course, all this is subject to operational feasibility and depends on the type of industry, company, size, market, and specific conditions.

Also Read: 9 Incredible benefits of Integrating Cloud Computing With Your HR services?

Defining the terms of Flexible Working

As you can see, flexible working encompasses a broad spectrum of work arrangements, making it essential to define the terms in advance. So, you and your staff must thoroughly comprehend the expectations, responsibilities, mode of delivery, conditions, and policy retraction, leaving no room for disappointment.

Benefits of supporting Flexible Working

1. Attracts Talent:

   Why limit candidature to a specific location when you can increase your chances of successful hiring by broadening the horizon? In fact, by offering flexible and remote work, you are certain to attract top-quality, sought-after talent with a dearth of other options. For instance, certain states produce more IT graduates than others, while some are better known for churning out more hospitality professionals. If you open the doors to hybrid work conditions, you'll gain access to a better choice of top-notch talent without succumbing to geographical limitations. This will also bring a diverse work culture into play, so you'll easily comply with several labor laws and get better help ideating.

2. Improves Retention:

   If you had to ask your staff what they'd prefer from a choice of several perks, most of them will likely pick flexible working. This has become even more prominent in recruitments since COVID. Professionals have gotten accustomed to remote work and the likes and are unwilling to give up such jobs. In fact, studies reveal that several loyal professionals have also begun job-hunting in an attempt to switch to companies offering flexible working conditions.

3. Increases Productivity:

   Picture these situations now: what if you had an ailing child that could not go to school and needed to be monitored by an adult? Do you take a day off? Do you lie and make up dramatic excuses? Do you go to work all the while feeling guilty about abandoning your child at the mercy of some caregiver who volunteered last minute? And if such incidents occur a little more frequently than you wished, do you quit your job, citing an inability to cope? Or what if it's raining cats and dogs at your end, but all your colleagues, fortunately, live in an area that never gets water-logged, or maybe it didn't rain around your workplace? Do you feel terrible about missing a crucial meeting while someone else swooned in to charm in for your spot? Or maybe you're the best candidate for the job, but you're just too exhausted commuting to and fro for hours daily!

   Remuneration is why most people wake up and get going, but motivation is what makes and keeps professionals productive. Staff who have access to flexible working have better work-life balance and a greater chance of being productive, having job satisfaction, and remaining loyal. Lesser compromising on other fronts means lesser guilt and more peace of mind, all of which contribute to a healthy work environment. Unfortunately, many employers are skeptical about breaking the barriers that welcome workforce flexibility simply because they believe in conventional methods of minding their staff like a teacher would a class!

   Although you don't get to monitor every move or control the work environment in remote work conditions, why should it matter? If your staff are more comfortable working in their pajamas, so be it; only their performance matters. You will realize more productivity when you become accommodating to the external influences in your employees’ lives. They’ll feel more respected, appreciated, and personally invested in the well-being and success of the company. They’ll take pride in their contribution and will ensure they give their very best in return for your kind consideration.

4. Is Eco-Friendly:

   Unless you huddle up your entire team and offer lodging within the office premises or in quarters nearby, your employees are shuttling to and fro work and home. They're probably using multiple transport means and routes to get to the workplace. Can you imagine the traffic they're causing and the fuel they're burning unnecessarily? If you offer workforce flexibility, you eliminate or diminish the need to commute regularly, significantly reducing the load on the environment. In addition, big, spacious offices consume much power with centralized air conditioning and highly lit-up corridors, lobbies, and pathways. You can cut down on all these and use just as much as is required with a lesser reporting headcount.

5. Is Cheaper:

   When we shift to sustainable working, the cost factor inadvertently reduces. Sure, your staff save on transport costs, maybe even on purchasing food and professional clothing, but even you save a lot of money. Here's how: firstly, you may not even require a physical office. Cloud computing and IoT allow storing all work-related information, files, and documentation in easily accessible intangible locations. So, you'll be saving big bucks on commercial real estate or rent with remote work.

   Additionally, you can reduce all expenses towards replenishing and maintaining stationery, toiletries, and sundry. Besides, you can drastically diminish your electricity and water bills. And you either won't need to maintain a cafeteria or can reduce the commercial space dedicated to it. Even administrative staff that are required to manage these and your facility will not be necessary, so you don't bear the burden of extra overheads. Instead, you can dedicate these resources towards hiring quality talent, progressive training & upskilling, and employee engagement programs directed towards making work something your staff looks forward to.

