Payments giant Visa has hired 1,000 of the 2,000 technology professionals it aims to bring on board by 2017, a staffing goal that is tied to an initiative to boost its digital financial services business.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday (Sept. 10) that the company is especially focused on software developers and also security experts in its hiring push, which seeks to broaden new avenues of payment methods, such as mobile apps, wearable technology and blockchain, Rajat Taneja, Visa executive vice president of technology, told WSJ.
The executive said Visa views the hiring as a form of competitive advantage in the fact that technology professionals are brought into the company itself rather than relying on contractors. Taneja, who joined Visa in 2013 in order to lead the VisaNet business opening to partners such as Apple, said that “we’re changing the mix quite significantly. The vision I have is to have our own people do the majority of the work.”
As noted by WSJ, there is a battle being waged to attract top tech talent that extends even to non-tech companies, such as Humana and Lowe’s. Those two are among companies that have formed innovation labs within California’s Silicon Valley to bring in tech stars and promote startup culture. Visa itself has greenlighted and opened tech labs across the United States in Austin, Denver and Virginia, as well as in India and Singapore.
[bctt tweet=”There is a battle being waged to attract top tech talent.”]
Of the 1,000 tech players brought over to Visa, roughly 40 percent have been from college recruiting. And to help keep tech staff happy, Visa began a program last year wherein employees are able to spend 10 percent of their time on “pet” projects, and that initiative has helped Visa adopt 80 to 100 ideas that have led to new internal processes and also new features for payments-related projects.
No less a retail powerhouse than Walmart has poached 65 people from places like eBay to gain an edge in eCommerce. And MasterCard is in the middle of suing Nike because of cybersecurity professionals the latter brought on board in 2013.
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To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.
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