Charlotte’s big banks are on a hiring binge. The Charlotte Business Journal reports the region’s banks are snapping up everything from technologists to financial advisers to branch employees.
The chase comes at a price. Bank of America Corp.’s minimum wage, for example, has jumped 86% since 2010. Its fourth-quarter expenses related to compensation were up 10% compared to a year ago.
At Wells Fargo & Co., the minimum wage is up as much as 50% compared to 2016.
“It is definitely a very, very competitive landscape that we’re experiencing, more so than anything that I’ve ever seen,” said Kim Moore-Wright, chief teammate officer and head of enterprise diversity at Truist Financial Corp. “What it’s prompted us to do is really be very crisp and be very intentional around articulating a great teammate value proposition.”
Banks kept looking for talent despite Covid-19’s impact on operations, Moore-Wright said. They offered flexible work environments and a wide range of potential occupations. The strategy paid off as millions of people reconsidered careers and searched for family-friendly options in lower-cost areas.
Locally, thousands of net new jobs have been added in financial services amid the pandemic, said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo.
The Charlotte metro is third among the most-concentrated markets for employment in financial services. Those jobs grew by 47% from 2010 to 2020. They are expected to increase 11% by 2025, more than threefold the national average, according to research from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. More insight about how the financial services sector is fueling robust economic development can be found here.
To keep up, Charlotte’s largest banks continue to seek talent across most, if not all, lines of business, particularly in customer-facing and technology roles. They are offering higher wages and more comprehensive benefits, while also investing in recruitment strategies in an evolving industry.
There has been a big push for digitizing bank operations, especially in the last few years, said Tom Brown, CEO at Second Curve Capital. Covid-19 heightened the need for digital banking services — both customer-facing capabilities and internal processes. Doing that requires data scientists, developers, engineers, artificial-intelligence specialists and risk managers, as examples.
Brown said banks are now competing with other industries, such as retail, technology and even transportation, for these same skill sets.
At least 20% of the open job positions on BofA’s website are technology related. Kieth Cockrell, Charlotte market president at Bank of America, said the bank is looking for experts in areas such as cybersecurity and analytics.
“Yes, we’re a bank, but we also are a huge deployer of technology,” Cockrell said. “Technical skills are always in demand because technology continues to evolve.”
However, virtually every line of business is growing within BofA, Cockrell said. The bank needs a wide range of talent, including customer-facing roles, to sustain that growth. Net income in consumer banking, for example, increased 21% year over year in the fourth quarter. Income jumped by 47% in global wealth and investment management.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is in a similar situation. It is seeking to fill core jobs, including tellers, personal bankers and contact center employees, plus technology-focused roles, said Carly Sanchez, head of talent acquisition, strategy and delivery at Wells Fargo.
To attract top talent, banks are hiking wages and beefing up benefits packages. Recruiters are also showcasing company culture and marketing their companies as “career destinations” layered with opportunities for advancement. Click here to read more about the talent attraction techniques being used by the biggest banks of the Charlotte Region.
