In this article, we reveal the top four employment opportunities in the financial sector if you are looking for a remote position.
You Can Get An Education Remotely Too
Before we go through the positions you can get which are not bound to an office, you should know that the flexibility of the financial sector extends to formal education as well. Nowadays, you can take an accredited advance accounting course online and get the proper credentials to apply for the positions you always dreamed of. It is up to you if you want to get the classic college experience or if you want to integrate your education into a life plan that you control. In the end, it's all down to the dedication and talent you deliver into getting the best possible financial education. Here are the main remote jobs you can look for after you get your degree:
1. Independent Financial Planner
You can use your financial knowledge to help other businesses thrive by becoming an independent financial planner. You could work with people looking to open new businesses or improve those that they already have. To do this, you do not need to work for a company directly. You could be independent and open your very own office at home. As you can imagine, your home office would have to meet certain standards, but the entire operation would run on the coordinates you provide. In addition, you could take on long-distance customers and organize your meetings online. This would enable you to work entirely remotely.
2. Outsourced Financial Careers
More and more companies are outsourcing jobs in the financial sector, among others. These include positions like financial analyst, expert accountant, tax researcher, and many other well-paid jobs you could take on without having to be bound to an office. In fact, there are recruiting companies that specialize in outsourced labor force and you could be the talent they are looking for. This would give you an edge in finding the top remote jobs in the financial sector worldwide. As an alternative, you can look up the remote positions offered at the top companies in your sector and start the application process online. You can work through your financial career as part of a major corporation from anywhere in the world.
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3. Day Trader
If trading is your calling, then you will definitely not need to be bound to an office to thrive in this profession. You can become a day trader. You would hold positions in stocks for very short periods of time (in the line of minutes of hours) and it would be your goal to maximize the financial potential of those stocks in the limited amount of time you have access to them. As you can imagine, you would make numerous trades each and every single day. Moreover, if you choose a career as a day trader, you will not have a regular salary or a predictable life. But if you are talented enough in this, you can make quite a lot of money by seizing the correct opportunity. As a matter of fact, some traders are able to post returns of 300% or even more on a yearly basis, which is a spectacular amount compared to regular returns. To succeed as a day trader, you don't need an office, but you do need raw talent and access to some specialized tools that can guide you to the best possible decisions.
4. Financial Writer
With a degree in finance and a talent for writing, you could seek a career as a financial writer. While this seems further away from the financial sector, you would be up to date with the latest financial news, changes, and breakthroughs. You could work for finance news platforms, but also finance-themed online magazines. You could build a solid career without ever having to step foot in an office. You can use your financial expertise to relay the latest news in the financial sector in a language that anybody understands. This helps to keep people informed and it goes a long way. Moreover, you could use your skills to write professional articles for the financial sector. Make use of all your talents as a financial writer.
As you can see, there is flexibility in the financial sector for remote positions. You can apply for outsourced positions in major corporations or you can seek an independent career as a day trader, a financial planner, or become a financial writer. There are many opportunities you could seize without stepping foot in an office.
Yet, our working days are getting more demanding and the time we must juggle both our personal, and professional lives seems to be even more restricted.
Maintaining a positive work-life balance is a key factor for employee happiness. Because of this, and in order to better work around personal lives and work demands, dynamic working, which was once a somewhat unfamiliar term, is now a highly sought-after workplace benefit. Below Derren Bevington, Business Director at Michael Page Finance, explains further.
Dawnconsultancy offers full range of dynamic consultancy including Dubai offshore company in UAE, providing best innovative financing solutions to help troubleshoot any business problem with ease.
In fact, in previous research, we found that 66% of professionals working in banking and financial services would like to see flexible working hours offered by their employer and 53% also listed work from home options in their top three desired benefits. However, only 26% of those surveyed had actually been given the option to work from home.
Why is it important?
