BBVA

Alonso

We are living in an unprecedented period of disruption propelled by innovation in multiple fields. New technologies, like artificial intelligence or quantum computing, together with sustainability are transforming at an increasingly accelerated pace all sectors, including the financial industry. Apart from a big challenge, this environment presents a huge source of opportunities.

However, no transformation will be successful until our core asset is transformed: our people and our talent. This transformation entails adapting and being flexible enough for teams to be able to navigate these uncharted waters. In order to count on the best and most engaged team, two key elements should be taken into consideration: first, companies should have a differential employee value proposition, and second, an innovative and proactive recruiting process to attract the best talent.

During the last few years, the talent marketplace has experienced deep and structural changes over a short period of time. The pandemic provided a new paradigm on how employees face the relationship with their employers, looking for an organisation they feel proud of, demanding more flexibility and care, searching offshore locations to work from, defining new contracting models, asking for projects which enable long-term professional development opportunities, etc. Today, employees have more power than ever.

A differential employee value proposition has turned key to attracting and retaining the best talent. There are three core principles that are part of BBVA’s value proposition. First, companies must make employees feel proud and aligned with the company, believing in its purpose, living the same values and being excited about what they do as a team. During the last 10 years, BBVA has been working on its purpose, which is ‘To Bring the Age of Opportunity to Everyone,’ and values that ‘Customer comes first, We think big, We are one team.’ Culture, not strategy, is what makes a company different.

 "Culture, not strategy, is what makes a company different"

Second, employees must feel they are winners in their business. Attracting and developing the best talent with the adequate set of skills, promoting a high performance and meritocratic culture and making employees feel owners of the company, accountable for objectives and responsible for their own development are the roots of success.

 Third, companies must create the best environment, empowering teams in an open, flexible, and truly diverse environment where everybody feels welcome, cared for, and balanced so they can deliver their best version. BBVA’s true conviction towards diversity in all its terms (gender, age, different capabilities, etc.), along with various initiatives relating to the hybrid work model as well as wellbeing (financial, mental, and physical care), all together contribute to making the difference.

The disruptive changes in the environment mentioned above have also been fueled by conjunctural challenges, particularly in the talent market. The innovation wave of the last decade has generated a market scarcity of highly talented and skilled candidates, increasing the complexity of talent attraction.

In order to have the best and most engaged team, BBVA is evolving its relationship model with the talent marketplace by redefining its recruiting strategy. Five key pillars are critical in this transformation: 1) boost employer’s branding, 2) reinforce a positive candidate’s UX along the recruiting process, 3) optimise the process’s time-to-market, 4) redefine the talent acquisition team by including employer branding specialists, high skilled data analytics teams and specific scouting teams to lead the candidate’s attraction, especially with scarce profiles from technology and banking in specific markets. 5) Additionally, experience has shown highly talented profiles are not traditionally under active job seeking, so by leveraging the opportunities of data and artificial intelligence, companies can build powerful tools to proactively search for passive candidates with certain skills, particularly the most scarce ones.

Such a transformation project comes together with a new technology approach based on the renewal of the applicant tracking system and the integration with a CRM, which will allow BBVA’s teams to focus on high value added activities and to reinforce the human resources function role as a strategic partner for the businesses.