As the working conditions around the globe continue to evolve, the fact remains that unless it is imperative for your staff to be physically present at the workplace, professionals are looking at workplace flexibility as a determining factor while accepting jobs. So the question of whether you are agile enough to support workplace flexibility is one you need to answer. Given the right tech tools and support, you can set up the most productive and efficient flexible workforce.

So, talk to one of our experts at Exela HR Solutions today to discover the secrets to building an infallible workforce!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

In our previous blogs, we covered the topic of HR outsourcing and the common benefits that businesses experience after they choose this solution. Today, we will be looking at some of the hidden and uncommon benefits that businesses experience after delegating either some or all of their HR functions to an expert HR solutions provider.

What Functions Come Under the Umbrella of Human Resources?

• Recruitment:

This is probably the biggest, most important function of any human resource team, which is why it also demands a huge chunk of their attention as well as resources. Most businesses outsource recruitment to experience great benefits in terms of time and money saved. Outsourcing recruitment changes everything for a lot of businesses. They find more time to solve complex business problems. They save a lot of money. They get easy access to top talent networks. They can upscale or downscale their hiring on-demand, overnight, without paying extra. The list goes on. Global competition for most businesses is fierce. Therefore, businesses take advantage of areas they can leverage to improve efficiency and reduce costs to allow more time and human resources to focus on revenue-generating activities.

• Payroll Processing:

Payroll is not something that most HR teams are required to take care of, but it can very well be an integral part of some HR teams that are tasked with processing payroll. This scenario is usually seen in companies with fewer employees. HR generalists are required to calculate and process payroll for those employees every pay cycle. The biggest disadvantage such companies face in these scenarios is poor compliance management. Every established state/nation has its own set of employment-related laws and regulation laid out that have to be complied with if people who work in those states and nation work for your business. With constantly changing regulatory laws, it becomes extremely challenging for HR generalists to keep up with them. In the case of an audit, any inconsistencies can result in huge fines that have to be paid by the business in full and within a specific period.

• Compensation and Benefits:

Compensation and benefits are probably the most critical function of any business. The way employees are compensated and benefitted is directly related to business growth and individual productivity. Bad compensation and benefits management can be because of various problems in an organization – negative work culture, high turnover, dropping productivity, low employee morale, etc. To add more complexity to these problems, it can be very difficult to detect and resolve a C&B problem because solutions that work for one organization do not necessarily work in other organizations. People behave differently in different environments and circumstances, which makes problem-solving even more difficult than it seems to be.

• HR Business Partner Services:

HRBPs are the oil that keeps the engine running smoothly. Their areas of expertise include grievance management, leave management, coaching, regulation, compliance, organizing engagement activities, travel and expense management, and much more. They act as a direct link between employees and the HR department, which is why it is so important to hire the right HR Business Partners who have the right type of experience in managing people. One Gartner study also found out that organizations that hire high-performing HRBPs improve employee retention by up to 24%!

• Learning and Development:

This is a new function that has taken off in recent years. Business growth has skyrocketed in almost every other industry in the past decade or two, thanks to constant improvements in technology. This growth in business resulted in competition getting fiercer. This eventually led to the boom in implementing learning and development programs for employees because businesses quickly realized that they could gain a real competitive edge if their employees kept learning and sharpening their skills as time progressed. Today, learning and development is a $400 billion dollar industry that keeps on growing. HR teams, outsourced or otherwise, all around the world hire top-notch L&D professionals, as they are called, to conduct training sessions and courses to keep their employees in sync with the progress that happens in the industry.

Also Read: RPO: Is It Right For Your Business?

Hidden Benefits Businesses Experience After Outsourcing Their HR Functions

• Turning Variable Costs into Fixed Costs:

Having this ability is no less than having a superpower, especially for businesses that are newly starting up or for businesses that operate on very tight budgets or time constraints. First, let us define what cost means. Investopedia defines cost as “any expense that a business incurs during the manufacturing or production process for its goods and services. Put simply, it is the value of money companies spend on purchasing and selling items”. Furthermore, fixed costs are costs that do not change with a change in production output, while variable costs are costs that change with a change in production output. Putting these definitions in the context of the human resource department and its functions:

Example: Your business has 5 HR personnel to manage 100 employees who produce 500 units per month. Your business grows with time, and now you have to supply 1000 units per month, which automatically means that you will need 200 employees and 10 HR personnel to meet that monthly demand. Therefore, the time, money, and resources you will spend on your HR team will increase drastically with respect to the increase in output. This is a variable cost. When HR is outsourced, this variable is cost converted to a fixed cost depending on the rate of change.

