Why 2023 will be the year for contingent hiring in the UK
The past 12 months of ever-evolving hiring trends has shaped the destiny of what contingent recruitment will deliver to the world over the course of this year. The global recruitment landscape has experienced a state of flux from the great resignation to the great reshuffle – and this is impacting changing landscapes across worldwide hiring models
The future of staffing continues to dominate news for multiple industries, as new workforce norms are being defined. Many organisations, especially those in financial services are asking how they can prepare for the future of work. Given the current market’s unpredictability, understanding the new patterns and trends will be key, especially for compliance departments facing added pressures from regulators.
The pandemic has resulted in a significant rise in consumer digital interactions, opening up new opportunities but also increasing operational and market dangers, many of which are related to fraud and financial crime.
There is a continuation of an increase in flexible and remote work, the effects of technology at work, and the contribution of office design to productivity and employee engagement: The trends influencing the workplace’s future as well as strategies for preparing and adjusting to these changes. Workplace issues, financial risk, compliance, privacy, and ESG, are all key influences for new global contingent hiring trends.
Here are the most significant influences on the contingent landscape’s outlook of the future of work, as well as what organisations should consider as they plan their future roadmap.
Financial services call for contingent services to fill key financial crime and compliance gaps
Financial services are seeing tremendous disruption brought on by digitalisation and innovative technologies, and the pace of change is quickening. As technology alters client expectations and the regulatory environment, financial services organisations are forced to make critical decisions about the technology they implement as well as the workforce driving it whilst still being compliant.
Getting compliance technology and automation right so that every aspect of your compliance function needs thorough review and improvement, and with compliance teams already under significant BAU pressure, many find it difficult to have a true view of what added improvements need to be made, and often in a quick turnaround period.
Utilising the expertise of contingent resourcing can offer many firms breathing space in terms of resolving any issues their AML controls may have. Setting up the right teams to ensure any gaps are identified will be key for firms this year as regulators place more pressure on financial service participants to strengthen current compliance systems and controls.
In most companies, there are obligations related to cybersecurity, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery and corruption, and fraud. Writing policies and procedures, interpreting laws or regulations, identifying risks associated with products and services, conducting investigations, and interacting with regulators are all common actions that are shared by all these capabilities, even though each one of them calls for a unique set of technical skills.
The talent needed to complete these jobs can be applied to other competencies, especially when they are combined with upskilling and the appropriate team structures to close the technical skills gap.
As a result of growing financial crime, key talent will be needed to support new detection landscapes. Banks will need to establish “effective” compliance teams that provide investigators with “extremely useful” and “relevant” intelligence skills on demand.
We have seen a surge in financial crime contingent professionals being deployed in the UK as AML and KYC measures and regulatory requirements are strengthened and set to only get more stringent in 2023
Consumer Duty Act – UK’s next big regulation
The FCA set out a new three-year strategy designed to improve outcomes for consumers and markets, making this the next big regulatory focus.
The strategy focuses on 3 areas – reducing and preventing serious harm, setting and testing higher standards, and promoting competition and positive change. The Consumer Duty Act will bring about a significant change in the financial services industry and encourage competition and growth based on high standards. TheActwill make it easier for us to respond swiftly and adamantly when we discover new issues since it increases the bar for the businesses that are regulated by the FCA.
The Consumer Duty is a part of the FCA’s evolution into a more forceful and data-driven regulator. The FCA will be able to rapidly find activities that don’t achieve the correct outcomes for consumers and act before competitors do so thanks to firms evaluating how they’re satisfying their customers’ demands. Making wise financial decisions is more crucial than ever for consumers in the current economic situation. It will imply that customers should receive messages in a language they can understand, goods and services that satisfy their demands and are reasonably priced, and the customer support they require at the time of need.
Specialist knowledge of current financial services industry insights, understanding client needs and delivering the relevant professional skill sets will be key for FI’s looking to implement new change. Many are turning to the contingent workforce, not just for the access to key skills needed to ensure transitional efforts are met but to ensure that large portions of BAU are resumed and new compliance needs are met. The contingent workforce can ensure that key Consumer Duty outcomes are swiftly and efficiently achieved.
We have seen an uptake in call centre handlers, complaint handlers, case handlers/reviewers, data gatherer’s as well as business analysts who have supported teams to create goods and services that are suitable for their target market by focusing on the diverse and real needs of their clients, including those who are in vulnerable situations, at every stage of the customer journey and in every interaction.
Remote working and its impact on more talent turning contingent
The transition to remote work is one last known cause that is anticipated to have the greatest influence on the contingent workforce. The pandemic has put firms’ remote capabilities to the test, demonstrating that employees can better balance work and family life when they aren’t compelled to be physically present in an office. Workers understand the worth of their skill set and unlock chances that would not have been possible locally when they began to explore remote opportunities outside of their native market.
The contingent workforce will be essential for new business models, new hiring models
Over the past year or so, the advantages of a contingent workforce have become abundantly clear. The global recruitment landscape has evolved from the great resignation to the great reshuffle, and we are seeing changing landscapes in global hiring models.
Companies want more flexibility in their talent investments, but they’re also dealing with a scarcity of specialised talents. As a result, new hiring models are including contingent talent as part of new hiring strategies. This is why the importance of contingent workforces cannot be overstated.
Past events can only forecast the future to a limited extent, but what we can see from present workforce trends and developments is a shift in both hiring and retaining key staff. The past two years have demonstrated the importance of the contingent workforce to financial services. Overwhelming regulatory and policy demands from post-Brexit and increased cyber threats have meant that additional staff support was and is very much needed. Many financial institutions have turned to the contingent workforce to help in areas of weakness or areas where they do not have enough in-house capacity to cope with additional demands.
Contingent resource teams can ensure a ‘no stone is left unturned approach’, and in a highly pressured regulatory environment, hiring contingent resource can make a vital difference in understanding the weaknesses of your risk assessments, as well as setting up concrete plans to resolve them.
Firms should act quickly to establish new hiring methods that accommodate the shifting personnel scenario, which includes more financial crime, increased regulatory demand, and additional BAU work as a result of the pandemic’s delays. Contingent staff offer key skills and a bigger pool of talent which allow for BAU to resume, but also allow for outsourced teams to be set up quickly to complete additional work demands being placed on firms.
