Retail banking is changing to offer customers improved security and increased services which will make their money management overall more efficient.
There is an increased need to change how the banks' staff operate and increase the knowledge that they hold, to boost these capabilities and ensure that measures are being taken to protect assets.
Training in retail banking isn’t straightforward and often has to be adapted to fit the individual business in order to provide the most comprehensive and effective approach for that bank.
Products and offerings change across businesses and therefore banking training needs to follow suit, there is rarely a generic programme suitable for all retail banking training and therefore your training systems should be as bespoke as your business model.
Conforming to regulation
One aspect which will be almost identical across all banking training will be that which addresses regulatory changes. This is absolutely crucial to communicate with all staff members and will need to be easily updatable and quickly amended in order to allow for regular refreshers when changes occur. This content needs to be exceptionally clear and devoid of any type of misleading or vague information.
Overcoming resistance
As with many industries, there are always members of staff and management who are resistant to accepting new ways of doing things.
With the increased use of technology and the improved capabilities of microlearning across the banking sector, there is likely going to be a reasonable amount of resistance from those who are more favourable to ‘traditional’ ways of working.
Working with, rather than against, these individuals who may object to new ways of working can make life much easier for the training leader. For example, grouping these people with technical savvy individuals can allow them to learn at a prefered rate and using conversational language to understand how the technology integrates with their working pattern can be a huge help.
Where teams work across multiple locations, this can cause barriers or resistance to change. This is due to a lack of joined-up thinking and collaboration at the lower levels.
It can also result in some locations being more clued up and ahead of their counterparts elsewhere. This can cause a disconnect in communications and result in errors.
In order to ensure that all staff across any locations are equally as qualified with access to the same content, management should ensure that training is scheduled and completed on time and content is amended or customised for those working in different locations, particularly if this is across multiple countries, to ensure clarity.
Breaking it down
Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing. It’s often a good idea to break subjects down and condense these into small microlearning activities. With the capability to learn at an adjusted pace where learning is flexible is ideal for the majority of employees.
This approach offers the ability to collaborate with other employees, take time to master new skills and access information whenever they are, via smartphones or personal laptops and tablets.
Many employees who are passionate about career development and improving their personal and business prospects will value additional training material which will help them reach goals and excel beyond their peers.