AI Transformation
Human-Centred Design
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Building the capability, confidence, and culture that complex organisations demand
In financial services, your people are your competitive edge. The question is whether you’re developing them like it.
We are your strategic technology workforce partner
Financial services organisations operate under a multitude of pressures that few other sectors experience simultaneously. Regulatory scrutiny that leaves no room for error. Technological disruption that’s reshaping roles faster than most talent strategies can respond. A contest for technical talent that shows no sign of cooling. And a workforce that’s expected to be accomplished, adaptive, compliant, and client-focused – all at once.
In that environment, the cost of underdeveloped people isn’t just a talent metric. It’s a business risk. And the cost of development that doesn’t change behaviour is something worse – money spent with nothing to show for it.
The problem
Financial services organisations consistently face the same cluster of development challenges. Technical specialists who are brilliant at what they do but struggle to translate that expertise into trusted client relationships. Leaders who’ve been promoted for their technical performance and are now expected to coach, develop, and retain teams they were never prepared to lead. Inductions that don’t reflect the complexity, culture, or ambition of the firms delivering them – leaving new hires overwhelmed and under-connected in the critical first months.
And running through all of it, the pressure to demonstrate ROI from every development investment. L&D in financial services doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. It has to prove its value in numbers that matter to a CFO – retention, time to productivity, reduction in risk incidents, and improvement in client outcomes.
Generic programmes don’t survive that scrutiny. Experiences designed for the specific people, context, and challenges of your organisation have a much better chance.
Our approach
We start where the real challenge lives – with your people. Through immersive research, stakeholder interviews, and direct engagement with the colleagues the programme is built for, we develop a precise understanding of what needs to shift and why standard approaches haven’t shifted it.
That insight drives design that is specific, measurable, and built for the reality of financial services rather than a generic professional services context. We’ve worked inside some of the world’s most demanding financial and professional services environments – from Big 4 firms to global insurers. We know what good looks like here, what the common failure modes are, and how to design around them.
What we deliver
From expert to trusted advisor
Development experiences that build the client relationship skills, communication confidence, and advisory presence that technical experts need to become the partners their clients actually turn to – not just the people they call when something goes wrong.
Leadership development for financial services
Leadership programmes built for the specific demands of financial services leadership – regulatory responsibility, performance pressure, talent retention, and the challenge of building inclusive, high-trust teams in highly competitive environments.
Induction and onboarding at scale
Cohesive, immersive onboarding experiences that reflect the ambition and culture of your firm – getting new hires to confidence and contribution faster, reducing early attrition, and setting a standard the rest of the employee journey is expected to match.
Skills frameworks and technical career pathways
Structured development pathways for specialist populations – giving your technical talent visibility of where their career can go, and giving your managers the tools to have development conversations that go beyond generic performance language.
Compliance and behaviour change
Compliance and risk training that goes beyond awareness to produce genuine shifts in how people think and behave – because in financial services, the difference between knowing the rules and following them under pressure is where the real risk lives.
DE&I and culture programmes
Development experiences that build genuinely inclusive cultures – not through mandatory e-learning, but through experiences that challenge assumptions, shift dynamics, and give leaders the tools to model inclusion rather than just mandate it.
I love working with Solvd – such a collaborative, thoughtful and experienced team. They bring insight, data and design thinking into everything they do, and really helped me to define the problem I was trying to solve, to lead to impactful business outcomes. Their collaborative nature and sense of fun also makes them great to work with and Solvd feels like an extension of our team, they liaise with stakeholders and users alike to co-create. Huge focus on quality and attention to detail, as well as bringing innovation into the mix.“
Gemma Paterson
Head of People Development, Experiences & Innovation, Legal & General
Resources
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Ready to develop the people your organisation depends on?
If your firm is carrying a gap between the talent it has and the performance it needs, or investing in development that isn’t moving the numbers that matter, we’d like to talk.