Paul Wooldridge, Future Workplace Practice Lead at SoftwareONE UK
When lockdown hit back in March 2020, the numbers of remote workers changed overnight – and Financial Services Institutions (FSIs) also made the high-speed switch from office desks to kitchen tables. This was a very risky move for such a highly regulated industry. Two years down the line, hybrid and remote work have become a staple of work culture. All sectors have embraced hybrid/remote work structures because of employees’ changing work demands and the digital working landscape.
Studies from ACAS show that 3 in 5 employers (60%) have seen an increase in hybrid working staff compared to before the pandemic. As a result, businesses across all sectors have had to invest in technology, such as cloud computing, that will enable their employees to work outside the office. The financial sector, including banks, is no exception. With the current state of the economy and the continuous rise in inflation, banks must invest in the right cost-efficient technologies in order to enable their employees to work to the best of their ability.
Implementing a remote work infrastructure shouldn’t be left to chance. With little prior exposure to remote practices, FSI employees made a cut-and-paste transition from in-person office workings to our new virtual working structure, and simply had to adapt along the way. FSIs should use the knowledge obtained during the lockdown to help build on proven successes and focus on those areas that weren’t developed with remote work in mind. They must analyse, adapt and implement or they risk falling behind.
Top Talent wants the Top Contract.
Flexibility. A simple concept. A concept that is in high demand regarding recruitment amongst the next generation of financial workers. In fact, a recent YouGov survey(https://yougov.co.uk/) found that 77% of finance professionals are opting for a four-day working week and over half of young employees stated they would leave their job if they were forced back into the office full-time.
Remote work is more than just a luxury for the next generation of workers—the younger generations see that they can get the same work done without the added stress of commuting to and from work. Now that they have realised the benefits; many are opposed or full-out unwilling to go back to office work.
As Boomers take their retirement, Millennials step into leadership roles and Gen-Zers continue to make up more and more of the workforce, FSI leaders need to pay attention to changing trends when it comes to what these younger generations want—or they risk missing out on and not retaining top young talent.
Using technology to improve hybrid productivity.
In 2022, Financial Services Institutions recognise the importance of digital technologies as a powerful lever to improve their profits, improve regulatory compliance, and transform their customer experience. As we look to 2023, and we all brace ourselves for the pending devastations brought on by the economic crisis, we expect digitisation to play an even more central role, as banks find innovative ways to serve their customers during the crisis.
Financial Institutions that leverage technology, such as cloud computing, increase their operational agility more than those that devote IT resources to managing their infrastructure. The Cloud increases the productivity of finance workforces by allowing them to devote more time and energy towards advancing new projects, instead of constantly handling traditional IT issues and upkeep. Another benefit of the cloud is the lower initial costs compared to the numerous costs of acquiring traditional IT equipment. And, if an FSI requires more bandwidth at any time, a cloud-based service can meet that demand quickly.
When reviewing IT budgets, executives need to consider critical questions on how to keep the business running, how to identify the goals that need to be achieved, and how technology can help better facilitate. Cloud computing is here to stay, and if financial organisations aren’t already strategizing and optimising their cloud investment, then they are likely falling behind their competitors.
Cloudy with a chance of virtual meetings.
Recent research found that 9 out of 10 financial institutions have a digital transformation initiative in place, and 80% of them believe they’re not even halfway done with transformation efforts. Many of these FS firms turn to hybrid cloud as it can enable them to reduce their operating cost and enhance their data security simultaneously by splitting their data between on-premises storage for sensitive data, and cloud storage for less sensitive data. This helps FS firms adhere to changing regulatory reporting requirements in multiple operating jurisdictions.
In turn, these solutions help FS firms conduct liquidity and risk calculations and monitor data to detect fraudulent activity. Ultimately, by using hybrid cloud, financial service organisations can maintain and support their legacy systems while simultaneously taking advantage of Cloud technology.
Cloud computing gives finance professionals the agility to access important data instantly. Leveraging the data seamlessly from wherever they are working to maintain exceptional customer experience, not to the detriment of the firm’s productivity. Whether it be responding to the ever-changing customer needs or competitive dynamics, cloud computing allows FSI employees to access and retrieve important wherever and whenever it’s needed quickly and securely.
