97% redeployed: Building finance talent from within

Why internal reskilling may be the most strategic workforce move in 2026

Finance leaders are rethinking what it takes to future proof their workforce. A key insight is emerging: the talent you need may already be working for you.

In a 2025 pilot led by the UK’s Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), 97 out of 100 employees at one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the UK who completed a structured reskilling program were successfully redeployed into new roles.

The message is clear. When done well, internal reskilling works.

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Why this matters: Pressure points in financial talent strategy

This reskilling pilot was not an isolated initiative. It responded to systemic challenges that many financial institutions now face.

Skills shortages are growing and harder to fill

Roles that combine financial expertise with digital and strategic capabilities are increasingly difficult to recruit for. Even when external hiring succeeds, onboarding takes time and often fails to deliver the long-term retention organizations need. Internal talent, by contrast, already understands company systems, culture, and workflows.

Hybrid talent is becoming the new standard

Today’s finance professionals are expected to move fluidly across domains. They must pair technical financial knowledge with data literacy, digital fluency, and business acumen. Success now depends on cross-functional performance, not just deep subject matter expertise.

External hiring is too slow for real transformation

Hiring cycles are long, competition is intense, and niche roles are hard to fill. Many organizations are left waiting for candidates who either never arrive or leave shortly after. Meanwhile, internal employees with adjacent capabilities are often overlooked.

Roles are evolving faster than job descriptions

Automation and AI are transforming tasks across finance, risk, compliance, and operations. What a job looks like today may shift significantly within months. Fixed job descriptions cannot keep up. Reskilling strategies must be flexible and forward-looking to remain relevant.

What successful reskilling looks like in action

Reskilling delivers when it is treated as a business process, not a learning initiative. The organizations seeing measurable results are those that approach it with the same discipline they apply to capital investment or risk planning: targeted, role-specific, and performance-aligned.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Reskilling is tied to workforce planning

Training is built around clearly defined roles with immediate demand. The target roles are identified in advance, and the skills required are mapped precisely. This ensures learning directly supports internal mobility and reduces reliance on external hiring.

Transitions are supported end-to-end

Employees are not just trained and left to figure it out. Structured processes are in place to guide redeployment including application processes, manager engagement, and visibility into open roles. The objective is to reduce friction and shorten the time between training and placement.

Learning is designed for execution, not awareness

Content is focused on what the role requires on day one. The emphasis is on applied capability the systems, tools, and workflows that enable someone to step into a new function and start delivering value quickly.

Managers are accountable for movement, not just retention

Line leaders are expected to support talent movement across the organization, not hold it in place. They are informed early, involved in the process, and understand the operational value of internal mobility both for succession planning and for team performance.

Embedding reskilling into financial workforce strategy

Internal reskilling is most effective when it is integrated with broader workforce planning and transformation efforts. This requires coordination across functions; HR, L&D, business unit leaders, and finance itself.

It also demands a shift in mindset. Reskilling cannot be treated as an emergency fix or short-term response to change. It is a continuous capability that helps organizations stay ready for what’s next, from evolving regulations to emerging technologies.

Key enablers include:

• Clear visibility into current and future skills across the organization
• Strategic workforce planning that links roles to learning pathways
• Technology that supports tracking, placement, and measurement
• Accountability for outcomes, not just learning delivery

Organizations that succeed in this shift won’t just fill roles faster. They’ll create a more agile, mobile, and resilient workforce, one that can adapt to change without constant dependence on external hiring.

Where to start

For finance leaders looking to operationalize internal reskilling, the first step is to focus on high-value, hard-to-fill roles, often in areas like risk, compliance, data analytics, or digital transformation.

From there:

1. Identify employees with adjacent capabilities
2. Map learning pathways that lead to actual roles
3. Create the internal structures needed to support redeployment
4. Define success in terms of role movement and value creation, not training completion
5. Track results and adjust based on business impact

This approach isn’t about building skills for their own sake. It’s about solving for talent gaps with the resources already in the business.

Redeployment is a business lever, not a learning initiative

The redeployment of 97 percent of participants in the 2025 pilot shows what’s possible when internal reskilling is approached as a strategic, role-driven process. Finance leaders don’t need to wait for the perfect candidate to appear. In many cases, they’re already on the payroll. What’s needed is a structured way to move them into the roles that matter most. When done right, internal reskilling is not a side initiative. It’s a competitive advantage.

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References

1. Financial Services Skills Commission. (2025). Future Skills Report 2025. Retrieved from https://financialservicesskills.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FSSC_Future_Skills_Report_2025.pdf

2. McKinsey & Company. (2023). The State of Organizations 2023: Ten shifts transforming organizations. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-state-of-organizations-2023

3. CFA Institute. (2024). The Financial Sector Is Undergoing a Skills Revolution. Retrieved from https://www.cfainstitute.org/en/insights/articles/financial-sector-skills-revolution

4. Deloitte. (2023). 2023 Global Human Capital Trends: New fundamentals for a boundaryless world. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends.html

5. World Economic Forum. (2023). Future of Jobs Report 2023. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/future-of-jobs-2023