Digital transformation has three components – technology, processes and people – and the organisation that forgets the third element does so at its peril. Many attribute the low rate of success in transformation projects – it is estimated that about 70% fail – to culture and talent challenges. Today, a bank’s digital strategy must have a people strategy baked in.
The successful banks will be the ones that take most of their staff on the digital journey with them, providing them with opportunities to reskill and upskill. While some jobs will disappear, other jobs will emerge – and providing a bridge between the two will illustrate an organisation’s commitment to developing and retaining its staff.
However, the training programmes of old are no longer fit for purpose. Banks should employ a variety of training tools, such as on-demand online training, competitions, external accelerators and internal incubators – and experiment to see what works best. Some banks have launched digital academies that are available to all staff, effectively 'democratising' learning, while others offer grants for staff to choose their own courses and bring the learning back into the organisation.
Banks are also being more proactive in empowering employees to take control of their career progression. They are looking at ways, such as short-term secondments and rotations, to allow staff to move to another role within the company to gain a new set of skills, instead of having to move to another company.
As the competition for certain skillsets heats up, innovative ways of working in cross-functional teams, a commitment to upskilling, reskilling and redeployment, plus greater opportunities for a more varied career path, will help banks win the war for talent. But they must also be prepared for a more fluid and portable workforce, while building a different value proposition for the next generation of employees.
