Wall Street banking jobs have traditionally been some of the highest paying and most sought-after jobs for new college graduates. However, in recent years Wall Street’s culture has led to a slow and steady talent drain as more and more people choose startups and the Silicon Valley over banking. The problem for banks stems from many things, but one of the biggest problems is the culture. Social-media and technology companies are attracting new talent by appealing to their desire for global experiences, high levels of responsibility, reasonably fast advancement, a strong sense of ethical standards, innovative management techniques, and an attractive work-life balance. In order to compete, Wall Street must make changes to its culture. According to The Boston Consulting Group, these changes should be the immediate focus:
- Ensure that basic people-management disciplines are carried out. These include soft metrics (such as pulse-check-based overall satisfaction) as well as harder metrics (quality-of-performance reviews conducted at regular intervals).
- Create Personalized learning and development plans that offer training across silos and divisions and also provide necessary compliance content.
- Recognize that many high-performing individuals (such as traders) may not necessarily be effective people managers, and that forcing them into such roles can be detrimental both to the individuals themselves and to their subordinates.
- Address next-generation concerns such as better approaches to work-life balance (perhaps through part-time or flexible working policies), greater mobility, and opportunities for social initiatives (such as social-impact leaves of absence).
- Evaluate alternatives channels for recruiting Millennials.
- Build a more rigorous approach to managing career paths (including full transparency on titles and promotions).
- Reinforce active performance management and outplacement (aside from cost-cutting programs).
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