Spotted Zebra launches quick-start skills profiles for financial services

Spotted Zebra is already the leading skills intelligence platform for financial services organizations. Now we’ve made adopting skills-based practices quicker and easier for all FS firms - from smaller fintech firms to challenger banks - with the launch of our new off-the-shelf Role Skills Profiles. 

We know that a disproportionate number of challenges for financial services organizations today relate to skills - from skills shortages to upskilling/reskilling requirements to the impact of digitization on job roles. 

In response to these challenges, leading authorities, including Deloitte, McKinsey, the World Economic Forum, and the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), recommend that financial services firms adopt skills-based practices. 

“The move to a skills-based model is one of the big conversations we’re having at the moment… It’s more than a zeitgeist-y issue - it feels like the direction of travel that the sector is on.” Gregg Hutchings, Program Director, The Financial Services Skills Commission

Our award-winning skills intelligence platform enables our financial services partners to rapidly deploy skills-based practices throughout the talent management lifecycle, from hiring to reskilling, achieving swift time-to-value. 

Yet we know that time is money in financial services. The urgency to set up and launch skills-based practices is particularly acute for smaller FS firms and challenger banks who have yet to begin skills profiling. So, we’ve launched a new solution to democratize skills-based practices in financial services. 

Role Skills Profiles

A pivotal component of skills-based operations is the Role Skills Profile. These detail the skills required for success in a role, against which individuals can be assessed to gauge their skills fit. 

Spotted Zebra’s Role Skills Profiles offer unparalleled accuracy and granularity: 

• We use a multi-layered approach to define the specific skill requirements of every role and validate their accuracy using a range of data sources.
• Our profiles detail both the technical and behavioral skills required for success, as well as their proficiency level. 
• We work with each organization to ensure their unique culture and values are also reflected within the profile, mapping personality traits to behaviors to score candidate alignment. 

Our Role Skills Profiles are organized using our proprietary Right For framework, which allows organizations to assess and understand each individual’s suitability. These categorize skills into 3 areas: 

• Right For Us - The skills that make a candidate right for the organization, covering the organization’s values.
• Right For The Role - The skills specific to the position that make the candidate suitable for the role.
• Right For The Future - Each profile includes soft skills that determine whether the candidate has the potential to develop and adapt as organizational needs change. 

While Spotted Zebra has historically tailored a Role Skills Profile for each unique opportunity, we acknowledge that speed is the priority for some financial services organisations. So we’re introducing a new product - our new off-the-shelf Role Skills Profiles. 

Why our off-the-shelf Role Skills Profiles deliver quicker ROI

With our new off-the-shelf Role Skills Profiles we provide a quicker and easier way to set up skills profiles and deliver value from skills-based practices. 

The core of our new profiles remains the same - with the Right For Us and Right For The Future categories still ensuring cultural alignment and development potential. 

However, our new solution fast-tracks the profile-building process by replacing bespoke profiling with the use of pre-existing profiles from comparable roles. 

The result?

Faster Role Skills Profile creation. Quicker launch of your skills-based program. Swifter time-to-value. 

“Many of the largest FS enterprises have adopted skills-based practices and already have some skills profiles in place,” says Nick Shaw, Co-Founder of Spotted Zebra. “With our off-the-shelf solution, fintech and challenger banks can expedite the creation of skills profiles so that they too can start to improve hiring, reskilling, and development outcomes with skills-based practices.”

How do the profiles work?

Based on extensive research, we have defined 3 skills profiles that can be used as effective templates for multiple roles within the finance sector. 

• Financial Analyst.
• Financial Manager. 
• Compliance Manager. 

Each profile has 5 soft skills and 2 cognitive assessments that are closely associated with success in the role. We then measure candidate alignment with the Role Skills Profile using a blended assessment that covers:

• Personality. 
• Motivation.
• Cognitive ability (numerical, verbal, and inductive reasoning).
• Situational judgment.
• Technical skills.

The result is a fast-track skills-based solution that still delivers Spotted Zebra’s renowned rigor and accuracy. 

“For those financial service organizations that have conducted little or no skills profiling, our new solution is the perfect opportunity to accelerate skills-based practices,” concludes Nick Shaw. “Study after study has demonstrated that skills-based practices dramatically improve recruitment, retention, reskilling, and return on investment. With our off-the-shelf profiles, Spotted Zebra now ensures that all FS firms can benefit.”

If you would like to access these ready-to-use skills profiles - click here and contact us today! 

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