Revolutionizing Entry-Level Recruitment in Finance with Non-Coding Roles and Tailored Training Programs

Discover how Noviam Inc. uniquely equips and connects aspiring professionals with major financial institutions by focusing on essential operational positions, offering a robust career foundation with opportunities for permanent placements in finance recruitment.

Noviam Inc. connects bright individuals to leading financial institutions as Noviam Analysts and permanent team members. They focus on creating pipelines for entry-level talent demand, offering non-coding, operational roles across middle- and back-office. The company’s standard Noviam Analyst pathway provides a solid foundation for diverse roles, including four-week instructor-led sessions and preparation for FINRA’s Securities Industries Essentials examination.

Here, Simon Jowett, Partner-in-Charge, North America. at Noviam Inc., shares insights about the company, the impetus behind its founding and the value proposition it brings to the market.

What services do you provide, and who are the clients you serve.

Simon Jowett: Noviam provides Entry Level Talent as a Service. What does that mean? When large global organisations “hire” people, their internal mechanisms often cannot provide a complete solution, struggling to find the skillset and diversity they need, often in locations outside metro-centers so they rely on external specialist firms to supplement their efforts. 

We provide large organizations, predominantly in the Financial Services (FS) industry, with a solution, entry level resources trained specifically for the roles they will undertake, resources; we help fulfil their diversity goals by offering candidates they would not find through their familiar channels; and we find talent in locations than are often difficult for their central teams to operate in. The resources are our employees, but after 12 to 24 months, they can transition to become permanent members of staff – to put it crudely, try-before-you buy. These de-risks the hire, helps the organization to flex its budget between temp and perm staff and to solve a short-term problem but with long term potential.

In short, Noviam connects bright, initiated people to leading financial institutions, in teams with mission-critical responsibilities, first as Noviam Analysts and then as permanent team members. We provide our clients with an entry-level talent pipeline in alignment with their wider business strategy for continued profitable growth.

“We’re in a people business and people matter. Relationships matter. Belonging matters. The little things matter. Simple as that. Good culture is not just good practice, it’s good business.” — Simon Jowett.

What was the impetus behind founding the company?

Why did we start Noviam? Especially in very challenging conditions for our industry?! Because we saw others do it badly, treat their people like products and consistently overpromise and underdeliver for clients. We believe we can do it better; we believe that people and relationships matter, and that tech is not the only talent out there.

Collectively, we have over 60 years of experience in the industry and had a lot of ideas as to how things should be done. We had talked about these ideas and decided that building our own company was the only logical platform on which we could successfully carry these out. A timing opportunity arose and we decided to jump in feet first.

This model (often referred to as HTD, Hire-Train-Deploy) is not our creation but we know we can do it better!

We truly believe that we can apply our years of experience in both consultancy and “Hire-Train-Deploy” and offer a fresh take; a new way and do a better job for our clients and our employees than others. We want to revitalise the joy of building relationships, doing business and providing opportunity. We’ll be flexible in our engagement, transparent on pricing and we won’t disappear the minute a deal is signed, and analysts deployed.

How would you describe your value proposition? How do you differentiate your company from others in the market?

What sets Noviam apart is that other companies are predominantly focused on STEM graduates and coding/engineering roles within FS. This is because all the headlines for the last decade have been focused on “the tech skills gap”, i.e., there are not enough coders to fill jobs; not enough students pursuing STEM degrees; not enough diversity within these areas and overall, it is difficult to get entry level talent, onshore, at relatively low cost and low risk. Not untrue, but the market is saturated with companies trying to address this need.

Noviam’s sole focus is on non-coding/engineering roles. The roles we’ve seen companies unwavering, in fact increasing, need for in the last 20 years are in the Middle/Back Office Operations groups; for their regulatory change programs; their onboarding teams; Investment Management and Asset Servicing teams. Other HTD firms “dabble” in this space but do not provide the same level of investment and training, they are a second thought and so, quite often, clients look to expensive consultancies, contractors and even pay the Big 4 up to 4 figures per day to provide them. Noviam can offer a quality and cost-effective, alternative solution through it’s Entry-Level Talent as a Service.

The financial services industry is projected to grow at a 7.5% compound annually, and reach $33.54 trillion by 2024, which would be about 31% of the global economy.

What are some of the trends you are seeing, from an HR perspective, in the financial services industry?

A focus on preferred skills. Recent research has revealed that employers are seeking people with what we at Noviam call “Power Skills:” analytical and creative thinking; leadership; empathy; resilience, flexibility and agility; and curiosity and lifelong learning.

Technical literacy and data skills. Employers need to address succession planning, create leaders of the future and plug the gaps that have arisen due to the economic slowdown and lack of movement in the last few years. Diversity and representation remain key components of hiring strategies.

Location strategy. More and more operations are being moved to lower cost centres and finding the right people in location is a challenge.

Values-driven businesses. Attracting talent now is very different to generations past because this generation have different sets of values and want to work for companies who demonstrate social and environmental responsibility; who offer work life balance; who offer a truly valuable package of benefits, not simply a “competitive” salary and who are truly innovative and future thinking.

We live in an age where everyone has their “personal brand,” and they want an employer that fits with that.

How would you describe your corporate culture?

Get the Job Done

Mistakes happen. You fix it. And at times, some things are beyond your control. But to knowingly overpromise and underdeliver is unforgivable. Complicated operational structures, inflexible processes and a starting point of “can’t” make delivering on time and with quality impossible. We value our clients and respect their goals too much, to consciously mislead. Frustrated by organizational inertia,  we created Noviam to give clients the service they deserve.

Culture

We have seen good culture eroded and advertised culture unrealised. Both, without exception, lead to an increase in unhappiness and attrition, and a decrease in productivity and the bottom line.

We’re in a people business and people matter. Relationships matter. Belonging matters. The little things matter. Simple as that. Good culture is not just good practice, it’s good business.

Do Good

A lot of organizations spend a lot of time talking about the good they’re doing for their employees, clients and society. But behind the slogans, buzzwords and symbols, is there really equivalent action? Is this Insta v Reality? All too often, it sounded better than it looked. We think a company can look as good as it sounds, and we are setting out to prove it. At Noviam, we want everyone to feel Seen. Heard. Empowered.

How do you see Noviam evolving over the next five years?

We have a tremendous amount of work to do in that time; we know this because we looked at where we wanted to be in five years and worked backwards from that. Noviam is built to be truly scalable and stitched the things we needed to do into our fabric at the beginning of our journey, rather than having to constantly build when the concentration should be on delivery.

In 5 years, we hope to be an established brand; to have delivered on what we set out to do in terms of client satisfaction and company culture; to have launched 2000-plus careers for graduates, veterans and career changers and perhaps be at the point where Noviam has outgrown us and can move to the next level, expanding industries and locations deeper into Europe and into South America.

Connect with Noviam on LinkedIn.

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