Fintech companies have become employers of choice in SA, as local talent is jostling for positions in the growing sector.
This is according to a 2022 report on the South African talent landscape, the Universum Talent survey, which says the banking and fintech sectors proved to have strong areas of growth within the talent population.
The survey collects global data on employment trends, preferred employers and evolving talent needs in the current economic climate.
In SA, this year, more than 28 000 professionals from over 56 professional areas and 56 967 students from 27 universities participated in the survey. This year’s total number of respondents increased from last year to 84 358.
Key findings of the exercise include fintech emerging as a sector favoured within the surveyed talent population.
“There has not been much movement in the highly-competitive auditing and accounting, banking and e-commerce organisations for business talent. In the fintech sectors, interest has grown,” says the survey.
The fintech space has become one of the leading drivers of innovation and job creation across the country.
Fintech presents “the most prolific and high-yielding opportunity to impact our GDP”, according Alison Collier, MD of Endeavor South Africa.
Explaining how talent needs are evolving in 2022, Pabi Mogosetsi, country manager for Universum Global SA, says: “Ethical standards and professional training and development are still highly regarded by both students and professionals. While secure employment is important for professionals, leadership opportunities have become important to students.
“This demonstrates that talent is largely more focused on job characteristics, so employer brands need to ensure their employer value proposition and employer brand image are correctly communicated in job descriptions. This helps them ensure candidates’ experiences align with what is promised.”
In the engineering/technology category, the report says tech or STEM talent still remains important and keeps rising to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Mogosetsi comments: “We have noticed that this industry and the tech, finance, banking and auditing industries have grown in interest, and have noted various organisations following suit in making sure they get a ‘piece of the pie’ by opening various technology hubs in South Africa, setting it up to become a focus point for African tech.
“While these industries are enjoying substantial growth in interest, the FMCG industry is bleeding talent interest, and growth is extremely limited. With the top 10 companies in the FMCG industries losing rank to banking, and in particular, the international banks.
“The preferred industries within this target group have evolved to include a fast growth in the energy, IT, computer and network security, computer software and technology, and IT engineering consulting.”
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Huawei, Samsung and Tesla took the lead in attractiveness with the IT-focused target group, while Sasol, Transnet and Eskom came out tops within the engineering category.
In terms of what professionals in the engineering/technology target group prefer, Mogosetsi says: “Employer reputation and image, job characteristics, and people and culture are important to this group. They are interested in innovation and embracing new technologies, and most of all professional training and development.
“For the whole target population, encouraging work-life balance, flexible conditions and competitive base salary have risen in importance.
“Challenging work is seen as one of the least important attributes, as are leadership opportunities. We believe this is linked to the importance of work-life balance and flexibility.”
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