Being part of the largest financial group in Scandinavia means a lot of young professionals have Nordea high on their list of employers, but once they have started their careers there, what can be done to ensure that they decide to stay?

Contact for business

Key Points:

Offering clear career pathways drives engagement
Dynamic internal recruitment opportunities encourage staff to stay

Career and development is essential

The 2020 YPAI results indicate that roughly half of the respondents in each country considered the possibility for development and career advancement to be important to them, and Khuram Abbas Anjum, who is Head of Talent Acquisition at Nordea, is well aware of what it takes to offer them the opportunities they seek.

– Young professionals are our future; our future leaders, our future ideators, our future innovators. The young professionals come with a clear mind and fresh ideas, which helps the company grow and adapt to the ever-changing business context. This is why we invest in them, Khumar says.

– We have several programs that provide a breadth of experience very early on in their careers. They provide them with the opportunity to learn and grow by getting exposed to different areas and work tasks, which also shows that we care and we invest in their future, he explains.

For many of the candidates Nordea seeks to attract, the process begins before they have completed their university education.

– Our graduate program provides the young professionals with a sneak peek in a variety of business areas during the two-year program. Our personal and business banking young professionals also have an educational program designed for them to become the best versions of client-facing professionals.

"We provide opportunities for people to shine"

Once Nordea find a candidate and bring them onboard, the intention is clear – keep them within the company if at all possible, and that task is made easier by the sheer scale of Nordea’s operation.

– More than half of our open vacancies are filled by internal talents, and with thousands of different jobs in Nordea, there is an opportunity for everyone to find their next steps internally, Khumar says.

– Our talent agenda is clear about retaining our internal talented professionals - we provide opportunities for people to shine. Our learning agenda provides host of self-learning opportunities as well as organized trainings curated for people’s individual and professional growth.

Finding these candidates in a crowded marketplace is not easy and Nordea casts its net far and wide to identify the talent they need, using social media to build awareness of Nordea and meeting prospective employees at career fairs. Most of all though, Nordea concentrates on giving existing employees a chance to spread their wings.

– Our recruitment function works tirelessly to look for internal candidates for interesting job opportunities, Khumar says.

About Nordea

Operating in 20 countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Operating income of €8.5 billion and total assets of €554 billion in 2019.
Nordea has 9.2 million private customers and over half a million businesses.
29,000 employees involved in a global operation.
The name is a mix of the words “Nordic” and “idea”.
One of few European financial institutions with an AA rating.

The view from Academic Work

One insight that was proved in this year's YPAI survey is the strong desire of young professionals to continue to develop and learn new things. It might be by doing external courses paid for by their employer or by trying different roles within the company. Nordea clearly have a well thought-out plan to develop young professionals and build their knowledge in several areas. This is one of the reasons why we find Nordea on this years list over the most attractive employers in both Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

YPAI 2020 x 4

This year’s results are available in four reports covering separate focus areas. Download them all and let them guide you in becoming a more attractive employer.

YPAI 100 most attractive employers: which are the top-ranked places where young professionals would like to work?
YPAI Most important when choosing employer: which attributes do young professionals look for when considering an employer?
YPAI How to become an attractive employer: detailed analysis of the results, lessons learned and conclusions to be drawn in how to become an attractive employer in the eyes of young professionals.
YPAI International: compares and contrasts the results from the six different countries covered, revealing some intriguing similarities and some surprising differences.