A recent study conducted by Michael Page shows that millennials expect flexible working to be offered as standard in the workplace and not as an additional benefit. However, this doesn’t mean that those who fall outside of this age group don’t equally enjoy the benefits of dynamic working or want them to be included as part of their working life. The ability to plan work around personal life events allows individuals to better organise their time, take care of their physical and mental wellbeing, and ensures that they are in the best position to manage a productive work schedule. As we are in a candidate-short market, it is important good people are retained. Being able to adapt to the changing motivations of employees to drive forward retention in later years is key.
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How to introduce dynamic working
What’s important to remember is that flexibility in the workplace is defined differently by everyone; what works for one person may not work for another. The key to success is to ensure that it is tailored to the individuals in the workforce and that they have the option to choose what is important to them.
Flexible working does not mean fewer working hours. It is a way to show employees they are trusted to do their job no matter the time or location they choose to work in.
Flexible working does not mean fewer working hours. It is a way to show employees they are trusted to do their job no matter the time or location they choose to work in.
These are my top tips for implementing flexible working successfully:
- Facilitate home access - the ability to work from home or a remote location can significantly improve productivity. Workers in these industries are usually comfortable with reviewing their emails first thing in the morning or responding to queries well after 5:30. In fact, the ability to sign in during a commute can amount to a lot more getting done, well before the rest of the team have even signed in.
- Establish flexibility champions - these individuals should be from right across the business, to demonstrate how they make it work best for them. This employee may be someone who takes a longer lunch break but comes in an hour early to compensate. Alternatively, it could be a parent who comes in later so they can drop their kids off in the mornings. Some companies have also enabled some of their employees, particularly those who live further distances from the office, to leave early as a means of making an earlier train but encourage them to log back in once they get home.
- Highlight great performance - this should happen for both employees in the office and those who on occasion work dynamically. However, if there is a noticeable improvement in an individual’s performance after adopting a dynamic working schedule, be sure that it is known across the company.
- Agree weekly deliverables - regardless of flexibility requirements - work from home, longer lunches, or later start times - every employee needs to know their KPIs and daily responsibilities to ensure they are working effectively. When dynamic working is introduced, this becomes increasingly important to ensure employees know what is expected of them.
- Consider job sharing - where it is feasible, perhaps two employees would work better on a part-time basis sharing the responsibilities of a single role on a week to week basis? Job sharing is a workable solution if two colleagues or new starters are only able to work restricted hours during the week. The key consideration for this working arrangement is to ensure each employee is effectively communicating with the person they are handing the job over to, this is so they are aligned in the requirements for the following day.
Ultimately, it’s important to define what dynamic working means in your business before implementation and ensure this is communicated to everyone in the company. The secret to maintaining a flexible working approach is to always make certain it remains adaptable to everybody’s needs. This working arrangement should be adjustable to the ever-changing schedule of people’s lives and encourage employees to produce their best work.
Below, Harpreet Singh, Executive Director at Brickendon, delves into some case studies and examples that point towards an evolving workplace, remarking on the financial services sectors and its need to conform or adapt.
In November 2018, tens of thousands of Google employees conducted a worldwide walkout targeting workplace culture less than a year after the internet giant topped Fortune magazine’s list of best companies to work for the sixth year running. The protestors’ main issue was how the company was treating women, but this wasn’t their only concern.
Following the protests, media reports cited Google saying it would increase transparency and improve its harassment policies, but it shouldn’t have taken a revolt of this scale for the issues to be acknowledged. Jose Mourinho, former manager of Manchester United, who was unceremoniously sacked in December, may have the answer to Google’s problems.
Speaking to the media in January, Mourinho, one of the most successful football managers of the last two decades, said: “Nowadays you have to be very smart in the way you read your players”. He then went on to compare current players with players from previous generations and spoke about the increased need to have the right structure in the club to support the players and the manager. Like football, employee demographics in the corporate world have changed significantly over the past decade. According to a recent study by Deloitte, 75% of the global workforce will be millennials by 2025. And therein lies the problem. In the same way as Mourinho believed Manchester United was not reading its players correctly, neither, if recent events are taken into account, are many businesses.
