From hiring leader to workforce strategist: How Talent Acquisition is Evolving in Banking

Expectations of human resources (HR) and talent acquisition (TA) functions within banking are increasing. Research conducted by Everest showed that 43% of organisations say their business strategy has evolved faster than their workforce model, highlighting a growing gap between where the business is heading and how organisations plan, build and deploy talent.  

TA has long been measured by its ability to fill vacancies efficiently. But as banks navigate digital transformation, changing skills demands, regulatory complexity and economic uncertainty, hiring is now only one part of the picture. 

For many banking TA leaders, this is creating a shift from predominantly operational delivery towards greater strategic influence. Increasingly, TA is being asked to contribute to workforce planning, future capability, and talent decisions that support wider business priorities. 
 

Connecting recruitment decisions to business priorities

In banking, workforce decisions can directly affect transformation programmes, customer experience, and operational performance. TA leaders therefore need to understand business priorities and help shape the talent strategy needed to deliver them. 

One of the most important roles TA leaders can play is helping the business make clearer choices about where talent investment matters most. That means being open with executive teams about what is being prioritised, and why some requirements may need to take precedence over others. 

Success therefore cannot simply be measured by overall hiring volume. Where niche skills are required, TA leaders need to consider whether hiring those niche skills should be a priority over hiring volume. Securing critical capability for a technology, risk or transformation priority may ultimately create far greater value. 

It also requires TA leaders to get comfortable having tough conversations about why some of the metrics traditionally celebrated may not actually be as important as others. 
 

Measuring business impact, not just hiring performance

Traditional recruitment metrics such as cost-of-hire and volume of hiring remain relevant, but there is an opportunity to look beyond traditional talent acquisition metrics towards productivity, AI adoption and impact. 

For TA leaders, that could mean measuring time-to-impact rather than time-to-hire: understanding how quickly a new hire begins contributing to the outcomes the role was created to support. 

It also means getting comfortable taking ownership of metrics that are influenced by TA but also depend on other parts of the organisation. Performance at certain points in time, onboarding, and retention can all help create a better narrative around the impact of hiring. 

This shifts the conversation away from a number in a month, a percentage or the speed of a hire, towards what the business needs to deliver in three, six or twelve months’ time. In banking, that could mean understanding how a critical hire contributes to a transformation programme, risk or compliance capability, or the adoption of new technology. 
 

Workforce planning means looking beyond permanent hiring 

Strategic workforce planning also requires TA to think beyond permanent recruitment. Banks need to consider future skills, internal mobility, contingent talent, project hiring, RPO and automation as part of the same workforce conversation. 

TA leaders need to bring together labour market insight, hiring data and business priorities to understand what capability the organisation needs and how best to access it. 

Rather than responding to every vacancy in isolation, this creates an opportunity to consider which skills should be built internally versus hired externally, and where contingent talent or automation can support demand. 
 

Strategic enabler and operational executor 

Becoming more strategic does not mean moving away from operational delivery. TA leaders increasingly need to understand both where the organisation is heading and what it will take to put that strategy into practice. 

Setting the direction, understanding the roadmap, and using data intelligence are important. But TA leaders equally need to understand what it takes to operationally execute that strategy, what is going to get in the way, what the barriers are, what works within existing systems and which parts are going to take longer. 

For banking TA leaders, that balance is particularly important. Workforce strategies need to operate within complex organisational structures, established technology environments, and evolving regulatory requirements. 

The shift from hiring leader to workforce strategist therefore requires TA leaders to understand where the business is going, help shape the workforce strategy to support it and have enough operational understanding to deliver on that promise. 
 

Building the right support around your workforce strategy 

As workforce needs continue to evolve, having the right talent strategy in place is increasingly important. From RPO and contingent workforce management to broader workforce planning, our talent experts can help you access the capabilities you need today while preparing your workforce for what comes next. Consult our team to get started.