A specialist in the field of Payments, Technology Sales and Development recruitment, DP Connect has been uniting talent and technology with some of the UK’s leading organisations and specialist professionals for almost three decades.
Our consultants are experts in their fields; with an unrivalled knowledge of business systems, development platforms and emerging cutting-edge technologies, this ensures they are best placed to support you in finding the right hire or matching your skills to the perfect opportunity. Directing our expertise to our specialist sectors allows us to focus on providing a premium bespoke service, uniting the best talent in the market with the role that is right for both them and their future employer.
We offer a comprehensive range of opportunities as we work exclusively with some of the UK’s most prestigious organisations as well as fresh and exciting start-up businesses providing contract, permanent and fixed-term positions. We will consult closely with you to understand your skills and experience, requirements and aspirations and to accurately match them with the right employer.
As the whole world shifts towards a new reality our focus must now move towards the opportunities and factors that may accelerate the transformation of the digital financial services market and therefore the prospects for FinTech companies. A key question is whether people will continue to use the digital and ecommerce solutions on which they have relied over the last few months? Vodafone, has reported a massive 50% rise in internet usage during the pandemic, and A European customer survey by McKinsey has also shown that people have changed the way they bank as banks severely limited their working hours during the lockdown. There was a significant 20% increase in digital engagement levels and a significant decrease in the use of cash. The answer is probably yes and no. There will always be those that prefer to revert to managing their finances in a traditional way, but the great news is that the key banking survey by McKinsey highlights that customers, who are highly satisfied with their digital banking experience, are two-and-a-half times more likely to open new accounts with their existing bank, thereby encouraging even the most traditional bank to increase investment in their digital offering. New research from KPMG UK, shows that the sector is positioned better than most to deal with any disruption - around half of FinTechs believe they have enough cash and working capital for the next 18 months. But like every other industry there will be those that fail to thrive and some consolidation in the sector is to be expected. What the industry has shown during the pandemic is how innovative, responsive, flexible and agile it is even when faced with total uncertainty. Uniquely positioned new models have already been developed to fit in with the new reality as FinTechs stepped in quickly to help people during this time of need, and we can expect this to continue. A digital solution, named ‘Covid Credit’, for the self-employed to prove a loss of income via open banking and apply for fiscal support from the government was created by Credit Kudos, Fronted and 11:FS coming together over a weekend and Greensill Capital offered their salary finance platform at no cost to allow NHS workers to be paid sooner. Other FinTechs such as Curl came together to develop ‘Save My Local’ through a platform where people can buy advance vouchers for services in an attempt to help their local businesses. What’s clear is that as the world slowly eases out of lockdown restrictions and reopen up borders, the real impact of the pandemic on the FinTech industry will become apparent but it will undoubtedly boost the digitalisation of the financial services sector and leave huge amounts for FinTechs to play for. The increase of digital and cashless payments and the use of e-wallet services will drive the e-payments sector, as the use of ATMs and cash significantly falls and legacy banks find it harder to compete with the cloud enabled, agile services of FinTechs whose costs can be as much as 70% lower than for a legacy bank, with a large branch network. Those businesses offering innovation in the areas of fraud and cyber security can also expect to see strong growth as the virus has led to a spike in incidents. At DP Connect we have always believed that in an increasingly digitised world, digital financial and banking services will be the future. The pandemic and its legacy won’t change this; it will only make the race to succeed sooner and with a few more hurdles possibly along the way.
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According to research by PwC just 17% of Tech/ICT workers in the UK are female, a figure that has remained about the same for over a decade. So little change in over 10 years for an industry that is soaring. The UK is the No. 1 top scaling tech nation in Europe and is increasing its lead in the world daily. The latest figures from Tech Nation for 2020 show that in only a year technology investment in the UK soared by 44% to over £10 billion, more than Germany and France combined. For fintech the UK is second in the world, with investment rising by over 100% in the last year alone. With all the investment comes new employment opportunities which has seen UK tech employment grow by 40% in the last 2 years, now accounting for 9% of the national workforce with 2.93m jobs created. So where are all the women? There is no simple reason nor a simple solution, but there are clear areas that are contributing to the ongoing problem. Yes, more women than ever are choosing a career in the technology sector and pioneers have begun to make their claims for leadership, but too many women are still encountering challenges too great resulting in only 5% of leadership positions in the technology sector being held by women. The pipeline for female talent, although improved, is still a primary reason why women are underrepresented. Further research by PwC highlights that: Only one in ten females are currently taking A-Level computer studies. Only 27% of female students surveyed said that they would consider a career in technology, compared to 61% of males, and only 3% said it was their first choice. Just 9% of female graduates in 2018 studied a core STEM subject, according to education campaign WISE. The gender gap in technology begins at school and then carries on through every stage. Clearly more information and education is needed to inspire women. A lack of female role models in the industry also makes a negative impact. Only 22% of students can name a famous female working in technology. Whereas two thirds can name a famous man working in technology. This of course can reinforce to young and influential girls the perception that a technology career isn’t for them - over a quarter of female students say they’ve been put off a career in technology as it’s too male dominated. The image of the industry frankly doesn't help either. Numerous stories circulate about the male dominated culture in tech firms and how women who do make it struggle - past research by Harvard Business Review showed that in the US women working in STEM fields were 45% more likely than their male colleagues to quit within a year. There is a however a new generation of women who are making more demands - more than eight out of 10 female millennials in Britain say they seek out employers with a strong record on diversity, equality - and as the job market is very candidate led more and more businesses are trying to sell themselves on their employer brand and how much they value culture, diversity and work-life balance. Government backed initiatives such as the Tech Talent Charter are also driving change by bringing together industries and organisations to commit to adopting recruitment and retention practices to create a more diverse tech workforce however there is still much work to be done. The fact remains that the technology industry is still an industry predominantly dominated by white males and so often many initiatives such as a company always having a female board director are ‘one off’ initiatives - it took Airbnb 10 years to add their first female board member in 2018, two years before its planned IPO. We believe that the demand for STEM talent globally will drive the real change needed as companies will simply be unable to ignore or lose all the capable female tech talent out there and will be forced into making the necessary changes. At DP Connect ensuring diversity in the workplace and promotion of women in technology has always been our priority, after all we were founded way back in 1990 by a woman, and female empowerment remains our priority today. This is why our senior management team is made up of 50% women and why we have won awards such as Recruiter Magazines ‘Most Effective Flexible Working Strategy' award.
