Talent deficits balk the growth of Spain's banking and insurance sector

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

The Banking and Insurance sector shows a reasonably high level of optimism, betting on a growth strategy, a greater willingness to expand geographically, and above all to invest in new products and advertising.

But the valuation of the Banking and Insurance sector with respect to employment is less optimistic and forecasts of staff reduction are not ruled out, according to the report made by Randstad Research “The future of employment in the Banking and Insurance sector”.

The year 2018 was very negative for the employment of the Banking and Insurance sector, according to the Randstad Research report, with falls both in the Banking segment (-1.9%) and in Insurance (-9.8%). Only activities auxiliary to financial and insurance services experienced growth in employment, but to a much lesser extent, according to the EPA. However, already in 2019 the situation has reversed, and has returned to year-on-year growth in employment, both in Banking (+2.1%) and Insurance (+2.1%), but lower than employment growth in the whole of Spain. Within the sector, most companies expect stability in both rotation and absenteeism levels. The talent deficit, although not present in worrying levels in comparative terms, does tend to be an important problem for the sector in the near future.

The forecast of the Banking and Insurance sector regarding employment for the next 12 months is clearly less optimistic than that of the sector as a whole. At present, the human resources policy in the sector is characterized in many cases by the optimization of resources and reduction in templates. Almost three out of four experts in the Banking and Insurance sector (75%) believe that the path of employment growth in Spain will continue in the coming months. But regarding the sector, the proportion of experts pointing in this direction is only 45% (16 points below the average of sectors analyzed). Almost the same number of experts (43%) foresees the growth of templates in their own company. On the other hand, 25% of companies expect a reduction in short-term employment in the sector, as in their respective templates (23%). They are much higher figures than the average level of all sectors. In most companies, stability is expected at rotation and absenteeism levels. Only 15% of experts believe that these parameters can grow. Salaries will also remain mainly stable in two-thirds of companies, while approximately one-third growth is anticipated both in the level of remuneration (33%) and in the satisfaction of its staff (38%).

The talent deficit is a current problem for the Banking and Insurance sector: the proportion of companies affected by it (58%) is around the average of sectors of the Spanish economy. In fact, the sector does not seem to suffer from this problem more than the average (only 23% share the opposite view). But, in addition, the fact that the outlook for the next 12 months points towards an aggravation of the problem is worrying. 55% of experts in the Banking and Insurance sector believe that during the next year the talent deficit will get worse in the sector. In addition, 38% of companies experience the problem of talent deficit in all types of profiles, both qualified and among those called ‘blue collar’. This proportion is somewhat smaller than the measure for all sectors of the Spanish economy.

Rotation and absenteeism

The level of rotation in the Banking and Insurance sector does not seem to be a serious barrier to the development of the activity at the moment, and is only slightly above the average of the sector as a whole. In approximately one third of companies, with greater stability in their workforce, the level of rotation does not currently exceed 2%, while, at the other end, for 18% of companies in the sector, rotation is obviously a challenge since which exceeds 10% in annual rate.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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