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Florent Albert, Managing Director Europe & Group CFO, Lombard International Assurance
The effort required to charm the best talent is gathering speed in Luxembourg as businesses are increasingly competing to communicate and develop a broader range of employee benefits to both attract and retain employees. It’s no longer just about having a well-recognised brand name or being number one in your sector
Accelerated growth across the financial services industry has resulted in the sector needing to work harder when it comes to attracting high calibre recruits. Firms are seeking to strengthen their teams and talent to ensure that they are able to seize the growth opportunities available. In this competitive environment, businesses need to clearly articulate their employee value proposition and what their new recruits can personally achieve while delivering against their core purpose. ESG considerations are another core element in this regard, primarily for Millennials and Gen Z, as they encompass not just a drive for improved sustainability but also greater attention to training and development as well as employee wellbeing.
At first glance, the financial services industry may not be as appealing as other sectors, especially when trying to attract creative and innovative talent. The notion of being ‘a company man’ for those at the start of their careers is outdated, with people not wanting to, nor having the aspiration to commit decades to the same company. But with this change in attitude brings opportunity. Recognising that employees may only be seeking roles for a finite amount of time means that those businesses who proactively help nurture and develop the expertise and portable skill sets will be viewed as much more attractive places to work.
The challenge is then to match roles and career progression with the right talent! The expectations of prospective and current employees, combined with the competition for talent, means that companies that hide from the truth may well thwart their own people strategy and plans. Yet, the challenge must also be addressed at an industry level.
A career accelerator with an international footprint
Wealth Assurance may be unfamiliar to some, yet it’s a well-established and fast-growing segment of the financial services industry. Sitting at the crossroads of private banking, asset management and insurance, it is an internationally recognised tool for wealth preservation, asset protection and international mobility.
Despite the attractiveness of the Wealth Assurance sector in terms of career opportunities, factors associated with the size of the Luxembourg market, together with the skillsets required, means that many financial institutions are all searching for talent in the same relatively small pool!
However, what Wealth Assurance offers is truly attractive - a thriving and entrepreneurial work environment, with the opportunity to work across multiple geographies, learn valuable new skills, develop great expertise, and establish long-lasting relationships. A truly people-solution-orientated sector, Wealth Assurance requires excellent interpersonal communications skills, ambition and tenacity. And whilst there is an opportunity to learn and develop on an individual basis, there is also the prospect to really contribute to shaping the future of this fast-growing industry collectively too.
Working in such an internationally diverse sector results in interacting with clients who are typically geo-flexible and have ever-evolving sophisticated needs, meaning that to consistently deliver service excellence, there is a continued drive towards innovation and digitalisation. This also translates into the working environment, including not just how we collaborate with our clients and business partners but also how we offer a flexible work environment.
As our work lives become increasingly more intertwined with delivering a digital experience, our recruitment requirements evolve too. We are looking for a multitude of diverse talent sets across a wide spectrum of disciplines, from international wealth planners to accountants to software developers eager to take responsibility for a complex challenge, to sales roles as well as people who want to develop their passion for customer relations.
We are firmly committed to helping intellectually curious and ambitious individuals develop and enhance their skills though learning and development. In 2021, over 13,000 hours of training were completed by our colleagues - an average of 25 hours per individual. This includes learning a new foreign language, people-management and soft skills training, but also technical and expert training which represented 66% of the total time committed.
Companies such as Lombard International Assurance can act as career accelerators, compared to larger institutions. Talented individuals can grow their careers faster than in other environments. Our business model provides exceptional opportunities for personal development, helping to grow highly portable skills across a broad range of roles within financial services. There’s truly no better place to learn and succeed.