DEMAND FOR EMPLOYEES’ DIGITAL SKILLS IN THE CONTEXT OF BANKING 4.0

Digitalisation and technical development in the financial service sector have aimed to secure, increase the quality, and satisfy the interests of both customers and financial institutions in the current turbulent era. Together with this situation, there is a need to develop digital employees’ competencies in the financial sector. This paper aims to analyse the topical issue of digitalisation and demand for employees’ digital skills in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic situation based on global secondary data and primary data collected by the authors in the Czech Republic. The main research objective of the paper is to provide a theoretical framework for digitalisation and its drivers in the financial sector, introduce the phenomenon of Banking 4.0 concerning the required competencies, and identify gaps and barriers for faster and more effective development based on the literature review and selected primary and secondary and data analysis. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient have been used to fulfil this goal. A semi-structured in-depth interview with three human resources (HR) specialists of a selected Czech bank also has been conducted. The paper brings an overview of the latest research studies in the field of digital competencies in general and specifically in the financial sector. Although the primary data is limited in scope (i.e. ten middle-sized and large financial and insurance companies), it provides a unique view of the situation with digitalisation in financial institutions. It shows current developments, trends and barriers within the example of a bank case study. The paper is motivated by the current situation in the banking sector in connection with digitalisation. It aims to emphasise the growing influence of digital technologies on employees, managers and companies, and the importance of systematically implementing digital skills development approaches on the companies’ strategic level.