From one job to another: Talent mobility makes it possible

A study by McKinsey shows that approximately 7500 people will no longer be able to do the job they do today within 5 years. Almost 40% of the current jobs in the sector will look different or no longer exist by 2025. A study by Roland Berger indicates that the number of jobs in the sector will rather remain stable over the next 10 years.

Many of the current jobs in the financial sector are therefore disappearing, but almost as many new ones are being created. This transformation of jobs is function-related rather than age-related. Younger people will therefore also be eligible for the Talent Mobility project.

The project is primarily aimed at employees who could lose their job in the short term. In addition, it is intended for employees who can no longer cope with the high digital pace and who use career guidance to give their future a new direction.

What makes the project special is the tailor-made approach. Those who participate receive individual coaching, training and can do an internship. To this end, the sector works together with various partners who are active in career coaching, training and re-employment.

The aim is to keep employees working longer within a challenging and sustainable career. People have to keep working with enthusiasm. And continue to grow throughout their professional career.

Bank employees who join Talent Mobility will often end up in a sector that is difficult to fill vacancies but does have attractive jobs. It is with these sectors that Febelfin concludes cooperation agreements. Healthcare is the first sector with which such an agreement has been signed. There is a trial period from April to September 2019.

The financial sector is increasingly becoming a technology sector in which innovations follow each other in rapid succession. Many roles that a bank fills today will no longer exist in the future. And that also has an impact on the bank employees. Tomorrow they will need different competences than today. Certain functions will change or even disappear.

The banks themselves will initially focus on internal mobility plans. Employees who will lose their job will be coached to another job within the bank. But due to digitalisation, the gap in skills and competences is widening. The result: it is becoming more difficult to provide employees within the bank with a new challenge.

The sector has therefore developed the Talent Mobility project, together with the Christian and socialist trade unions and with various experts who are active in the training and employment world.

The project guides bank employees from job to job, also and especially outside their own financial sector. This is done through individual coaching, training and internships.

Talent mobility is for employees who are in danger of losing their job in the short term because their position will disappear in the future, or because they no longer have the right competencies.

But the project is also aimed at employees who themselves indicate that they can no longer keep up with the rapid pace of change. It is necessary that people adopt a more proactive attitude in the future, in which they dare to reinvent themselves.

Talent mobility is therefore job-related, much more than age-related. Younger people are also eligible.

More important than age is the desire to take on a new project. To continue to grow, to broaden your view and to use your own knowledge in a new story. Without losing herself. It is not for nothing that the slogan of Talent Mobility is: "Different job … still you".

With Talent Mobility, the financial sector does not want to limit itself to the legal obligations regarding dismissal and outplacement. Coaching and guidance are therefore central.

Both small and large banks can participate. Each bank chooses for itself which formula(s) it offers and which employees can join. The employee decides for himself whether he actually takes the step.

The employee receives 16 hours of individual coaching for a maximum of six months. Together with a coach, a personal development and action plan is drawn up.

The employer can allocate a training budget. Or you can opt for workplace learning. In addition, the employee performs a trial with a future employer for up to 3 weeks. That way he can gain experience and see if he likes the new position.

Formula 2 is also an individual coaching program with the options of training and workplace learning.

The difference with formula 1 is that the employee can try out a new job for up to 3 months.

Through the Experience@Work platform, experienced employees can share their knowledge and experience with other employers for a certain period of time, without having to give up their current benefits.

Employees remain on the bank's payroll. The new employer pays the bank.

A number of banks, such as KBC and Crelan, already use this platform today, but it is now organized at sector level. More than 800 vacancies are published on Experience@Work every year. These are mainly jobs in the non- and social profit sector, but increasingly also in the profit sector.

The Bridge to Work platform, also organized at sector level, is primarily aimed at senior employees who still want to actively engage with employers who are specifically looking for expertise.

If the employee finds a job that suits him, he will end up on the payroll of the new employer, whether or not linked to a formula for early departure at a former employer.

The switch to the new employer's payroll can be made from one day to the next. A combination with a (free) trial period and a minimal package of coaching is possible.

Within each of these four formulas, the employee can call on the digital labor market place TalentBuzz. He can create his profile with which he is matched - via his CV, previous assessments and some enriching tests - with the vacancies on the platform. In addition, the employee is shown his competence gap via TalentBuzz and how he can close it through training.

The basis has been laid for cooperation with the employment services of Belgium.

The financial sector concludes cooperation agreements with sectors that have difficulty attracting the right people but do have attractive jobs.

Each sector is met separately to determine whether cooperation is possible and under what conditions. Particularly in sectors with many shortage occupations, diploma requirements and/or other statutes often apply. Negotiation is then required in order to develop a good guidance program together.

So far, a protocol agreement has been concluded with the healthcare sector. There is a trial period from April to September 2019.

Employees who join are paid through their contract with the healthcare facility. Any training courses are financed from the joint fund of the healthcare sector. The cancellation fee at the bank is paid.

Discussions are also underway with various other sectors.