Written by: Deepa Sud, CEO and Founder, Plum Jobs

As consumer appetite increases for digital finance. So, people can manage their own money online at their convenience and in real-time. The fintech industry is facing a massive skills shortage. Whilst fintech companies globally are securing billions in funding, recruiting the right talent fast to scale their companies and outpace their competitors is quite another matter.

Despite being a young sector, fintech is redefining every major industry. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are establishing themselves as leading Middle East fintech hubs. Whether it is digital lending and banking and payments, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTS or asset management, most in-demand skills are:

• Data remains the king and every sector requires scientists who can synthesize and mine data
• Business, financial, and data analysts with predictive and prescriptive analytics;
• Artificial intelligence
• Blockchain experts with the explosion of cryptocurrency
• Mobile technology-related skills
• Cognitive and soft skills and capabilities

 Key Steps to Hire The Right Candidates Faster

Automate and streamline the recruitment process: For faster hiring especially in sourcing and screening candidates. This could include live chat or bots on your company website to filter relevant candidates.

Role clarity: Define the technologies that you are looking for is crucial, especially in an algorithm-driven recruitment world

Remote working: It is certainly opening up the talent pool and many roles can be filled by contractors who are anywhere in the world

Flexible working practices: Millenials are redefining traditional productivity measures such as how many hours are worked in the office. They are measuring the output of the work performed

Ditch the CV: Introduce robust skill-based assessments and gamification to assess technical, thinking, and problem-solving skills

Incorporate behavioral interviews into the recruitment process: Behavioral interviews provide a deep insight into how candidates respond to common real-world scenarios

Real-life environment: It is always a good idea to ask a prospective employee to work on a small task with the existing team to see how well they collaborate and understand the technology that you have

Modern technology stack: Matters to candidates because of the breakneck speed, at which technology is evolving. People are looking to work in modern stack environments to deliver the best results and advance their skills and experiences.

Salaries and benefits: They are very competitive so it is important to get your budgets allocated correctly. With an acute talent shortage and low retention, companies are being forced to pay higher salaries to attract and retain the right skills

Build a talent pipeline: To save time, reduce the average time to fill vacancies and hire the best candidate before your competitor does

Improve gender and diversity balance: Whilst some companies are making headway as remote working has become more prevalent, consider women and different nationalities to widen the experiences and skills available.

Learning and career development: It should be a priority so your employees cannot be poached. Millennials are the largest demographic pool of candidates that have FinTech skills and this generation moves regularly and seamlessly between jobs because they are on the lookout to learn new skills in different environments.

FinTech is a high-growth industry and it is transforming the global ecosystem. By adopting even one of these approaches you will minimize the number of wrong hires. Whilst tech education has yet to evolve, offering real-time learning is the key to attracting and retaining elite talent. Ultimately the success of any organization in this field to grow and stay ahead of competitors comes down to being able to attract and retain the best tech talent.