The expectation of flexibility is neither misplaced nor impossible
In addition to having been born and grown up in an online age, there are several characteristics that differentiate millennials from previous generations. Whilst they consider themselves equally as hardworking and as ambitious, if not more so, than generation x and baby boomers, they also require more flexibility, faster results and care more about their personal well-being. According to a report in US news magazine INC., more than half of all millennial workers would like the option to work remotely, while up to 87% want to work on their own schedules.
They also perceive themselves to be more socially aware and eco-friendly and expect these traits from their employers too. Luckily, with the significant improvements in technology over the past decade, this expectation is neither misplaced nor impossible to achieve, as long as employers are prepared to innovate.
Technological improvements make remote working an easy option
Take flexibility, eco-friendliness and well-being for example. With massive improvements in communication-related technology, it is now possible to work remotely without any loss of productivity. Providing flexible working options not only reduces real-estate costs and lowers the firm’s carbon footprint but can also help increase employee motivation.
So, if done correctly, one single action or statement, such as allowing employees to start work earlier or later, or to take longer lunch breaks to facilitate participation in sporting activities, can lead to a chain of events that significantly improves the attractiveness of an employer.
But, the reverse is also true. What if a telecommuting employee needs to come into the office for a face-to-face meeting and realises that he/she doesn’t have a desk to work from? The obvious impact is a decrease in efficiency. However, research shows that not knowing whether you have a desk space can also lead to lack of motivation and stress and can in turn, have a serious impact on an employee’s overall well-being. In addition, it can create an environment of unhealthy competition due to a lack of information, in this case, related to desk space and employee whereabouts. Unlike employees from previous generations, millennials don’t tend to feel the same connection to their company and as a result will not stay somewhere they are not happy.
It’s all about work-life balance
As a result, it may be worth managers considering the way in which a flexible work schedule provides a stronger sense of work-life balance – a quality that is reported to attract millennial employees to a workplace in droves and keep them happier for longer than the two-year stint that has become the norm.
It may be worth managers considering the way in which a flexible work schedule provides a stronger sense of work-life balance.
Typically, desk space is the responsibility of real-estate management teams and doesn’t list as a top priority for senior operational managers. Desk allocations are usually managed on spreadsheets or similar static data-storage tools, which don’t allow for the constant monitoring required for effective desk-space allocation. Technology can again rectify this situation, with tools (such as HotDeskPlus, a new workplace optimisation tool and app powered by Brickendon Digital) that use mobile apps, sensors and QR codes to allow employees to view, reserve and check-in-and-out of specific desk spaces at a specific time.
Millennials may require more recognition and faster routes to promotion
Equally important is to foresee the problems that may arise as time evolves and millennials move through the ranks and take up senior positions. They may require more recognition and therefore faster routes to promotion. At the same time, incoming employees may prefer a more informal and non-hierarchical structure. This will require a shift in the organisational model and a willingness to embrace change in a way not seen before.
A quick look at the last couple of years reveals that many CEOs were either asked to leave their positions or forced to deal with discontented employees. These non-unionised breeds of relatively new organisations, such as Google, Microsoft and Uber, were expected to be torch bearers for the next generation of working practices, but their actions have largely been reactive. There is no doubt that what is thought to be an isolated incident can very quickly gain momentum and become a global phenomenon.
So, when it comes to millennials, you may want to count (and listen to) your chickens before they tweet, otherwise they may leave your roost sooner than you expect.
Starting a small business is the ultimate working dream for many. When you take the plunge to finally make it happen you’ll have lots to think about. One of the major considerations will be securing funds.
If you’re starting off a new business you may need a hand to get your vision off the ground. An organisation like SCORE could provide the support you need; it’s a Small Business Administration that has helped thousands of small businesses launch and grow.
Bear the following tips in mind as you start the process of securing investment for your small business:
1. Start early
If you have savings that you can put towards launching your business or expanding it, make it one of the first things you do. If you’re looking to secure investment and raise funds for your business, you’ll be impressing potential investors by showing them that you’re committed to your idea and backing it with your own money.
