- July 12, 2022
When it comes to positioning your organization as an employer of choice, it helps to think of candidates as your customers — what can you offer them, what value do you provide and how do you support them? How you answer these questions describes your employee value proposition, which is the backbone of your employer brand.
For organizations in the ever-changing world of financial technology (fintech), keeping up with trends is essential. Not only do you need to meet candidate expectations, you also have to keep up with the competition. On top of that, you must find a way to effectively promote your brand and establish your reputation as a top employer.
In this article, we’ll break down how notable fintechs promote some of the most desirable employer qualities. Use this analysis to inspire your own employer branding efforts and keep tabs on the competition.
Image via Discover
Highlighting your scaling business and agile teams shows your propensity for growth, something job seekers want to see in a potential employer. However, with growth often comes growing pains, which present opportunities to make important adjustments for the future of your business. Responding to these challenges shows prospective employees your flexibility, resilience and desire to continue growing your team.
In this article, Discover‘s business technology director, George Leedle, explains how the engineering department reacted to its team’s growth in anticipation of additional development. By analyzing the team’s bottlenecks and setting the expectation that there’s always room for continuous improvement, Discover found an engineering team structure that worked.
Furthermore, the article emphasized Discover’s consideration of employees by explaining how their feedback was taken into account during the adjustment process. This goes a long way with employees — 48 percent claim that asking for their feedback and acting on it would help to reduce voluntary turnover.
Image via Braintree
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are more important than ever. Employers must create safe, entirely inclusive work environments in which all individuals can thrive. Your efforts will significantly impact your employer brand as well as your ability to recruit and retain top talent — 67 percent of candidates seek out diverse companies and 13 percent of employees monitor how frequently senior managers discuss diversity and inclusion.
This spotlight article allows Braintree — a payments processing platform based in Chicago — to showcase its extensive DEI initiatives. In addition to making internal data accessible to promote accountability and implementing recruiting, outreach and internal support initiatives, Braintree made unconscious bias training an integral part of their culture.
This article allows the organization to share its story while simultaneously promoting diverse voices from across the organization. It’s an impactful way to show that Braintree is walking the walk; the team is actively trying to do and be better for its employees and the broader tech community.
Image via Albert
Company culture plays a significant role in a job seeker’s decision-making process. In fact, 46 percent cite culture as “very important” when evaluating a job opportunity and 56 percent of employees say company culture is more important than salary. Regardless of industry, employers must make a concerted effort to promote their workplace culture. Prominent financial services mobile app, Albert, leveraged this article to do just that.
Ergin Yildiz, Lead Mobile Engineer, shares his experience as an Albert employee, highlighting his favorites aspects of the culture and how it has evolved since its early days. Yildiz also spoke to how Albert’s company culture stands out from his past experience. “Compared to my previous job, I feel that everybody at Albert cares a lot about what they do,” he says. “This is a fundamental part of Albert’s culture — being proud of what you do so the effort you put in motivates others around you to do the same.”
This inside look at the company culture will help prospective employees get a better sense of what it’s like to work at Albert. Not only will this entice top talent, it will also help them make a more informed decision, improving the changes of hiring a well-suited candidate.
Showcasing employees and their experiences is a highly effective recruitment strategy. Why? Because 66 percent of candidates believe the best way to get a sense of a potential employer is by interacting with current employees. Furthermore, candidates trust employees 3x more than a potential employer and 83 percent of job seekers are likely to search for company reviews when deciding to apply to a job.
In this Insider Video, Chicago-based fintech, Enova, puts its team members front and center. Doing so allows Enova to provide prospective employees with the information they desire from the people they trust the most. Furthermore, each employee has the opportunity to speak to the core values, culture initiatives and projects that matter most to them. This helps appeal to a broader audience while still keeping the talent pool focused on your organization’s core tenets.
Image via Verifi
A comprehensive tech stack is vital to any company working with digital infrastructure, but especially for fintechs working with financial institutions, payments and highly personal data. In order to attract qualified talent, employers must target candidates with relevant work experience and familiarity with their technologies.
