One out of every ten full-time banking jobs in Switzerland is in a back office. But many of those working behind the scenes have a problem that is only going to get worse in the next few years. Digitalization is changing their work immeasurably. Only a few highly specialized workers are going to be needed in the future. They are increasingly likely to face completely different tasks or become so-called «Exception Handling Specialists».

But not everyone is going to be up for that.

Undecipherable Job Profiles

The finance sector estimates that about one-third of the job cuts will come from retirement. But that still means that a full two-thirds of them need to be retrained. That is going be very hard, believes Franca Burkhardt, who heads Bandy Analytics. «It is certainly difficult to change an employee's current job profile into something very different in the future».

In other words, if the employees don't manage to get over the threshold, they run the danger of falling out of the race completely.

Industry Sees Potential

But Burkhardt has been working hard to change things. She has been cooperating with Rolf Kaufmann of MEM-Passerelle 4.0, an association created by an assortment of unions, employee, banking, and vocational organizations. They have started a pilot project called MEMBA that gives finance sector employees a path into the machine, electric, and metal engineering industries. The project will start this summer in the German-speaking region of Switzerland. It will send willing employees on an eight-week intensive course that subsequently allows them to enter the industry right through the front door.

New Skills Up for Grabs

Swiss industry has the exact opposite problem that banking does. Technological change requires additional employees with very specific skills. And they are needed now. «It has become increasingly hard for industry to meet the demand using traditional ways», Kaufmann says.

He has also led other projects for new career entrants from other fields.

«We are convinced that we can build on the broad experience and competence of banking back-office employees and develop their expertise and skills together with industry», he says convincingly.

Changing Fields Again

Many operations workers themselves have come from other fields and disciplines, including the skilled trades. But most of them won't be going back to their workbenches anytime soon. Production and processes have become highly automated and integrated.  Employees need IT and general planning skills, and most operations staff already have those.

Golden Cage or a New Start

Being capable and having a broad set of skills is increasingly more important today than achieving high levels of pay. A well-paid job in banking can also turn out to be a golden cage, Burkhardt says thoughtfully.

This new pilot program is aimed at helping those employees who might have gotten stuck in such cages - but are now in outplacement and in a position where they need to find a new job.