Closing Skills Gaps – with Interim Support, Process Optimisation and Upskilling

The much-cited shortage of skilled workers only inadequately describes the current situation in banking. Industry commentary – most recently around FinanzSzene – shows that the central challenge lies less in the number of staff than in how well their qualifications match increased requirements.

Regulatory densification, complexity in overall bank management that has built up over years, and increasingly technology-driven processes are fundamentally changing the requirements profile.

Even though the 9th MaRisk amendment now provides for simplifications for smaller institutions, classic banking expertise alone is often no longer sufficient. What is needed today is a deep understanding of systems, analytical skills and specialist knowledge – particularly in areas such as risk management, costing and regulatory reporting.

In many institutions, this creates a clear tension between existing resources and required competencies – a classic skills gap.

The effects are noticeable in day-to-day business: individual key personnel become overloaded, tasks pile up, quality assurance kicks in too late, and regulatory requirements add further pressure.

Tackling the Challenges with Three Levers

These challenges can be tackled particularly effectively through three interlinked levers: interim support, process optimisation and targeted upskilling.

1. Interim support – including taking on complex tasks and validations

A first, often necessary step is short-term stabilisation of critical areas. Especially in functions such as risk management, overall bank management, costing and regulatory reporting, high professional demands meet limited resources. Prolonged absences of key personnel or resignations frequently leave institutions facing problems.

An interim partner can take on targeted operational responsibility in such situations – from selective relief through to the temporary takeover of entire areas of responsibility. This also includes carrying out validation activities relating to models and procedures.

This approach makes it possible to remain capable of acting even in demanding situations: processes are stabilised, regulatory requirements are reliably met, and internal teams are relieved. At the same time, this creates the necessary breathing space to tackle structural issues.

2. Process optimisation – reducing complexity rather than increasing resources

Alongside operational relief, many projects reveal a further key lever: the processes themselves.

In numerous banks, workflows have grown over the years and have been repeatedly extended without being fundamentally questioned. Sticking to established approaches – sometimes simply to “old habits” – leads to unnecessary complexity, increased coordination effort and inefficient use of resources.

A decisive success factor here is a neutral, external perspective. Interim support can bring in an outside view that allows existing structures to be objectively analysed and entrenched patterns to be questioned. Combined with experience from numerous comparable projects, improvements can be identified in a targeted way.

The result is noticeable relief for the organisation: processes are streamlined, complexity is reduced and workflows are made more robust. It often turns out that what is needed is not additional resources, but a consistent simplification of existing structures.

3. Upskilling new employees – building practical know-how in a targeted way

Alongside relief and structural improvement, building competencies remains a key building block. Particularly effective here is hands-on upskilling of new or less experienced employees.

Rather than purely theoretical training approaches, direct knowledge transfer in an operational environment has proven its worth. Employees are involved in concrete tasks, get to know systems, methods and processes “on the job”, and develop a sound understanding of the professional context.

This approach not only speeds up induction but also ensures that knowledge becomes firmly embedded in the organisation. At the same time, dependency on individual experts is reduced, as competencies are built more broadly.

The Interplay of the Levers as a Sustainable Solution

The real added value for the institution arises from the interplay of these three levers.

Interim support creates short-term stability and ensures that critical tasks – including validation – are reliably carried out. At the same time, process optimisation ensures that structures become more efficient and tie up fewer resources. Targeted upskilling, meanwhile, enables the organisation to regain the ability to act independently in the medium term.

This creates sustainable development: moving away from selective problem-solving towards a structurally strengthened organisation that is better equipped to cope with future requirements.

Conclusion

The central challenge in banking today is less the classic shortage of skilled workers than a question of qualifications and complexity.

Through an interim-based, integrated approach, an acute bottleneck becomes not just short-term relief, but an opportunity for the sustainable development of your organisation.

Dealing with this effectively requires an integrated approach. Through interim support, banks can be given targeted assistance – through interim assignments, taking on validation activities, and hands-on upskilling of staff. Through a neutral, experience-based view of processes, further resource-saving and quality-improving measures can be taken.

In this way, an acute bottleneck becomes not just short-term relief, but an opportunity for the sustainable development of the organisation.