While a standard job description might list the required proficiencies and experience for a particular role, LA-based Verifi promotes the technology used across the organization. Not only does this give prospective employees additional insight into the innovative work being done at the company, it can also be an effective strategy to attract better candidates. Seeing additional technologies and programming languages being used at the company may entice candidates with multiple proficiencies or a willingness to learn additional skills.
Image via FirstBank
Volunteerism and philanthropy are extremely attractive benefits to employees. In fact, 82 percent of companies say their employees want the opportunity to volunteer with colleagues as part of an employer-sponsored event. Furthermore, 96 percent of employees who volunteer say their workplace culture is positive.
Highlighting how you give back to the community will improve your employer brand and attract great candidates. For an example of how it’s done, look no further than this article from Colorado-based FirstBank. In addition to providing employees with time off for volunteering, FirstBank actively encourages team members to do so by providing employees with ideas and celebrating their contributions during all-hands meetings.
Additionally, the article includes voices from across the business, allowing both individual contributors and leadership to share their perspectives. This adds to the community-focused mindset and shows that the culture of giving back runs throughout the entire organization.
Image via Riskified
Despite today’s remote world, employees will return to the office and having an exciting space that fosters collaboration and innovation is a huge plus. Not only would 81 percent of job seekers turn down an offer if they didn’t like the office, but 97 percent of employees view the office space as representative of how companies value their work force.
Showing off your office space gives prospective employees a sense of what a typical workday would be like. On top of that, your office should reflect your company culture and therefore help candidates understand what you value. Riskified allows job seekers a peek behind the curtain in this article, showcasing its most beloved office features and the intention behind each.
The sleek, open spaces and lack of desks illustrates Riskified’s emphasis on free-flowing collaboration and team bonding. The stocked kitchen and welcoming design also signals to candidates that employees are valued; leadership wants them to feel comfortable when coming to work each day.
Image via Fundera
Senior leaders are responsible for the broader business strategy and touch just about every aspect of the organization. It goes without saying that they have a significant impact on the employee experience. Even if they’re not completely accessible, employees want visibility into their leadership’s goals and plans for the future. More than half (61 percent) of employees cite trust in and with senior management as important to their satisfaction. Showcasing your leaders will help cultivate a relationship between the C-suite and team members.
To introduce him to the company and general public, Fundera — a financial solutions marketplace — spotlighted CTO Jason Rodriguez in this article. Doing so allowed him to speak to his background, explain Fundera’s most essential goals and share his vision for the company. This article establishes Rodriguez as a thought leader and gives prospective employees insight as to where the company is heading. Candidates will be eager to work for this forward-thinking leader.
Image via Merrill Corporation
The fintech industry is constantly evolving, making innovation a core tenet of a successful business. Candidates want to know that by joining your team, they’ll be part of some of the industry’s most exciting opportunities. While you can’t reveal all your secrets, allowing employees the chance to share what they’re working on and most interested in is the perfect place to start.
As a leading global SaaS provider for the mergers and acquisitions lifecycle, Merrill Corporation is constantly innovating. The team used this article to give job seekers a taste of what it’s like to work as a software engineer for a renowned name in fintech. Software Engineering Manager Drew Strickland explains the work he’s done in the past as well as his more recent, challenging projects and what they mean for the business. It’s a phenomenal way to connect individual contributors to meaningful work and show candidates how they can enjoy similar opportunities.
Image via ClearCover
One of the most important parts of a job is the opportunity to grow both in the role and company. Candidates know this and seek out employers who support professional development. Employees are also more likely to stick around if they feel supported in their career: 86 percent of millennials say that career training and development opportunities would keep them from leaving their current job.
In this article, the ClearCover team leads explained how the organization supports employee development and empowers individuals to take control of their career growth. Highlighting its history of promoting from within signals to prospective employees that ClearCover is an organization that invests in its employees’ future.
Whichever strategies you choose to pursue when cultivating your employer brand, be mindful of the fact that candidates are unique and will have varying priorities. To appeal to a wider talent pool, you should aim to vary your approach. Think about the parts of your organization that resonate most with your current employees and market them to candidates. Doing so will help create a more effective and authentic employer brand.
