Are Risk Roles Becoming too Toxic to Fill?

display-middle-ads-here

What if the next risk crisis doesn’t come from a market crash, cyber breach, or regulatory scandal, but from the gradual collapse of the workforce itself?

A report from Allianz Partners raises a stark warning: declining generational health, especially among younger professionals, may soon leave financial institutions dangerously short of the resilient talent needed to manage complex, high-pressure risk roles.

The report sounds a quiet but critical alarm about the long-term availability of skilled professionals in sectors like financial services.

The study looked at the mental and physical well-being of people across generational lines, and its findings suggest a looming crisis for talent pipelines, particularly in high-stakes, cognitively demanding roles such as non-financial risk management.

By 2030, one in six people globally will be aged 60 or older, meaning nearly 17% of the world’s population will be at a statistically greater risk of being affected by chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are already the leading global cause of death and disability and responsible for 41 million deaths annually.

Yet awareness of these diseases remains low, particularly among younger professionals who may not perceive themselves as being at risk.

As chronic illness rates rise and people live longer with more complex conditions, financial services firms will face the reality that many potential hires may be battling long-term health challenges well before they reach mid-career.

But it is the mental health data that should be raising flags in risk departments across the financial services sector and beyond.

Nearly half of Gen Z respondents in the study reported feeling anxious ‘often or always’, and more than 20% admitted to feeling persistently depressed.

It is these statistics that represent the current and future state of the workforce – today's graduate analysts, who will be tomorrow’s heads of risk management, compliance, and governance.

Non-financial risk roles are particularly exposed, as they demand sustained concentration, complex decision-making, and a high tolerance for ambiguity and pressure.