The banking sector is a rapidly changing industry and therefore sustaining employee wellbeing and operational environments can prove to be stressful and often equally as challenging to manage.
With banks having to manage to usual managerial issues, which include workplace training, developing, multi-generational workforces, cultural changes in the workplace, evolving workplace demands and talent sourcing and retention, alongside further industry-specific issues, banks are now feeling the pressure more than ever.
What challenges is the banking sector facing?
Alongside the usual challenges around the generic workforce and workplace expectancy, the banking sector is also under intense scrutiny, to remain in line with post-crisis regulation. Due to a previous lack of supervision, these regulations ensure that banks can offer safer financial operations where jargon can no longer be used to prevent a transparent public understanding of their processes.
Moreover, banks are under intense pressure to deliver sustainable returns for investors, in a world where GDP growth is considered reasonably low. Alongside this, low-interest rates accompanied by tighter margins can make for a challenging and complex operational environment. Finally, huge political changes such as Brexit further fuel the fire of uncertainty, implying that there could be job losses across the board. The feeling of uncertainty is never good for any business and can lead to severe knock-on effects on the workforce.
How can training in the banking sector promote employee wellbeing?
Digital transformation is a term that has been thrown about a lot recently, with this affecting every industry. Within banking, digital transformation means the implementation of a whole new range of security measures and increased amount of technology produced for the customer to remotely manage their finances and baking needs. As a result, most retail banks will likely see a reduction in footfall in branches. This can ultimately create a knock-on effect on jobs. However, further training can redirect current employees to different roles through further knowledge building and technology familiarity.
Training existing staff in new roles and technology can boost job security and therefore improve staff morale. By matching existing employees to skills sets which can benefit the bank and allow them to manage these new systems, can ensure that fewer people are subjected to redundancies, whilst ensuring the business can keep up with competitors.
Regulatory burdens are another issue that is creating additional workloads for employees within banking. Management, in particular, are feeling the burn of these extra processes. Therefore extra training within management and their wider teams can allow for work to be completed to a higher standard and supported by systems such as AI and building the knowledge within the supporting workforce.
Finally, putting an extra emphasis on providing employees with additional support, for those struggling with workloads or processes, training can offer an opportunity to boost their skills such as financial literacy. This can result in an improved employee well being and satisfaction due to a heightened understanding. Management will need additional training to understand how to efficiently support their teams and employees when it comes to emotional and mental concerns, promoting health and wellbeing throughout the business and helping employees when they require it.