The tech talent war
Credit unions, like most industries, are actively figuring out how to win the war on talent amidst the Great Resignation. The demand for tech talent across the credit union industry has never been higher as the industry finally addresses the need for digital transformation in order to compete with big banks and fintechs for new members.
However, it’s the tech innovation of these competitors as well as the growing demand for tech professionals across all industries that is making it more challenging than ever for credit unions to retain and recruit talent.
As the widespread demand for talent increases, salaries also increase. Turnover is high across all fields as employees look for more flexibility, opportunities for growth and increased salaries. But IT and cyber professionals are unicorns with some seeing 50-100% salary increases.
According to an article from Fortune, “In some metro areas, particularly those where demand was the highest, tech salaries spiked by as much as 14%.”
The financial services industry typically has fairly low turnover rates, but credit unions are experiencing larger volumes of turnover within IT departments. The commercial industry pays significantly more, offers opportunity for advancement, and access to fun new tech that credit unions can’t.
Credit unions are more vulnerable than other industries because most are still in the early stages of their digital transformation journeys, and therefore, are not deep in advanced technology or ongoing innovations.
As credit unions are becoming less builders of tech and more buyers of tech, this pivot is requiring a shift in the skillsets needed within credit union IT departments. Credit unions need to reevaluate their tech talent needs. Today, credit unions should be recruiting tech talent with strong vendor management and business strategy skills – they no longer require tech leaders who can build tech as much as they need tech leaders on top of the rapidly evolving industry to ensure organizations are working with the right partners to meet their changing tech needs.
Partners like us provide expertise where needed and when needed. At Think|Stack we are able to recruit talent, paying them competitively and offering professional growth and opportunities to be innovative.
As a CUSO, it’s a win-win for the industry because we share that talent through our comanaged services specialized for credit unions, reducing the burden for credit unions to independently build competent, highly-skilled tech teams.
Prior to re-staffing IT teams, credit unions should take the following steps:
- Evaluate its current technology capabilities and digital transformation journey
- Assess total talent resources including internal staff and external vendor partners
- Meet with vendor partners to better understand their capabilities
Credit unions should not rebuild tech teams as they have in the past. In order to compete in a rapidly changing financial services industry, leaders need to reevaluate their needs and develop a hiring strategy to meet those needs.
