Digitalisation, young people can bring about next overhaul of financial sector

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The digital revolution has appeared in the financial sector as well, after having disrupted the media and musical industries. In order to stay competitive, employers will have to develop their back-end IT systems to be more transparent and user-friendly and organize their work environment to cater to younger employees as well, according to experts, who spoke at the latest Dorsum Club.
Anita Kövesdi, senior consultant of Dorsum shared her views on the effects of digitalization:
  • 25 years ago, most securities existed only in material form, today, almost all securities are dematerialized. The media and musical industries experienced a similar shift with the appearance of Spotify or Netflix. As of today, Spotify has 83 million users, who are willing to pay to get an ad-free service. In the financial sector, the Simple app brought similar novelties.
  • Some problems still persist that are hard to come over, despite the development in technology. Such is travel, which consumes a considerable amount of time: for example, if someone lives 45 minutes from his workplace, he spends 31 days with travel annually. There are of course, solutions for this question, for example, less and less work activities require physical presence, so workplaces allow home office, while employees can reach their IT-tools via a VPN, also, many Office-programs are available online.
  • All this benefits the employer as well, who usually spends a lot on office maintenance. In addition, the employee will save a lot of travel time, they will work in a familiar environment and can also fulfill their duties at home, increasing employee satisfaction.
  • It is important that the work environment becomes personally customizable, both software and hardware-wise. The role of UX (user experience) has become a key factor among employees, not only does it make them more satisfied, it makes them more productive as well. Dorsum has developed software to combat these challenges, such a tool is for example ClavisNXT and Corporate Portal.

Following the presentation, a roundtable discussion followed, moderated by András Mihálovits, editor of Millásreggeli. The participants answered the following important questions:

What is the ideal workplace for the younger generations?

Gábor Nyul, Dorsum’s junior account believes that the youth-friendly workplace is colorful, diverse and motivating. Having places where employees can relax, like a café, a balcony or a park is also important. These amenities can increase the creativity of the workforce.

Birigitta Bánhidi leadership coach revealed that with the focused way of thinking, we can solve problems, which we learned to solve by routine, while with the diffuse mindset, we can solve problems that are unfamiliar to us - in order to successfully achieve the latter, we need to establish an environment that supports proactivity. She believes that young employees have a significant role to play when it comes to innovation, in that they have to be supported.

András Kállay, director of Erste Premium and Private Banking believes that employers usually believe that when employers relax, they are wasting time and the only way to behave at the workplace is to spend time with clients constantly. He added that while workplaces are working on agile transformation, they are neglecting to give employees private space and instead rely too much on establishing large, open spaces.

Róbert Olasz, business development manager of Concord told the audience that they do not have any Gen Z investors yet, while Gen X and Y investors are also few and far between. Regardless, they are open towards younger clients, but are awaiting to see the transformation effect brought by the so-called fintech revolution.

Can becoming too youth-friendly or innovative hurt the company in any way?

Róbert Olasz thinks being overly digital can hurt personal relationships, which can hinder the innovative spirit of the youth as well. Brigitta Bánhidi believes retaining younger employees can be challenging, since they are agile and ambitious, they do not feel comfortable at one workplace for long. They ask for a promotion after 3 months and if they don’t get it, they leave. András Kállay thinks the banking sector would do well with a shock, one does not need to worry that we speed past digital innovation. He believes that stock options help preserve young talent.

How well would you say young people are versed in finance?

Gábor Nyul believes that they are not. A lot of young people lack the financial base and even if they do not, many spend money on partying, travel and they do not concern themselves with financial issues.

What kind of financial products can one offer to young clients?

András Kállay thinks that the products that offer regular investing and compound interest on smaller sums of money are the most suitable. In addition, younger clients welcome advisory services and like comfortable, automated investment solutions.

In summary, the participants agreed on the fact that young employees are innovative and offer a unique viewpoint, they are however, difficult to retain. Digitalization might be a good solution to earn their loyalty, much like developing user friendly backend systems and being tolerant of their recreational activities.
 

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