Amid the redundancy wreckage, firms in Australia focus on redeployment and retention (but find this easier said than done)
As cost constraints start to bite, financial institutions in Australia are focussing less on recruitment and more on redeployment and retention. That was the main message from the recent eFinancialCareers roundtable in Sydney, which was attended by more than 20 HR professionals from local and domestic firms.
Some of the delegates said redundancies and offshoring “are still going on”. But although many jobs cannot be saved, HR teams are doing what they can to retain people in the business, or find them work elsewhere.
“We have a clear mandate to ‘rehome’ staff, but we need to influence hiring managers; open them up to the possibilities that exist within the organisation,” said a representative from one local bank. Several attendees from foreign institutions said they were identifying retrenched staff internationally and trying to move them to relevant roles in other locations.
But no amount of internal shuffling can compensate for all the recent redundancies in Australia’s financial sector. Some HR teams are therefore helping affected employees with their external job hunts, for example by providing interview training. “We have a career-support team and a large retraining budget for people whose current roles are being let go,” said one of the roundtable panellists, all of whom asked not to be named in this report.
Delegates highlighted financial planning and insurance (especially claims and underwriting) as providing a small measure of employment hope to banking-sector candidates who are out of work. There are also “pockets of hiring” in the advisory businesses of the big four accountancy firms. “And we are approaching people with investment banking backgrounds,” said a big four representative.
The rise of retention
Generally, however, recruitment is not at the top of the HR agenda; roundtable attendees were more interested in discussing retention strategies. During downturns firms are especially loath to lose employees (at least the essential ones) and face the expensive prospect of replacing them.
Moreover, one panellist warned that analysts and associates, who have never experienced the pre-GFC “good times”, might soon consider options outside of financial services if their workloads keep increasing. Another HR person on the roundtable added: “We are losing staff to government departments in Canberra because of the shorter hours there.”
Several delegates agreed that career progression is critical to avoiding attrition, although it is becoming harder to offer this to staff in the current log-jammed employment market. “Retention is a big issue for us because people can’t get promoted as their managers are sticking in their jobs.”
Two delegates mentioned that their banks are allowing some staff to achieve career progression by moving to other parts of the business on internal secondments, with the possibility of returning to their original department if opportunities arise. “These days mobility is a big part of retention.”
One bank is trying to retain potential retirees by offering mentoring roles and three-day weeks. “It’s not seen as taking a step back and still offers an intellectual challenge.”
Yet retention isn’t just about high-level, career-changing policies; day-to-day issues, such as start early/finish early, also matter. “It’s up to managers to be aware of retention and point out things, like why staff are still sending them emails at 9pm.”