2. Have a plan
If you want to be taken seriously by investors, you need to make sure you have a growth plan in place so that you’re able to demonstrate a realistic outlook for further expansion.
This will give investors the confidence that you are serious about your plans. Investors will expect a long-term plan for development, with detail and forecast revenue; a good idea in isolation isn’t enough.
3. Recruit well
If your start-up is larger than a one-person operation it’s essential you have a solid team of people behind you. An experienced, enthusiastic and knowledgeable team around you provides potential investors with confidence. Choose wisely!
4. Approach experienced investors
Background research will prove whether or not a potential investor has experience when it comes to companies similar to you. You should ideally approach those who have a good track record when it comes to helping businesses comparable to you. They may offer more than just money - their knowledge and previous experience could be extremely valuable for you.
5. Point of Sale System
A Point of Sale System is where your customers make payments for items that they buy from your company. Such a system allows you to have much better control over your business operations as you know exactly what’s been sold on a daily or monthly basis, how many products you have in the warehouse and how much money you’ve made. You can keep track of your inventory through analyzing sales processes, sales reports and other data.
6. Be patient
Raising funds is never going to be straightforward and it most certainly won’t happen overnight. It takes time and patience so stick with it and don’t give up - honestly, it will be worth it in the end.
7. Be flexible
Investors want to see a return after offering you funding, so make sure that you’re flexible with the level of control that you are giving them when it comes to the decision making process. If they’re able to see that you can easily be a success without too much legislation and paperwork, they might be likely to invest.
8. Showcase your best pitching skills
If you’re looking to gain investment, you really need to possess strong pitching skills. Investors need to see a clear and concise plan of the future direction of your business, exactly how their money is going to help, and when they might see a return on their investment. Practice makes perfect so make sure that you don’t neglect the preparation stage.
Securing investments can be a daunting process, but it can be done. Prepare thoroughly, do your homework, be confident, explain your vision clearly, and you’ll have a great chance of succeeding.
As rail and tube strikes have affected thousands of UK commuters during recent months and the nation is set for more walk-outs in 2017, a recent survey found that over half (53%) of employed adults arrive to work stressed due to problems with their commute. Alongside this, road works and infrastructure changes have disrupted many of the UK’s roads and motorways.
Further research has revealed that only 6.2% of business vacancy adverts mention flexible working, despite the fact that 46% of employees want to work more flexibly to fit their jobs in with their modern lifestyles.
Flexible working is available to almost all employees with at least 26 weeks' service, working both full-time and part-time. They have the right to ask for flexible working, including flexitime or a change in the location of the workplace e.g. working from home. Yet the figures show that few are requesting flexible working hours and workplaces are yet to encourage the scheme.
According to a survey, 82% of employed adults felt that they were more productive when they worked from home, with 44% stating that having no distractions made them carry out more work effectively. It also found that 40% felt having flexible working hours meant they could avoid traffic by setting off to work at a different time.
Nearly a fifth (18%) of working mums in the UK have had to leave their jobs after having a request for flexible working denied by their bosses. However, academics at Lancaster University predict that around half of UK businesses will input flexible working by the end of 2017, with this predicted to rise to 70% by 2020.
Jon Tracey is the Director of Services at Star Leaf, he says: “We’ve seen recently, with all of the rail strikes and the congestion on our roads, people are starting to turn up to work absolutely stressed. Over half of the adults surveyed said they’re turning up to work feeling stressed at 9 o’clock in the morning and don’t feel they are able to give their best to their work until they’ve calmed down. We really need to do something about this. People shouldn’t be turning up to work in that state.
“Just because you’re not in the office, it shouldn’t mean you’re not connected. There are many products out there and many collaboration platforms that allow you to stay connected with you colleagues, to exchange information and actually see and talk to other people, as if you’re in the office.”
(Source: IMN)
