To succeed in the future, investment banks might need to ramp up their efforts to attract and retain the best and brightest. That means introducing new ways of working, making jobs more appealing, and creating a workplace that encourages collaboration and values creativity.
Fortunately for them, machines are ready to help.
Recent US graduates want a personalized career experience. They want interesting and meaningful work that ignites their passions. And they want an open and engaging culture. For most new hires, investment banks—particularly the large ones—just don’t tick those boxes.
It’s not just young professionals who are staying away. Older workers seem to be tired of toiling in an industry that is losing money and operating under increasingly tighter regulatory restrictions. For these professionals, the lack of investment banking’s innovation potential is a major reason they are seeking opportunities elsewhere.1
Digital technologies are poised to change the way investment banks’ workforces operate. With the advent of advanced analytics, automation, cognitive computing and robotics, the future workforce of investment banking might not comprise human or machine. Rather, it could be made up of both.
Banks could embrace both humans and machines as critical “co-workers.” And they might play to the strengths of both. That translates into new opportunities to create new roles or change existing ones, monitor worker engagement and satisfaction, and improve the overall work experience.
In addition to automating routine work processes, machines could improve banks’ decision-making, emotional intelligence and relationships. And they could enhance skills that are inherently human such as “people skills,” innovation, empathy, judgment and complex problem solving.
Banks could embrace both humans and machines as critical “co-workers.” And they might play to the strengths of both. That translates into new opportunities to create new roles or change existing ones, monitor worker engagement and satisfaction, and improve the overall work experience.
Today, machines—from big data and analytics, to robotics to artificial intelligence and cognitive computing—could be used to create better, more interesting and more meaningful employee experiences.
We have moved past the period of machines being passive assistants. They might be active advisors and partners in a dynamic and innovative workforce of the future. It’s time for banks to seize the machine potential to win the competition for talent.