Transforming the workforce of the future

36% of European Financial Services board directors have professional tech expertise according to the EY European Financial Services Boardroom Monitor.

70% of graduates recognize that tech skills like reading and writing code are critical for their future career path; but only 20% feel they have these skills at an intermediate or advanced level.¹

How do we equip the workforce of the future with the tech skills they need to succeed?

UK-based social enterprises, such as DiversITy-talent and icanyoucantoo, are passionate about influencing at the grass roots level. By connecting young people from underrepresented groups with professional role models and coaching opportunities, they aim to inspire and encourage the future workforce to reach their potential.

Founded by Social Mobility Associate Director at EY, Nilesh Dosa, icanyoucantoo matches young people with role models to gain insights on reaching their aspirations through mentoring, coaching and immersive experiences. DiversITy-talent creates opportunities by changing misconceptions of modern business and technology careers through their Annual Awards competition, mentoring and work experience open to schools, youth groups, and untapped talent pools. Visit icanyoucantoo and DiversITy-talent to find out more today!

¹ What do graduates want? 2023/24 | Bright Network

The expert skills coaching and immersive experiences made me realize my potential, and I feel excited about a future career in tech and finance.

School Student and icanyoucantoo participant

Fostering future leaders with vital tech and business skills through our comprehensive design thinking courses, annual competition and awards, mentorship, and real-world exposure, underscores our dedication to catalyze diversity and innovation.

Anna Somaiya, CEO and Founder, DiversITy-talent

Building an inclusive tech workforce is key to attracting and retaining diverse talent

As important as it is for technology functions to identify any existing skills needs and gaps through strategic workforce planning, it’s vital to know what technologies are coming through so that they can build capability aligned to future demand.

Rachel Collins, EY Financial Services People Advisory Workforce Lead, Ernst & Young LLP

Read the tips below on how to influence building an inclusive technology workforce strategy:

Strategic workforce planning ___________________________

Data-driven planning, informed by business strategy

Emerging technologies may disrupt business models, and macrotrends − such as AI − have the potential to shift workforce demographics and disproportionately impact women. By determining such impacts, organizations can identify gaps and build an inclusive and future-fit workforce.

Capability strategy __________________

Embed skills as a currency to upskill and reskill your people.

Through adopting a deliberate capability strategy, organizations can prioritize their diversity agenda by accessing a diverse multi-skilled talent pool. These hard and soft skills are critical to embracing new technological innovations.

Talent intelligence __________________

Use a skills led approach to determine your optimal location strategy.

Difficulties in attracting and retaining tech talent have led organizations to develop creative strategies for building a sustainable workforce. Data is increasingly used to better understand skills availability, action web scraping with secondary research and skills benchmarking.

Organization design _____________________

Design a future fit Technology organization, embracing the power of agility.

Many tech teams are now moving from a traditional, siloed approach to an agile or platform-based structure to better enable them to respond to change. This breaks down barriers between capabilities and allows teams to collaborate on new products in response to market changes.

Building a future fit technology function

Competing pressures are catalysing new ways of working, business models and approaches − accelerating transformation of the workforce. In response, organizations must define a workforce strategy that will enable a future fit function.

EY outlines four key enablers to designing a future-proof workforce strategy that puts humans at the centre, enabling organizations to better meet their technology needs:

What business leaders have to say…

Tech and digital talent has drastically transformed over the last few years; people are now looking for meaningful work, the chance to work with fantastic people, and flexibility. This can be achieved by promoting a work life balance and adopting a mindset of output rather than presenteeism.

Through utilising in-house technology and adopting a data-driven approach to determining capacity, we can understand where we need to hire and create accountability.

A common mistake in organizational design is to let the politics and data dictate. It is better to step back and think about the “why”, define the principles, and then add in skills, roles and grades.

Diversity as a driver of digital finance

Sweeping changes are happening in our society through digitalization − heavily impacting the financial services industry. The digital finance ecosystem comes with new actors such as FinTechs and BigTechs, and new concepts such as open finance, CBDCs, AI, cloud and digital identity.

It’s critical that this new ecosystem is based on a foundation of cybersecurity and resilience, not only for banks but for the whole interconnected supply and value chains.

What’s fascinating but also challenging about digital finance is that it’s an ongoing journey, where new concepts emerge continuously as technology develops rapidly. These concepts can be very complicated, with potentially long-lasting and far-reaching effects that are often hard to fully grasp. This is where diversity comes in as a driver for holistic understanding, which is crucial to navigate the digital world…

Diversity in expertise, experience and talent: all skill, from IT to math to legal to social sciences; all ages, from young recruits to mature professionals; all talent, from technical analysis to creative visualization to strategic design are necessary to shape the innovative and secure financial services that digital users expect.

Diversity in approaches and culture: silos don’t work. There is a balance to be found between allocating responsibility of a workstream and providing a continuous iteration with cross-cutting workstreams − within a team, between teams in an organization, between policymakers and industry. Authoritative approaches don’t work either. We are all learners in this brave new world and we need to be looking for answers together!

How to foster a diverse workforce for digital finance: