Disruption and opportunity. They’re the two most essential words in financial services today (with “compliance†coming in a close third). JD Dillon, chief learning architect, Axonify, takes a closer look at disruption in the retail banking sector and how microlearning can provide bank tellers with five key ways to evolve through the disruption wave.
An organization can fall victim to disruption and lose its market position to more aggressive competitors. Or it can seize the opportunity yielded by disruption and carve out a new or expanded position before anyone has a chance to catch up.Â
Before the pandemic, retail banking was experiencing seismic shifts, driven by increasing consolidation, the rise of online banking and growing competition from fintech. The pandemic accelerated this transformation by years, pushing financial services firms to rethink how they sell to and support a digital-savvy consumer.
See More: Why Banks Need New Technologies To Catch Up With Buy Now, Pay Later Fintech Companies
The good news: banks pivoted quickly – shifting to hybrid work, cross-training frontline staff to cover both in-branch and digital activities, and ensuring customers felt supported and appreciated. The bad news: the finish line isn’t any closer. In fact, it just keeps moving further and further into the distance.Â
Companies must act now to upskill their teams, so they’re ready for the next evolution of retail banking. Consider that two-thirds of the value created by banks in a postcrisis recovery is generated in the first 18-24 months. According to McKinsey’s 2021 Global Banking Annual Review, the next five years will “mark the beginning of a new era in global banking.Opens a new window †Industry leaders won’t react to this change. They’ll create it. But, before you can outpace the market with innovative products and services, your people must have the skills to execute your innovative business strategy. This includes your entire workforce, especially your underserved frontline.Â
Putting Customers First = Prioritizing Frontline Employees
Deloitte emphasizes the connection between go-to-market transformation and customer-centric engagementOpens a new window . Every touchpoint matters. A mobile app may be the face of your bank for your customers, but frontline employees make sure the experience remains seamless between online transactions, branch visits and customer service calls.Â
Workplace learning has long been a compliance exercise within most financial institutions. Regulatory training is critical for mitigating business risk, but ongoing skill development is now a cornerstone of strategic growth. Employees must know the ins and outs of your latest products, keep pace with digital transformation and develop effective sales and customer service techniques. Your branches are short-staffed thanks to ongoing hiring and retention challenges (aka The Great Resignation), so you have to find a way to fit skill-building activities into an already overcrowded workflow. The answer: microlearning.Â
Five Ways Microlearning Creates a Competitive Advantage in Retail Banking
For training to be effective, you must meet people where they are and make it simple, engaging and relevant. Microlearning is a strategy for breaking down long, complicated job training into short, easy-to-understand knowledge and skill-building activities that fit nicely into the few minutes people have available during their workday. Why does it work so well?
1. It works at scale:
Microlearning can be accessed anytime, anywhere – via desktop, tablet or mobile device. A contact center agent can complete a microlearning activity between calls without disrupting volume or hold times. A bank teller can build their skills during slow periods in the branch. Microlearning helps employees focus on the most important skills instead of forcing everyone to take the same long, boring, irrelevant courses.
2. It fosters engagement:
Because microlearning fits into the limited time available in their day, it provides employees with frequent opportunities to grow and reinforce their knowledge of complex topics like financial regulations and digital products. Many companies apply gamification alongside microlearning to promote engagement and build learning habits within their frontline teams. Employees compete with their peers, collect achievements and earn real-world rewards, all for making time for learning as part of their everyday work.
3. It’s a data-rich approach:
Traditional training reports tell you who completed the course and when. It might also tell you what score they received on a post-training assessment. It doesn’t tell you what people know right now. It doesn’t tell you who the best candidate might be for the next promotion. Traditional data may be good enough for regulators, but it doesn’t help you run your business. Microlearning provides access to more data on your people’s knowledge and skill. It enables you to identify gaps before they become risks and highlights your subject matter experts.
4. It transforms your talent strategy:
Banks are now competing for talent with Amazon. Remote and hybrid work is providing employees with more options than ever. You need a proactive talent strategy that gets people onboarded fast and builds a path to a high-potential career. For example, ING decreased onboarding times from one month to two daysOpens a new window by focusing their new training on the most frequently used skills. Plus, reskilling and cross-skilling are 20% more cost-effective than hiring and firing. A new talent mindset will help you grow employee confidence, make your business more agile and create a positive brand reputation through ongoing investment in your people.
5. It works:
Microlearning helps you keep pace with the changing financial services industry. It can help you meet the next regulatory requirement while simultaneously building strong digital skills for your frontline. Best of all: it works. After deploying its microlearning strategy, RBC saw retention rates jump from 60% to 90% in a matter of weeksOpens a new window . Alan Richardson, VP of Learning and Performance, credited the fact that employees were empowered with the knowledge and skills they needed.
See More: Optimizing Outcomes With Enhanced Measurement Practices
Banking on Change
Workplace culture starts at the top but reaches every layer of an organization. If you rely on traditional training tactics, such as classroom sessions and online courses, you risk allowing your frontline to fall behind. If retail bankers don’t have the knowledge and skills needed to execute strategic priorities, your business may succumb to disruption while others seize the opportunity afforded by a competent and confident workforce.Â
Microlearning helps retail bankers make learning part of everyone’s job, no matter where or when that job is done. This is the key to attracting talent, retaining top performers and fostering an employee-centered culture necessary to provide customer-first experiences.Â
In which other sectors do you think microlearning could help with talent evolution? Share with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to know!