In an era of accelerated digital transformation and new work models, Human Resources plays a key role in connecting people, technology, and purpose. These are the main challenges facing the function in today’s financial sector.
Digital Skills Gap and Talent Shortage
As digital transformation speeds up, financial institutions require professionals who combine sector knowledge (risk, regulation, financial products) with emerging skills (data science, AI, automation). The lack of such profiles is a critical barrier: about 75% of financial organizations believe that the absence of digital skills limits growth.
In Latin America, 84% of employers plan to train their workforce, while 51% recognize the need for public investment in upskilling and reskilling programs. However, digital adoption in the region still lags behind developed economies, widening the talent gap.
For HR, this means designing attraction, development, and retention strategies that go beyond traditional recruitment—implementing learning programs, building partnerships with external ecosystems, and creating hybrid career paths that bridge finance and technology.
Retention, Engagement, and Well-being Amid Change
Operational pressure, constant regulatory changes, channel digitization, and the consolidation of hybrid work models are affecting employee stability and engagement. More than half of professionals in the sector feel their companies are not prepared for upcoming challenges.
Across Latin America, employers identify organizational culture and outdated regulations as major barriers to transformation (around 50% each). Added to this is a connectivity gap: only two-thirds of households in the region have internet access, directly impacting employee experience in hybrid or remote environments.
HR’s role must integrate not only retention and development policies but also active management of well-being, flexibility, and employee experience. In a demanding context, engagement and organizational health become strategic assets.
Regulatory Complexity and Talent Compliance
Financial institutions operate under strict regulatory frameworks that directly impact people management. Competency oversight, employee certification, governance, labor compliance, and data protection now form part of HR’s expanded responsibilities.
In Colombia, 61% of companies believe outdated regulations slow digitalization, while in Argentina that figure is 57%. Combined with the shortage of talent in AI and big data, this creates a dual challenge: meeting compliance standards while closing skill gaps.
HR must ensure document traceability, employee lifecycle management, and role compliance aligned with the sector’s new requirements.
Cultural Change and Leadership for Smart Banking
The adoption of new technologies and the need for greater operational agility demand a deep transformation of organizational culture. In Latin America, the most in-demand skills for the coming years include creative thinking (77%), resilience and flexibility (73%), and leadership and social influence (70%).
In this context, HR must lead the development of digital leadership that encourages experimentation, adaptation, and continuous learning. It’s not only about redefining what is done, but transforming how work is done—how performance is measured, how teams are motivated, and how leadership is exercised in hybrid or virtual settings.
Organizational culture becomes, more than ever, the driving force of change.
Hybrid Structures and Talent Scalability
Financial institutions increasingly operate in distributed environments, combining outsourced functions and remote teams. This creates challenges in standardizing policies, ensuring a consistent employee experience, and scaling talent practices effectively.
In the region, uneven digital infrastructure limits the full adoption of hybrid models. Meanwhile, the fintech ecosystem has quadrupled in the last six years in Latin America, driving new work dynamics and more flexible models.
For HR, the challenge is to guarantee a consistent experience, regardless of location or work mode, ensuring that leadership, communication, and learning policies are scalable and aligned with organizational culture.
N5’s Vision: Technology and People Serving the Same Purpose
In this transformation landscape, N5 has become a reference in aligning human talent and technology in the financial sector. The company promotes a culture based on autonomy, continuous learning, and cross-functional collaboration, where teams not only adopt digital tools but create and optimize them.
The HR department at N5 drives ongoing upskilling and reskilling practices, promoting internal mobility and the development of hybrid profiles that combine analytical, creative, and technological capabilities.
This approach has enabled N5 to build a high-performance culture that prioritizes employee experience and well-being. In a market where the digital talent gap remains one of the biggest challenges, N5 proves that a people-centered strategy can be the most powerful competitive advantage.
By the Human Resources team at N5 Now.
