South African banks are hiring individuals with expertise in finance, information technology (IT), digital technology, and emerging risk advisory.
These skills will be highly sought-after in 2024 due to the widespread adoption of digital technology.
According to Nedbank’s latest results for the year ending 31 December 2023, Nedbank Money app clients reached 2.3 million in 2023, up by 16% compared to the previous year.
The bank saw app transaction volumes increase 18% from 2022 and 315% from pre-Covid 2019, while digital transaction values reached R614 billion (10% increase from 2022 and 54% from 2019).
FNB’s digital channels also saw growth, with the app volumes on the FNB app up 14%. Standard Bank, meanwhile, recorded a 30% jump in digital transactions in 2023.
As a result of the growing digital economy, FNB Human Capital Executive Donald Khumalo told BusinessTech that, in the rapidly evolving banking sector, “digital transformation is no longer a choice; it’s an imperative”.
“Financial institutions must embrace technology to enhance security, operational efficiency, and overall customer experience.
“As a result, certain roles are becoming increasingly critical to the success of banks and their ability to adapt to this changing landscape,” he said.
Nedbank added that digital transformation and fast-paced technological change, ongoing regulatory changes, and evolving customer needs are driving the demand for critical new capabilities and skills, both locally and globally.
Considering this, South Africa’s big four banks – FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank, and Absa – told BusinessTech that they’re actively looking for the following skills in 2024:
- Software Engineers;
- Digital marketing;
- Multi-Stack engineers;
- System developers and analysts;
- Data Scientists;
- DevOps Engineers;
- UI and UX Designers;
- Software Test Analysts;
- Quantitative Analysts;
- Actuaries; and
- Cyber Risk Specialists
The banks noted that experience in critical skills is advantageous for job seekers in the mentioned positions.
Some of these skills include:
- Digital and emerging technology;
- Data and analytics;
- Multi–stack development skills – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud, Machine Learning (ML), and blockchain;
- User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) skills;
- Actuarial and predictive analytics skills; and
- Emerging risk advisory skills – such as cyber risk, climate risk and open banking risk, amongst others.
Despite digital innovations, banks still require finance expertise and skills for their real estate operations, both at branch and corporate levels.
Therefore, banks are also actively looking for the following:
- Chartered Accounts (CA);
- Bankers;
- ESG investment specialists;
- Credit Managers;
- Customer Service Consultants;
- Investment bankers; and
- Branch and relationship managers
With these skills and qualifications in demand, FNB human capital executive, Donald Khumalo, noted that, although newly hired personnel vary year-on-year, FNB had facilitated approximately 2,000 external placements and 1,000 internal movements.
Nedbank added that it hired 1,730 new employees, and an Absa spokesperson revealed that the group had an estimated 6,789 hires per annum, including internal transfers and promotions.
This figure also includes an average of 3,468 external hires per annum.
Additionally, over the past two years, as job markets have normalised post the pandemic, the Standard Bank Group has hired an average of 4,400 people annually.
Adding to the growing recruitment numbers, all three banks added that they are talent-retentive and focus on increasing the job opportunities of existing employees.
“There is a significant investment in reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce with critical skills needed to provide career growth opportunities, minimise job losses and build a flowing pipeline of talent in the long term,” said Fuller.
To view all the vacancies available in 2024, Nedbank, Absa, and FNB encourage job seekers to visit their respective careers pages.
businesstech.co.za
