How TA Leaders Can Shape Workforce Transformation in Banking and Insurance

Banks and insurers are dealing with workforce change on several fronts at once. New technology is changing roles and skills, regulation keeps moving, and pressure on cost and productivity hasn’t gone away.

For HR and TA leaders, that makes timing important. Being part of the conversation earlier gives them more opportunity to influence the workforce plan, rather than picking it up once the shape of the programme has already been decided.
 

The changing expectations on TA leadership in banking and insurance

TA’s remit in banking and insurance has often centred on operational delivery: managing recruitment, supplier relationships, time-to-hire and cost per hire. Those responsibilities still matter. What’s changing is how often TA is being asked to contribute beyond them.

That can mean joining workforce planning discussions, advising on whether critical capability should be built, borrowed or bought, bringing market insight into organisational decisions, and helping programme teams understand what is realistic from a talent perspective.

TA leaders who can connect labour market insight to business strategy, while translating transformation plans into realistic workforce requirements, are better placed to contribute to how organisations plan and deliver change.
 

Where TA leaders can add value during transformation

Capability mapping before restructuring

Transformation programmes often start with a view of what the future organisation should look like. TA can bring a practical market insights to these discussions: where the skills are available, where internal reskilling may make more sense, and how long it could take to get the right capability in place.

If that input comes later, some of the assumptions behind the workforce plan may need to change. Hiring could take longer than expected, or skills lost through restructuring may prove difficult or costly to replace.
 

Keeping workforce plans current

Workforce plans also need to move as programmes evolve. TA leaders can help by staying close to programme teams and updating hiring priorities as timelines, scope or market conditions change.

This does not need to become another layer of governance. What matters is having a regular way to translate programme changes into workforce implications, so emerging hiring risks are visible before they begin to affect delivery.
 

Bringing market insight into capability development

TA can also bring an external market view into decisions about whether capability should be hired, developed internally or sourced in another way.

This is particularly relevant around technology and data roles. Where the external market cannot supply the volume or specialist skills required within the programme timeline, that insight can inform conversations about reskilling, early careers programmes, apprenticeships or other ways to build capability. TA does not need to own learning and development to play that role. Its contribution is the market evidence that helps the organisation choose between available options.
 

What this demands of the TA function and business leaders

A TA function built mainly around vacancy management may have limited capacity for this kind of advisory work. To do this well, TA needs more than recruitment data. Teams need to understand what the organisation is trying to achieve, stay close to the talent market and have good working relationships with the people leading the change. They also need enough capacity to keep everyday hiring moving. Some organisations will already have that capability in-house. For others, building it will take time and investment. 

An outsourced talent solutions model can add capacity in these situations, not by replacing internal TA leadership, but by providing operational depth or specialist capability so internal leaders have more room to focus on workforce planning, stakeholder engagement and the wider transformation agenda. 

How that support is designed will depend on the organisation. Our partnership with MUFG, for example, was co-created around how their global and local teams work. Through regional workshops and embedded talent partners, Robert Walters worked with MUFG to create greater consistency in hiring while maintaining local relevance.
 

What this means for business leaders

A useful starting point is to look at when TA currently enters transformation planning. Is market insight being used before capability and headcount decisions are made, or only once requisitions are ready to open?

From there, leaders can identify where earlier TA involvement would add useful information without slowing the programme down. The goal is not for TA to own transformation. It is to make sure the workforce assumptions behind it are tested while there is still time to adjust them.

If you’re considering how TA can play a stronger role in your organisation’s transformation agenda, speak with our talent solutions experts. We can explore where additional capacity or specialist support may be useful and what the right model could look like for your organisation.