• Generate Cash by Transferring Relevant Assets to the Providers:

In some outsourcing arrangements, cash can be generated consistently by transferring relevant assets to the outsourcing providers.

Example: Assets like data centers and highly-specialized, custom-built proprietary software applications can be leased out to third-party outsourcing providers in order to get the job done for your own employees as well as other clients that the provider may have.

• Gain Market Access and Business Opportunities through the Provider’s Network:

Wikipedia defines the network effect as a “phenomenon by which the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. Network effects are typically positive, resulting in a given user deriving more value from a product or a service as more users join the same network”.

Example: Many businesses that have never experienced the wonders of recruitment outsourcing never realize the doors that open for them once they choose to outsource. As the Pareto principle dictates, a typical recruiter will do 80% of manual labor in searching for great candidates, which will result in a 20% success rate. With an outsourcing provider, your business gains instant access to hundreds of exclusive talent network pools that were/are carefully developed and maintained over the past few years or even decades.

• Reputation Gain Just by Association:

This is a powerful yet hidden benefit that many businesses experience when they choose to outsource. Working with a prestigious partner automatically improves the reputation of every other partner that works with them in a business setting.

Conclusion

The formula for the successful functioning of an HR outsourcing partnership is based on communication, commitment, and mutual trust. Outsourcing some or all HR functions could mean more costs but outsourcing to a skilled vendor like Exela HR Solutions, and using the services of that vendor correctly, can save an organization a lot of time, money, and resources in the long run. The key is to manage the relationship well. This requires establishing a collaborative method of working with your outsourcing partners to build trust and open communication. It can be difficult sometimes to get started, but it is definitely achievable by setting forth all expected benefits in a written business case that includes qualitative and quantitative targets and by using practices that have had a history of producing successful outcomes consistently and accurately.

Need help in HR outsourcing? Exela HR Solutions offers world-class services in recruitment, global payroll processing, compensation and benefits, HRBP service, and learning and development outsourcing. Get in touch with our experts today to learn more.

Sources: google.com | en.wikipedia.org | reddit.com

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

The banking industry is one of the few industries not known for “openness to fast change,” technological or otherwise. This is because banks deal with a lot of sensitive information, so it makes more sense to go with what works best – examples: people strategies that have worked flawlessly in the past, technology that has worked flawlessly in the past, etc. Change is the last thing they usually look out for.

But this changed with the pandemic. The pandemic forced banks to go through some crucial changes that were not all usual for them. HR leaders in these banks were forced to lead remote teams, IT heads were tasked with providing top-notch security and equipment for these employees who worked from home, and the employees themselves were pushed to adapt to the new normal.

These circumstances gave birth to newer challenges that the banking industry faces today. Let’s find out.

Problems with implementing HR solutions in the banking industry

Feeling Continuous Strain:

Pandemic stress, as an emotion, has turned out to be a common problem for employees in many industries. Especially when entire families spend time working and learning in close quarters and under uncertain economic conditions, it is bound to leave members of that family feeling anxious. In addition to this problem, banking workers have also been unsettled by volatile markets and a futuristic trend that is pushing the industry towards automation.

According to an independent study performed by meQuilibrium in eight different industries, employees working in banking or other financial services companies reported the second-highest level of sleep disorders and job stress (only behind tech industry workers). This is a concerning statistic. Furthermore, according to this study, employee motivation also dropped 30% in employees who worked in financial services.

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst, speeding up changes in the banking services workforce that were going to be inevitable. Remote working, adopting better tech like AI, and focusing on accurately matching the skills of their employees to their actual jobs were just some of the changes that would be implemented sooner or later, irrespective of a pandemic happening.

Virtual Connections:

According to PwC’s Remote Work Survey, just 30% of financial services companies had at least 60% of their employees working from home once a week or more before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Today, this rate of remote work has not only gone up, but the trend of working remotely is likely to continue with industry forecasts predicting at least 70% percent of companies to have more than 60% of their staff continue working from home at least once a week after the pandemic settles down.

Upper management was also on-board with this arrangement because remote work increased productivity, according to the same survey. Moreover, 88% of banking employees identified WFH arrangements as the most helpful form of support they received from their employers, according to meQuilibrium, a digital coaching platform.

