Key traits of successful Operations staff

Often referred to as a ‘back-office role’, Operations is the engine room of an investment firm and the success of its staff has a huge impact on the overall efficiency and cost to the business unit.  With over 10 years hiring experience in Operations, I’ve been able to narrow down the 4 key traits that successful hires display, or should at least develop within their first 12 months. 

Attention to detail

With most roles requiring a high degree of processing, attention to detail is a basic but critical skill to master.  When working in investment banking you’re often dealing with large numbers containing far too many zeros for your liking, handling legal contracts where one omission could cost thousands, or settling payments larger than your parents house.   Getting something wrong here can have a huge impact on your traders’ PnL so you want to ensure a high degree of accuracy.

Customer service

Not all Operations roles are directly client facing but all are customer facing in some way, whether internal or external.  New employees need to be able to confidently work with other internal teams and see them as their customer.  If you are facing off against external clients, then you have the ability to make or break a firm relationship across a range of products.  At the end of the day, the same customer service skills can be applied in both an investment bank and a retail store.

Initiative

In order to develop from just an efficient processor into more of a change agent or future leader, you need to show initiative in your role.  This is one of the most important skills to display if you want to move into management.  New scenarios, or curveballs as I like to call them, can pop up at anytime in banking and there’s not always a procedure or precedent to tell you how to handle it.  By understanding your product, process and systems, and then applying some initiative, you should be able to resolve most incidents with no operational risk.

Risk Management

Almost everything you do, in any role in banking, has a risk element to it.  Understanding operational risk, how it fits in to your role, and what you can do to reduce it, is critical to your success.  If you’re unsure, ask your manager to explain the key risk areas for your team but it's crucial to understand how your actions can increase or decrease operational risk.  As a manager, this will be one of your most important responsibilities.  Key risk areas could be trade booking errors, incorrect or missed payments, legal document oversights, or poor client service.

Hiring candidates who fulfill the above criteria doesn’t guarantee a successful employee but your odds of success will be greatly improved.