The Skills Financial Institutions Need Next

Financial institutions have never had more technology at their fingertips—and yet, the talent gaps on the minds of leaders are overwhelmingly human. 

According to ManpowerGroup’s Global Talent Shortage Survey, three out of four employers globally say they’re struggling to find the talent they need, double the rate from just a decade ago. In financial services—banks, insurers, and asset managers—leaders are pouring more into technology than ever, but the roles creating the most friction in financial services recruitment are the ones that demand judgment, communication, and the ability to build trust with clients navigating complex decisions. 

While these skills have long been valuable in financial services, we’ve noticed the hiring landscape increasingly emphasizing their importance. 

The Shift in Hiring Priorities 

For a long time, financial services hiring followed a predictable formula—the right degree, the right certifications, the right technical toolkit. This approach worked when the work itself was predictable, when regulatory frameworks held steady for years and client expectations followed familiar patterns. 

Credentials Used to Be the Whole Story 

That environment doesn’t exist anymore. A Wolters Kluwer analysis of banking workforce trends found that over one-third of financial services firms now rank talent scarcity above data infrastructure and legacy technology as their single largest barrier to scaling new capabilities. Technical requirements shift with every regulatory change, product cycle, and platform update, and no single credential can keep up with all of them. 

Financial institutions haven’t abandoned technical requirements. But the most effective hiring strategies now weight something else alongside them. The UK Financial Services Skills Commission describes it as a “sweet spot.” According to Commission Chair Mark Hoban, speaking to the CFA Institute, the ideal employee brings some level of tech skill alongside sector knowledge and strong behaviors. 

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RELEVANT: Choosing Staffing or Managed Teams

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The Skills Carrying the Most Weight Right Now 

These capabilities determine whether a hire can navigate the everyday complexity of financial institutions. They’re also the skills most likely to get buried under a wall of technical requirements in a job posting, which is part of the reason they’re so hard to find. 

Critical Thinking and Judgment 

The ability to question assumptions, identify gaps, and make sound calls under pressure. In risk, compliance, and credit functions, this skill carries direct regulatory and financial consequences. As Croft & Co’s research on future skills in banking highlights, banks need people who can turn complex data into strategy while managing the ethical and regulatory implications that come with it. 

For financial analysts specifically, the key skills employers prioritize now go well beyond modeling and spreadsheets. Storytelling with data, presenting to non-technical stakeholders, and exercising judgment on ambiguous inputs are what separate a solid analyst from a great one. 

Communication and Relationship Building 

Client-facing finance roles in wealth management, commercial banking, and advisory are becoming even more relationship-intensive. Internal communication matters just as much. Translating between technical teams, business leaders, and regulators is a skill in short supply across the industry. Technology can surface the data. It can’t sit across the table from a client and build trust. 

Adaptability and Continuous Learning 

“Whatever job you’re doing now, you will have to have a higher level of skill in the future,” says Hoban. The pace of change in financial services means the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is more durable than any single certification. Professionals who treat learning as ongoing rather than something that happened at the start of their career are the ones organizations want to hold on to. 

People-First Leadership 

As routine management tasks get absorbed by technology, leadership in financial services is shifting toward coaching, culture-building, and talent development. According to insights from an L&D event hosted by Fitch Learning featuring leaders from Citi, AIG, and Fitch Group, leaders now need to cultivate talent, foster engaging cultures, and set vision for their teams. Those are areas technology can support but still depends on people to deliver.  

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READ NEXT: Staffing, Outsourcing, and the Space in Between

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The Ripple Effect on Talent and Operations 

Once skills are identified, the next step is building your hiring process, interview approach, and retention strategy around them.  

Rethinking the Job Description 

If the role lives or dies on stakeholder communication and sound judgment, the job posting should reflect that. Many financial institutions still lead with 15 technical requirements and bury the human skills at the bottom. Flipping that order of priority can widen the talent pool significantly. According to a TestGorilla survey cited by the CFA Institute, 87% of financial firms were already using skills-based hiring as of 2024. 

Rethinking the Interview 

Scenario-based questions and open-ended problem-solving exercises surface critical thinking and communication far better than credential checklists. The strongest candidates in financial services recruitment often reveal themselves in how they reason through ambiguity, and that rarely comes across on a resume. 

Rethinking Retention 

People with strong human skills tend to be the ones who hold teams together during periods of change. They’re also the most likely to leave if they feel undervalued or stuck. Investing in development pathways that recognize and grow these capabilities doubles as a retention strategy. 

Building Teams for the Complexity Ahead 

The premium on human skills in financial services reflects a permanent shift in the work itself. Client expectations are more nuanced. Regulatory environments move faster. The pace of technological change means every role requires more adaptability than it did five years ago. The organizations building the strongest teams right now are the ones that take these capabilities as seriously as any technical requirement. 

Insight Global partners with financial institutions to find talent that brings both technical depth and the human skills that drive real performance. We help organizations build teams designed for the complexity ahead and grounded in more than a checklist of technical requirements. Connect with us to learn more.