The banks’ move to increase headcount is the first since 2015. In 2016, Europe’s top investment banks slashed 12,000 jobs. As part of restructuring plans, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays carried lay-offs to downsize their workforce.  

Last year, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS made advancements in hiring new staff, which shows in their full-year report, according to Financial Times. Barclays also increased staffing in 2017.

The second half of 2017 saw Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS overall include 3,000 jobs, and Barclays add 2,500 in the same year, excluding Africa. Towards the end of 2017, the staff recruitment by all four banks totalled 285,500.

The post Europe’s brightest investment banks recruit after years of restructuring appeared first on International Finance.

In so doing, they tossed aside their natural inclination for “risk aversion” and, instead, demonstrated that being a leader is not always just about maximizing the company’s profits but also about ensuring that company’s moral compass is pointed in the right direction. And that can actually have a highly positive impact on the bottom line.

So asserts Michael Rosenbaum, founder and CEO of Arena and Executive Chair of Catalyte, both national leaders in using data analytics to enhance workforce recruitment and retention.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Rosenbaum, a former Harvard Fellow, said, “When I think about what the job of a CEO is, it is obviously out there representing your brand and the values of your organization….When you think about the culture of an organization, and it really is the culture that ends up driving the end results of the organization. And when you think about the role of the CEO it really is to drive that culture.”

Rosenbaum noted in the interview that the key characteristics for a CEO in achieving a strong corporate culture are honesty and authenticity. He said that, “Diversity is obviously a key value of so many organizations. But I think that even more significantly today at least I think for myself as a CEO, for the organizations we work with, authenticity, being honest about who you are as a leader, who you are as a human being is critically important. And that’s core to everything you are as a CEO.”

That, he stressed, will ensure that the CEO earns the trust of the organization while enhancing profits. In fact, he said that, “being able to communicate with the organization that authenticity is important and to drive those values inside the organization, that’s what ultimately drives financial performance.”

Diversity can also be consistent with increasing the bottom line, Rosenbaum noted. Speaking about the need for companies, and especially those in the technology world, to embrace more diversity, he said, “You know when I think about what we do, I am in the business of collecting large amounts of data about people and using it to predict how someone is going to do in a job. When you do that, when you use data analytics and predictive analytics, you find that organizations over time become more diverse.”

To communicate that to clients, Rosenbaum said he and his team talk about long-term strategy as much as short-term goals. The organizations with which Arena works are concerned about diversity long term but “the immediate need is financial return, the immediate need is moving an organization’s outcomes.”

So, the Arena team, with clients that process more than one million unique job applicants a year, explains that organizations shouldn’t think primarily about diversity but rather about getting the right person in the right job at the right time. By doing so, Rosenbaum said, “You are going to end up generating a better result, and when you do that you will get a better financial return and the byproduct of that is organizations will become more diverse over time.”

Inherent biases are the barrier to achieving this. When one thinks about how people hire, they look at a resume and conduct an interview. “And when that happens you do end up having bias in hiring…We want people who look like us,” said Rosenbaum, who recalled that the first time he ever worked in government he got a job because the person who was hiring him went to the same graduate program as he did.

But by using data, you are removing such bias and “you can do a better job of that matching.”

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Suparna Goswami Bhattacharya

May 7, 2015: That LinkedIn and Facebook are used by companies to hunt for the right candidate is well known. But now more and more firms are going beyond and using other social media platforms, like Quora or/and Hacker News, to zero in on the right person for their company. Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship while Quora is question-answer website where questions are created and answered by a community of users.

“Just like Facebook, social platforms like Quora and Hacker News are not specifically meant for recruitment purpose. However, these sites provide an insight into a person’s domain knowledge and field expertise,” remarks Madhur Ramani, co-founder and Managing Partner, Stratum Consulting, a business innovation firm. A recruiter typically looks into how articulate and in-depth are answers given by people. “Typically, a good answer can catch the attention of many recruiters,” says Ramani.

Ganesh S, who runs a startup called FexiGen, uses Quora to interact with students who can be prospective hires. “Being a startup, we are a small team. But I am constantly on the lookout for good engineering and technical talent. LinkedIn usually has people with experience. Since I mostly look for freshers, I find Quora helpful,” he remarks.

As of 2014, around a third of employers in the USA and the UK have posted jobs on social networking sites like Facebook, Quora and Twitter, and 22 percent of these employers have hired a candidate they found on a social networking site. Additionally, 43 percent of employers have used these social networking sites to research job candidates. “LinkedIn can be good for certain types of jobs, but its user base is a small portion of the total employable workforce. Therefore, other networks and methods are crucial in a social recruitment strategy,” says Chirag Nangia, CEO, Reppify, a San Francisco-based business that uses integrated social media data to help companies find the right hires.

An employer typically looks at a candidate’s personality and sees if they fit well with the company’s culture. “They also look whether a candidate’s background information supported their professional qualifications for the job. Also, these platforms are a great way to know somebody’s interest areas outside of work,” says Mary Lorenz, corporate communications manager, CareerBuilder.

In fact, recruiters are also extending their search to sites where one would least expect — Pinterest and Instagram. “Instagram and Pinterest can be great to drive engagement and brand recognition. Our research shows that the majority of candidates – 62 percent – research companies on social networking sites to evaluate them before applying. So it’s important for companies to have a presence on these channels,” says Lorenz.

For job seekers

There is a lot that you can do with your profile to attract the right attention. Start by evaluating your own social media profile to make sure they are employer friendly. “Provide a link from your resume to your online portfolio, blog or Twitter account so that employers can easily find and learn about you,” says Lorenz.

In fact, since many companies have social media pages dedicated solely to recruitment, one can even reach out to these companies via this channel.

The CEO’s life

Though nobody ever said that a CEO’s life is easy, it seems to be tougher in the age of social networking. Not only is it tough for CEOs to put up personal pictures of them holidaying with their family, it is difficult to express personal opinions on sensitive topics as well.

According to Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM) Research Spotlight, CEOs are seldom active on social media platforms. Only 15% CEOs use LinkedIn to build relationships with external audiences while many blog about recent company developments. Organisations seldom use social media to track a CEO’s personal or professional life, the research stated.

“We do not usually find a CEO very active on social media nor is social media often used by companies to track a prospective CEO’s personal life,” remarks Ramani.

Qais al Khonji, who runs Genesis Projects and Investments in Oman, is not very active on Facebook or Twitter. “I am on WhatsApp and Instagram. On Instagram, I post both my personal as well as professional pictures, like events that I am attending or planning to attend. I usually express my views if I have to convey a message to my followers,” says Khonji adding that he refrains from commenting on any person or group of any kind. He actively posts news about his company on social networking platforms.

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