People appreciate getting connected. Setting up employee resource groups around common interests like pets, knitting, exercising, Lego building, films & television series, parenting, minorities, veterans, LGBTQ employees, women in leadership, etc., provides a chance for employees to connect, share advice, get to know each other better, and form strong bonds with each other, especially in a high-stress banking work environment.

Everyone is great at doing something. Such resource groups and platforms allow people to mentor each other on subjects that could be useful for a lot of people, like meal-prepping or maximizing banking credit card points, etc.

Such connections are difficult to form in an office-based setting which can be a problem when it comes to forming deeper connections with other employees.

Also read: RPO Is It Right for Your Business?

Valuable Employee Support:

Studies have shown there is a strong correlation between the mental health of employees and how much support they felt they got from their employers or direct managers. Like many industries, in banking, employees are stressed out, which causes them to struggle and burn out eventually. Therefore, the value of employer support is much needed, which can be highly impactful.

Something as simple as giving the rest of the day off or offering full reimbursements for mental health therapy sessions, elder care, or childcare has the ability to have a tremendous impact on some people who need it the most. Most employers will have the bandwidth to offer such concessions, but the biggest problem is that they do not take the initiative.

If a desperate employee comes to ask for help or concession, they will happily move forward with their request, but they will never announce to everyone the availability of such help. This is a classic case of caveat emptor – let the buyer beware. This benefits employers and hurts employees because most employees assume that they will never get the help they need from their employer or are too fearful or shy to ask for help. This pushes them further down the road they try so hard to come out of.

Upskilling Existing Talent:

As technology and financial markets evolve rapidly, many banking companies have experienced a struggle to keep employees updated. Such employers need to invest heavily in cybersecurity training and data visualization courses because of how more and more banking business is conducted digitally today. At the same time, HR managers need to create more upward mobility within companies, which helps in minimizing onboarding and recruiting costs.

Upskilling often means reducing the existence of manual tasks and using technology to automate more processes within a function. HR, especially in this context, needs to upskill itself on digital tools to serve employees and candidates better. HR also has an important role to play in ensuring that new talent does not get impatient and bored in the very formal culture of the banking world.

The millennial and Gen-Z generation of employees is thinking more than ever about their own careers, the skills they need, and the popular training. Providing such opportunities to your employees is a highly effective way to retain top talent in an industry where people are the only variable that makes your business a success or a failure. Invest in strategic HR by placing a high value on attracting and retaining top talent. If employees are well taken care of, clients will always be well taken care of too.

Conclusion

The financial services sector consists of a wide range of businesses that include banking, insurance companies, credit unions, mortgage corporations, investment funds, and stock brokerages. The years following the 2008 financial crisis have seen this industry forced to deal with increased regulation, higher capital requirements for banks and insurers, and the need to implement robust processes across the board. Furthermore, customer expectations regarding service quality have skyrocketed. Against this backdrop of rising compliance costs, capital requirements, and customer expectations, we will be looking at human resource outsourcing as a strong contender to combat the problematic HR issues that plague the financial services industry today.

The case for outsourcing your human resources has three main arguments:

• The swelling pressure on operational margins meant that it made financial sense for firms to outsource non-strategic functions to specialist firms. These specialists leveraged economies of scale, deep functional expertise, and lower labor costs to deliver savings.
• Best-in-class service providers can add value by actually implementing and managing industry-standard processes for support functions such as HR – a boon for large financial institutions with operations in far-flung corners of the globe, as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises which lack the resources and/or expertise to manage these areas effectively.
• Outsourcing enables businesses to focus on their core competencies. The argument is that shareholders will be better served if the business maintains a laser focus on what they do best while outsourcing the rest to “specialists,” who will likely do a better job than the firm.

High-level thoughts to guide the outsourcing decision

The primary aim of the decision to outsource is often margin improvement by cutting costs. Outsourcing partners are further expected to bring in process efficiencies or improvements by virtue of their domain experience while keeping customer experience intact. Bearing in mind these three criteria – cut costs, improve processes, improve, or at least maintain customer experience – will help firms identify activities that are most apt for outsourcing and effectively administer outsourcing programs.

Need help? Exela HR Solutions offers world-class HR outsourcing services to businesses across multiple geographies and industries. Speak with our experts to learn more about our offerings.

Sources: google.com | en.wikipedia.org | reddit.com | shrm.org | gep.com | scirp.org

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.