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Dosh, Readies, Bread, Dough, Coin, Moolah, Spondoolies, Wonga or even just plain simple cash, no matter what you choose to call it I think we can all agree that for many, many years cash has always been king. But in recent years the use of cash has steadily declined and now, according to the latest UK Payment Markets Report from trade body UK Finance, people are turning their back on cash preferring to use debit cards and contactless instead. The latest figures show that less than a quarter, just 23%, of all payments last year were made by cash. In 2014 it was 48%, so it is a big change in just 5 years but as last year UK Finance also predicted that cash would make up just 9% of all transactions by 2028 it is not a totally unexpected event. What has been a totally unexpected event is coronavirus and with it a growing preference for contactless payments. Contactless usage has boomed during the pandemic as businesses and consumers began rejecting cash payments over fears that cash is a dirtier way of paying and could help spread the virus. It is worth noting though, as of writing, the WHO has made it clear that handling coins and notes does not pose any more of a risk than touching other surfaces including cards, pin pads and phones. Debit cards and of course contactless do of course offer a level of convenience for both customers and business owners, especially as the contactless limit was raised to £45 in April. According to Which?, a third of all the UK's bank branches have closed since 2015 with many more earmarked for closure, making it much harder for a business to bank their cash takings and making taking card payments far more attractive. Although the decline in the use of cash has been expected, there are growing fears that coronavirus could speed up the decline of cash in the UK as people’s fears about the health risks of cash continue after the pandemic. Natalie Ceeney, who chaired last year's Access to Cash review, which found that the UK could become 'virtually cashless' by 2035, commenting on the findings said: 'This UK Finance data was taken before the impact of coronavirus, which has accelerated the shift to digital payments and further challenged the viability of the cash infrastructure. It's essential that we ensure that everyone is included in our economy, and until digital payments work for everyone, we need to maintain people's ability to access and pay with cash.' The figures produced by Finance UK highlight that an estimated 2.1 million people still mainly used cash, a figure down just 600,000 people from 2016. Cash machine withdrawals have dramatically fallen during Britain's coronavirus lockdown, although as people were stuck at home this was to be expected, but fears over the negative association towards cash has led one of Britain's largest ATM providers NoteMachine to launch a 'Cash is Safest' campaign aimed at the public and retailers, with its chief executive Peter McNamara telling us the idea cash was a dirtier payment method was 'the greatest piece of fake news floating around at the moment.' John Howells, chief executive of Link, Britain's cash machine network, has also called for legislation to maintain cash for 'as long as it is needed.' He said: 'Less than ten years ago, cash was used for more than half all of payments. Yet, over the past five months we have seen reductions in ATM volumes that were expected over five years - we think it could be as low as one in 10 payments now. 'During the lockdown we have seen a large drop in ATM volumes, down by 55% and while these numbers have begun to come back up Link research shows because of coronavirus, 54% of consumers say they will use cards more and 38% said they will do more shopping online and 33% said they will use ATMs less. 'Link therefore does not expect all of this decline in cash use to be reversed and that is putting a huge strain on the sustainability of the cash system. There is still almost £1.5 billion being withdrawn from ATMs a week and millions of people aren't yet ready to go cashless.’ Age UK has also warned the financial watchdog that the UK's 'headlong rush towards a cashless society' will be catastrophic for the most vulnerable as the charity reports a rapid increase in the number of older customers who say they have exhausted their cash supplies in the pandemic and fear they could soon run out of food and other essentials. Many businesses are also expected to make the decision to move away from using cash as they emerge from lockdown as research conducted for Money Mail by Amaiz suggests 50% of small businesses have gone cashless or plan to do so because of the pandemic. Major supermarkets, including Tesco and Sainsbury's, have been actively encouraging customers to not pay with cash since the pandemic began in March and when B&Q re-opened its stores recently, in an effort to reduce contact between staff and customers, they were only allowing purchases paid for by card or using contactless. The Government’s response to the decision has been non-committal in many ways, although draft Government guidance to business has stated that retailers should accept only cards or contactless payments while the coronavirus is still a threat. Today we simply have more choices than ever in how we choose to pay for things and the likelihood is that there will be even more new payment systems and new currencies such as Bitcoin. However, it is unlikely we will see cash die out in the near future as people will continue to demand access to it.
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