Retaining highly skilled innovative personnel and attracting the increasingly scarce new talent is a challenge that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Agnė Selemonaitė, Deputy CEO at ConnectPay, has shared how the current situation is shaping fintechs’ people practices.
April 12, 2021. Despite the stifled growth in many industries, last year has been a favorable time for the fintech sector, however, fast growth and remote work in quarantine conditions have posed a real challenge for many companies. Agnė Selemonaitė, Deputy CEO at ConnectPay, has elaborated on how fintech companies are dealing with the pandemic-induced changes in people practices in the workplace and the shift to remote work.
The fintech industry is facing fierce competition for the brightest minds in the business, as it relies on innovative and highly skilled talent to grow. In fact, this trend is prevalent among most technology companies. Currently, 82% of all tech startups globally plan to expand their workforce, while 29% of them recognize it is incredibly challenging to find talent with the necessary skills. However, while attracting new talent remains the top priority for many fintech companies, retaining the existing personnel is no less important.
In order to keep their employees motivated and focused, leading fintech market players are employing a variety of measures. For example, fintechs like Revolut seek to enhance the workers’ ability to personalize their workflow and allow them to design their own schedule. Robinhood, on the other hand, is aiming to increase its employee retention by issuing financial profit-sharing bonuses. “Finding ways to share company’s successes with its employees is what keeps them engaged long-term and drives them to perform at the highest level,” emphasized A. Selemonaitė.
She also shared what has helped the most in keeping things running smoothly for ConnectPay. The company was quick to shift to remote work during the initial global lockdown, which helped sustain their day-to-day operations, as well as enabled employees to work from anywhere in the world they felt productive.
“How this shift was going to affect employee welfare and work efficiency was a difficult question. Therefore we’ve put substantial effort into making the transition smooth and stress-free,” said A. Selemonaitė. “We are considering remote work will naturally continue to be our normal practice even when the pandemic is over.”
Along with the continued practice of remote work, the company has put in place a variety of additional incentives in an effort to keep their team motivated and mentally robust.
“Alongside allowing our employees to work from home, we’ve developed a few practices to keep their physical health in top shape. For instance, we provide our team with remote yoga classes, online meditation sessions, and a day off on birthdays. Also, we regularly organize meetings with Lithuania’s most innovative business leaders, renowned cultural figures, and top athletes: we already had the pleasure to host prominent guests, such as an Olympic champion in rowing and the Mayor of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania,” said A. Selemonaitė.
“All of our benefits and initiatives are focused on promoting a lifestyle that is both physically and mentally healthy. Therefore, we offer generous employee pension plans, private health insurance, and gym memberships. Aside from making sure that our team feels healthy, safe, and secure,” she continued, “we strive to foster a sense of belonging in our company. And since we don’t meet each other in person, we organize occasional online coffee chats where our employees can talk about their interests, hobbies, and other non-work-related matters.”
According to A. Selemonaitė, both managers and employees will have to fundamentally change their habits to ensure a harmonized environment and digitally-focused banking workforce in the post-pandemic work life.
“The world is much different from what it was just a year ago. That is why the work environment and the most common organizational practices have to change to meet the new demands posed by the Covid-19 situation,” said A. Selemonaitė.
As the world adapts to the pandemic and its effects, the way fintech companies treat their existing personnel and the methods they employ to attract new talent will be one of the defining factors of their long-term success.
