Page 22 - SKILLS Workforce Development Guide 2021

For Job Seekers: Financial Services/ Fintech Outlook
A GROWING NEED FOR TECH WORKERS
BY ELAINE POFELDT
© Adobe Stock
20 SKILLS What’s Hot. What’s Next. What’s Needed.
When PCSB Bank embraced touchless technology during
the worst of the pandemic, Joseph Roberto, president and CEO, had
to make sure everyone on his team was up to speed. “It was a challenge
in the banking industry to service our customers with the minimal personal contact that was available because of COVID and quarantine issues,” says Roberto, whose community bank, based in Yorktown Heights, has branches throughout the lower Hudson Valley. “It was quite an experience. We needed to have our entire branch staff be literate in working with customers to get them to use the technology to do the banking on their iPhone or laptop.”
Fortunately, the team was able to pull it off successfully, even when working with customers who had not grown up with technology and weren’t accustomed to using it. “Some of our branch managers visited the customer through the door and worked them through the process of doing their banking online,” Roberto says.
One factor that put the bank in good stead was its arrangement with Mercy College to recruit interns over the summer for the past five to six years. The bank usually brings on five to 10 summer interns to work in the retail, finance, and IT sides of the business, says Roberto. Some interns later come on board in regular jobs. Most, he says, are tech savvy.
PCSB is one of a number of financial services and fintech firms in