For months, you have failed to contact your bank adviser about your Livret A account. Besides, your agency has seemed very empty for a while now. And if you think about it, the customer manager has changed three times in two years… Your impression is correct: the banking relationship sector is going through a zone of turbulence. Frédéric Guyonnet, national president of the SNB CFE-CGC, the leading union in the banking sector in France, speaks with nostalgia of a time that those under 20 cannot know. “Before, we were overwhelmed with CVs. Now, we are multiplying initiatives to recruit: Pôle emploi, recruitment bonus, presence at all job fairs…”
“Netting” actions that were unthinkable a decade ago. Only, in a few years, the image of the banker has seriously tarnished. “Today, the job is no longer a dream,” sums up the trade unionist soberly. In his eyes, the financial crisis of 2008 and the “yellow vests” ten years later “tarnished the image of the bank and its agents”.
31% of departures on permanent contracts due to resignation
End of the dream, and beginning of the hemorrhage. In 2021, 350,400 employees worked in the bank, according to figures from the French Association of Banks (AFB). They were 30,000 more in 2012. A loss of 10% in ten years that the AFB still wants to put into perspective: the sector recruits 40,000 heads per year on average. Yes, but here it is: the recruits arrive, but quickly have desires elsewhere.
“The trend is particularly marked among customer advisors, especially among young people under 30. They have a different vision of work, no more desire for mobility and the concept of a career within the same bank no longer inspires dreams like the previous generation”, estimates Frédéric Hatsadourian, manager of the banking and insurance division within the recruiting firm Robert Walters. In 2022, the BPCE group – which brings together Banque Populaire, Caisse d’Epargne, Natixis, Banque Palatine and Oney – noted that 31% of CDI departures were due to resignation, the number one reason, far ahead of the others. (23% for transfer, 15% for retirement and 10% for dismissal).
On the steep slope for years
The problem is not new and does not date from the pandemic. Between 2014 and 2019, the share of resignations in the banking sector increased from less than 25% to 40%, according to the AFB. And who was already at the top of the list? Account managers, with one out of two leaving due to resignation. A damn steep slope, which does not surprise Zoé*. The 30-year-old, a bank advisor on a permanent contract for less than a year in Brittany, already has desires to leave: “Two months after signing my contract, I was burnt out. The pace is hellish and the pressure permanent.
Each week, figures for the number of insurance policies, loans and contracts signed by advisors are released to all employees. Officially, “these are contests that can sometimes bring in concert tickets or drinks. “Unofficially, “it creates an unhealthy atmosphere between us, we are in permanent competition”. According to a study by the company Upside – Report 2022 of the burn-out in the banking sector -, 86% of bankers felt obliged to take leave because of stress and 72% of employees plan to leave the sector to avoid a burn. -out.
Diminished teams
Increased pressure due to reduced services. The banking sector loses an average of 1% of its workforce each year, with many departures not being compensated. “Banks had to review their margin when interest rates were very low, and reduce their expenses accordingly. This may partly explain this loss of staff, especially among customer advisers,” says Catherine Karyotis, professor of finance at Neoma BS. A sector already tested by the digitization of certain tasks and the closure of agencies across France. “Finally, several bank mergers also explain the decrease in the workforce. Some mergers are also made in order to save money, ”continues the specialist.
This reduction in teams requires more tasks from the remaining ones. “We’re underwater, having to do the work at three of us that we did three years ago at five,” sighs Aurélie*, an advisor to Société Générale for 7 years. At 35, the Breton woman says she has to work during her holidays or her weekends, “in order to reduce the necessary work load. »
Loss of meaning
Added to this constant pressure is the loss of meaning, continues Bérengère Dubus, former banking adviser and now president of the Union of Credit Intermediaries (UIC): “Bankers no longer have an economic and strategic vision in the branch. Advisors must apply what their management asks of them, without having a spirit of initiative or decision-making. So there is the stick – the pressure – without the carrot: autonomy, meaning or a very important salary. What Zoé sums up with a sigh full of disappointment: “They say we’re advisers, but in reality, I’m a saleswoman. I have to sell insurance, contracts, loans. And here again, the reduced workforce makes things worse: “There is no more time for people, we do everything by email, it goes faster. But it’s sad and monotonous. »
As a consequence of these disappointments, “when a person resigns from a bank, they often leave the banking sector to do something else. Hence a profession under pressure”, develops Frédéric Guyonnet. This was the case for Lucie*, a former councillor, who left two years ago: “You do this for human contact, to help people realize their dream of a house or a boat with a loan, and you find yourself spending days filling out Excel files and having piles of papers signed. No thank you, I did not do Bac + 5 for that. »
Will the shortage continue? “There were fewer resignations in 2021 than in 2018-2019”, reassures the FBF. Same reassuring tone with Frédéric Hatsoudarian: “With inflation and the fear of a crisis in the banking sector, the trend will mark time, with employees preferring job security. One crisis can drive out another.
*Names have been changed