Fintech is in a period of rapid growth, with roughly 15,000 Fintech companies in the U.S. and 100,000 globally. To make matters even more interesting, the venture capital (VC) funding going into the industry has skyrocketed year-over-year since 2016. Pre-COVID in 2019, the industry took in $44M globally from VC funding. Then, amid COVID in 2020, Fintech startups received $45.7B in global VC funding. In 2021, it tripled to $135B, with projections for even more growth in 2022.
There’s no doubt about it - Fintech is a global business and is growing faster than ever. Today, almost every industry and company touch Fintech in some way, shape, or form. However, many new players fail to realize that there's a shortage of labor that's causing a "candidate's market," and top Fintech talent is hard to come by! With the rapid growth at hand, there's never been a better time to invest in world-class talent.
FINTECH'S TALENT WAR
Fintech isn't going anywhere. In fact, this digitally-focused industry is slowly taking business away from traditional, legacy banks and other Financial Services providers. With new Fintech opportunities popping up at companies of every size, there just aren't enough highly skilled candidates to fill the roles and match today's increasing demand for industry innovators. The market is incredibly competitive and faces a talent war or shortage of labor. Every function is in high demand, from industry executives to engineers to UX/UI support to marketing and product managers and more.
Today, you need to put ample effort into your talent acquisition strategy to score the best talent. So, how do you go about attracting and retaining the talent you need to continue to grow your business and meet your product roadmap objectives?
5 TACTICS TO ATTRACT & RETAIN TOP FINTECH TALENT
1. BUILD AN IN-HOUSE FINTECH RECRUITING TEAM
The first step to sourcing Fintech candidates is hiring a team of professional recruiters to scour the internet for top talent. Your Fintech Recruiting Team will build out a robust digital recruiting strategy inclusive of social media recruiting via LinkedIn and the utilization of job boards like Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, Career Builder, Glassdoor, and others to source candidates. They may also strategize on ways to poach top talent from other large organizations by outcompeting in salary offerings, benefits, and remote work flexibility.
Unfortunately, in such a rapid-growth industry, most in-house Fintech recruitment teams are working at capacity. While your team may be capable of a lot, it may not take long before they need additional support from an external vendor partner.
2. HIRE AN EXTERNAL FINTECH TALENT SERVICE PROVIDER
With so many roles available and so few highly-skilled candidates, it’s often necessary to supplement your internal hiring and recruiting strategies by bringing in outsourced SMEs to help with those hard-to-fill skill sets.
Working alongside an external Fintech Talent Service Provider complements and expands the capabilities of your in-house recruiting strategy and team. It also expands the search and talent pool to source more candidates. External Fintech talent vendor partners like Yoh’s Fintech Services Team provide world-class SMEs in any area you need them, no matter where you are in your product roadmap.
3. EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAMS, BENEFITS & COMPANY CULTURE
Another step toward hiring and retaining top Fintech talent is through competitive internal employee offerings such as referral programs, benefits, and company culture.
Referral Programs
Tap into your existing employee pool and take referrals from their personal networks. Most companies pay employees a referral fee of about $3-5K once the candidate accepts the position. Employees often refer trustworthy candidates that fit right into your pre-existing company culture and mesh well with the personalities on your teams.
Compensation & Employee Benefits
Get ready to put your money where your mouth is! Many Fintechs are offering salaries that are 30% above the candidate's current compensation. That means you’ll want to pay a premium, both to beat out the competition and for the candidate to take a leap of faith. Benefits packages are also key, so make sure you’re offering the most competitive employee benefits (medical, leave, PTO, etc.).
Company Culture & Values
Culture and values also play into your ability to attract and retain top Fintech talent. Everything you offer your employees, from remote work flexibility to diversity and inclusion initiatives, is another step towards incentivizing candidates to join the team and stick around. Most Fintech roles are remote-capable, and candidates want to have a say in when and where they'd like to work. Today, it's critical to give your employees the option of working in-office, fully remote, or in a hybrid work environment.
4. LEADERSHIP SPEAKING & PRESENTING AT FINTECH CONFERENCES
You can also gain exposure and attract new employees by having your organization’s leadership speak and present at today’s most prominent Fintech conferences. This also gives you a platform to talk about your company’s growth, technologies, and recent innovations. You can often host a table and take applications in person at events.
5. FINTECH CONTENT MARKETING & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
And finally, savvy Fintech companies are employing Content Marketing and Thought Leadership initiatives to gain additional exposure. By blogging about Fintech, writing helpful Fintech eBooks and whitepapers, and positioning your employees as thought leaders in the Fintech space, you’re able to attract new candidates through an Inbound recruiting approach.
Why not give it a shot? Have your CIO or CTO author blogs and content about relevant, timely, and helpful topics geared towards candidates. The more you write about a topic and get your brand name out there, the more authority your company will hold over key industry topics and conversations. These can be key to attracting top Fintech talent, especially as those candidates research and discover new companies they’d like to work for within the Fintech space.
TAKING FINTECH HIRING TO THE NEXT LEVEL
The best candidates know their worth and, ultimately, will do what it takes to get what they want from their chosen employer. It’s time for your company to go above and beyond to attract and retain the best talent. From offering competitive salaries and the best benefits to putting serious thought into your company culture, give some of these tried and true tactics a shot to set your company apart from the competition.
While your in-house recruiting team can do a lot, the current Fintech market is moving fast, and even the best of the best are struggling to keep up. It may be time to consider the benefits of partnering with a 3rd-party Fintech staffing provider to meet the new demand.
