Patricia Nilsson reported this week at The Financial Times Online that, “Financial institutions started poaching professionals from the tech world about three years ago in response to disruption from fintech competitors, says Max Johnson, manager at the recruitment agency Robert Walters. But to convince tech tribes to work for them, they have had to change.
“‘Banks stereotypically have very rigid structures in a corporate lifestyle kind of way,’ Mr Johnson says. ‘These [tech] people want to be creative, they want to be in an environment that is not constricted.’
“Small alterations, such as relaxing the dress code, can help. But in the end, Mr Johnson says, it comes down to pay. ‘Banks have had to compete with very competitive salary structures for tech,’ he says.”
The FT article added that, “Some banks have introduced separate web pages and social media strategies targeting tech talent, but Deutsche has a presence in developer communities, advertising on sites such as Stack Overflow, where developers exchange ideas, and Built in NYC, a website for tech start-ups in the city.
“The influx of tech professionals means banking staff are developing, too. ‘Exposing internal people to new ways of doing things is just as important,’ [Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank] says. ‘When tech and business sit together at the table, that is when you get the real culture transformation.'”
