Fashion or finance – skills, not subjects studied, matter to us | Views | HSBC Holdings plc

When it comes to hiring emerging talent, skills are more important than the subjects a person has studied.

It doesn’t matter if someone has a degree in fashion or finance, it’s all about the transferable skills they have.

At HSBC, we’re not focused on a person’s technical skillset, whether they have knowledge of banking or economics – we can train people on that. I joined the bank a couple of years ago, but don’t have a background in banking. I come from the life sciences and biotech sector.

Focusing on transferable skills, rather than specific qualifications, enables us to attract emerging talent from different backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives – people that may never have considered a career in finance.

This gives HSBC a competitive edge and is helping us build a more diverse bank that better reflects the communities we serve.

Career opportunities

By understanding the behavioural skills that make young talent successful at HSBC and training the technical skills they need to thrive in business critical roles at the end of their training, we set them up for long, varied and thriving careers as we equip in them a skillset that enables them to move around the bank and build a portfolio career.

This approach not only creates career opportunities – it deepens the talent pool we’re able to recruit from.

It’s estimated that by 2030 there will be a talent shortage of more than 85 million people¹ globally. By taking a skills-based approach, we’re increasing the talent pool we’re hiring from by about 10 times.

Skills matcher

Earlier this year, HSBC launched a skills matching tool. It takes about five minutes to complete and asks a series of questions around work preferences, professional aims and objectives, behavioural skills and interests.

Once completed, people are presented with three areas of the bank they most match with.

This helps those who don’t have knowledge of banks and how they’re structured to find out more about different roles, and is an easier entry point into the organisation.

It about democratising opportunities at the bank and making them accessible and available to a wider range of people.

By doing this, we can attract, develop and retain the emerging talent we need for the future.

1. Korn Ferry study Future of Work .