The scarcity of employees, especially specialist staff, has now spilled over into almost all sectors – including the Swiss financial services sector. According to Jobradar and The link will open in a new window Investtrends.ch, there were 5,700 posts in this sector for around 2,500 job seekers in the third quarter of 2022. Employers now have to come up with something special to attract qualified candidates. At PostFinance, part of the solution is Talent Relationship Management (TRM). People Attraction Manager Umberto Verde explains what TRM is and what benefits it offers.

Umberto, in which departments does PostFinance have a shortage of staff?

We not only have a lack of specialist staff but also a general shortage of employees. This is especially noticeable for us in IT, and among Customer Advisors with in-depth knowledge. As these staff are desperately needed everywhere, employees have a variety of options for changing jobs. They’re also head-hunted, sometimes by employment agencies, and sometimes directly by other companies. In our People Attraction Team, we have to give serious thought to how we attract employees. One part of the strategy is a TRM system. Talent Relationship Management helps us to stay in contact with prospective applicants so that when a vacancy opens up, it can be filled quickly and efficiently with the right person from the database.

What’s behind Talent Relationship Management and what was your task?

A TRM system is a data bank that lists potential employees – with their agreement, of course. The project started in March 2021 and, in November 2021, I took over leadership as product owner. My task was to introduce the tool with the help of a team of specialists from across all departments in the Swiss Post Group. To do this, I consolidated the specialist requirements, orchestrated the team and also worked on it myself. Work for the People Attraction Team only really started once the project was complete. Since October 2022, we’ve been populating our data bank with suitable candidates and can now keep in touch easily with potential employees via targeted e-mails and newsletters, or even using platforms like LinkedIn. The tool also has active sourcing features that allow us to approach interesting candidates actively.

How do potential employees get into the data bank?

We ask suitable applicants, who have already taken part in an application process with us, whether we can include them in our data bank, so that we can contact them if a suitable vacancy opens up. This also applies to potential employees we’ve met at a trade fair or contacted via a social media network and who can imagine working at PostFinance in the future.

Why has PostFinance introduced a TRM system? What are the benefits?

The greatest benefit is that everything is centralized in one place. Previously, most recruiters had their own Excel files with lists of suitable candidates. Contact was made through various channels – for example via platforms like LinkedIn, Xing or e-mail. No-one knew who was in contact with whom, and if someone left the PostFinance team, contact was usually lost. Thanks to TRM, this doesn’t happen anymore. There’s also a timing aspect. If a match is found in the data bank, we can fill vacancies directly. This reduces our workload and is a much quicker process. And in times of staff shortages, speed is vital, as most candidates are in more than one selection process.

TRM offers lots of opportunities

The fact is, TRM is here to stay. The problem of staff shortages won’t solve itself in the foreseeable future so we need to stay innovative to find the right employees. This is why PostFinance has integrated TRM into its daily work and sees great potential for the future. For example, content can be made even more specific so as to target a particular group in an even more personalized way.