How to hire in finance and banking : the case of a human resources consulting firm

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Marta Maria Miranda da
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/36914
• topic: Finance and banking; Hard and soft skills; Recruitment and selection; Human resources consulting firm; Setor financeiro e setor bancário; Competências; Recrutamento e seleção; Consultoria de recursos humanos; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The aim of this case study is to evaluate what is the profile and main hard and soft skills of the professionals in finance and banking (F&B) that the market values the most, and what recruitment and selection (R&S) practices are applied by a Portuguese human resources (HR) consulting firm in these two sectors, and if they are in line with the scientific literature. Therefore, a qualitative analysis was conducted through researching existing literature, participant observation in the field by the researcher and through interviews with recruiters, managers, and customers of a human resources consulting firm. The results show that new roles and competencies have emerged compared to the past, mostly due to the digitalization in the industries. Nowadays, professionals are required to have both expertise in finance and information technologies (IT) in order to remain competitive, having knowledge of programming software and languages, such as Structured Query Language (SQL) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). In addition, with the decrease of banking branches, and with the growth of electronic banking (E-Banking) operations, roles connected to commercial banking are disappearing, leading to an increase in the demand for professionals working in backoffice operations, such as, roles that track electronic payments, perform credit and risk analysis and evaluate financial fraud. Furthermore, when evaluating the R&S process of the firm in the sectors of F&B, some suggestions are presented in order to address the gaps identified. One of the suggestions is to customize the recruitment process for the different business areas. Although the company recruits for several business sectors, the recruitment process is always the same, which can make it difficult to identify the right talent. In addition, the proposal of using recruitment metrics, establishing recruitment objectives, and assessing candidates by multiple options that provide more reliable and valid information are also suggested.