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Adapting the Employee Experience in the Banking Industry: Strategies and Success Stories

Published by Fintech Americas on Aug 2, 2023

Discover what banking leaders across Latin America are doing to measure and improve employee experience

In the dynamic landscape of the financial industry in Latin America, a remarkable shift is taking place in how employee experience is prioritized and managed. Organizations must now address new needs and expectations to attract and retain top talent, recognizing that a positive workplace experience translates into greater profitability and productivity.

According to Enrique González Bacci, Vice President of Talent and Culture at Bancolombia, “Talent-related issues today more than ever have become a strategic priority. As leaders responsible for human talent, we are facing a wonderful opportunity that we must seize to become the place where top talent chooses to grow and thrive.” He made this statement during the FATV Deep Dive episode — “The (R)evolution of Employee Experience” — which took place in February 2023.

And his statement holds significant truth, as consulting firm Gallup reports that institutions with highly engaged employees are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive than those with a disengaged workforce.

However, in recent years, maintaining employee engagement has become a major challenge. After the monumental shift brought by the Covid-19 pandemic to workplace culture around the world, many organizations are still struggling to adapt to the evolving needs of their employees.

As a result, it is estimated that only 31% of employees in Latin America and the Caribbean are engaged with their work. Globally, nearly 6 out of 10 employees are considered quiet quitters, meaning they are psychologically disengaged from their jobs.

In the financial services industry, Enrique González Bacci explains that the new context banks face when managing employee experience includes the following elements, all of which must be viewed as part of an integrated whole:

  • Global volatility and disruption
  • Well-being as a priority across the entire organization
  • Talent competition has become international
  • Hybrid work has become the norm
  • Employee turnover is now a permanent business reality

In this environment, banks must implement new strategies and tools to attract and retain top talent. Leading financial institutions across the region are already implementing innovative approaches and disruptive initiatives that place employees at the center of their organizational priorities in response to this challenge.

In this article, we explore what Banco Atlántida (El Salvador) and Banco BCI (Chile) are doing to successfully measure and improve employee experience. Continue reading to discover ideas and insights on how your institution can revolutionize the way it manages and retains talent in just a few steps.

Infinite Adaptation as a Tool to Improve Employee Experience in the Banking Industry

How can the financial industry design employee experiences that keep pace with evolving needs and motivations?

The answer lies in embracing Infinite Adaptation. It is a critical capability that must be cultivated to efficiently adjust to change, enabling financial institutions to remain competitive, identify opportunities, and successfully navigate challenges in an ever-evolving environment.

For Enrique González Bacci, the pandemic experience highlighted, especially in the labor market, a logic of constant change. As the context evolves, the experience organizations provide to employees must evolve as well.

As McKinsey points out, there are four levels at which adaptation influences employee experience:

  • Individual: Adapting to the need for work-life balance and physical and emotional well-being can reduce burnout, mainly through the continuous adoption of healthy habits under pressure.
  • Interpersonal: Adaptability improves the ability to be vulnerable and empathetic toward others, enhancing compassionate leadership and transforming difficult interpersonal situations into opportunities for relationship building.
  • Team: The positive effect of adaptability on relationships can foster engaging team environments. Trust and care among teammates contribute to psychological safety, which in turn accelerates engagement because people feel supported.
  • Organizational: Organizational adaptability creates a shared sense of identity and a distinctive culture that helps employees thrive amid ambiguity and uncertainty.

In other words, adaptation is an approach both individuals and organizations must adopt in order to succeed and thrive. Next, we will explore real-life examples that demonstrate how this capability is essential for banks seeking to refine and personalize employee experiences.

Practical Examples and Success Stories on Improving Employee Experience in Banking

To bring these concepts into practice, we will use the insights shared by Mónica Tamacas, VP of Human Resources at Banco Atlántida (El Salvador), and Sol Castro Lechtaler, Head of Talent & OD Management at BCI (Chile), during the FATV Deep Dive program — “The (R)evolution of Employee Experience.”

Many financial institutions in Latin America are still rethinking and reevaluating how to approach employee experience (EX), and both Mónica and Sol explained how they adapted and what strategies they followed to become successful examples within the region.

New Listening Processes

Sol Castro explained that Banco BCI implemented a listening process that allows them to deeply understand their employees, identify their specific needs, segment them accordingly, and build employee experiences with differentiated benefits.

The ultimate goal: to provide experiences that are truly tailored to each individual.

This effective listening process is structured around five steps:

  1. Renew the business strategy and ensure the organizational purpose is compelling and meaningful.
  2. Implement three types of listening:
    • Annual engagement surveys.
    • Industry benchmarking to identify best practices and employee-valued benefits.
    • One-on-one interviews and focus groups to understand motivations, challenges, and interests.
  3. Build employee archetypes.
  4. Redesign the people journey by reviewing the employee experience and aligning it with evolving expectations.
  5. Determine how to communicate these new experiences, invest in updated benefits, and implement tools to systematically measure employee experience.

The process, which is renewed every two and a half years, proved to be essential for successfully adapting to employees’ evolving expectations and needs.

The Importance of Segmentation in Creating Better Experiences

The goal of steps 1 and 2 of the listening process was to create what Sol refers to as employee “archetypes,” enabling the bank to better understand employees and deliver tailored experiences.

This segmentation is critical because there cannot be a single employee journey for everyone. One characteristic of today’s workforce is that different generations and groups have very different motivations, needs, and interests. According to a Deloitte survey, for example, Generation Z values salary less than any other generation.

For this reason, Banco BCI created these archetypes: to understand what each group is seeking and how the institution can positively impact their lives.

The bank categorized archetypes as follows:

  • By work model: remote, hybrid, and on-site.
  • By additional characteristics:
    • Senior Archetype: employees in mature stages of their careers.
    • Young Tech Archetype: Generation Z and millennials interested in digitalization.
    • Family Archetype: employees who value stability and seek support for personal and professional growth.
    • Opportunity Seekers Archetype: employees who work to live, not live to work. They seek travel, new experiences, and often prioritize lifestyle flexibility.

Building this type of segmentation helped redesign employee experiences to make them more personalized by identifying where each employee is in their “journey” and offering the benefits and motivations they value most.

Additionally, it is a critical process for identifying the needs of younger generations entering the workforce. Renewing the listening process every few years and redefining archetypes is an effective way to continuously adapt to changing contexts and expectations.

Support Strategies to Drive Professional Development

Mónica Tamacas shared that Banco Atlántida found coaching to be an effective solution for adapting positively, delivering more personalized employee experiences, and supporting professional development.

The institution made coaching programs available to employees who wanted to work through personal barriers and improvement areas. Previously, they offered more standardized programs and workshops, but this new approach enabled something different: emotional support for employees, aligned with the importance of viewing well-being holistically.

This allowed the bank to support people in a far more personalized way, helping them advance their careers while simultaneously increasing organizational agility.

These strategies are becoming increasingly relevant in a world where, according to Microsoft’s global Work Trend Index, 76% of employees say they would stay longer at a company if they received stronger support for training and development.

Building Community and Identity

One of the primary reasons for today’s high employee turnover is, according to Harvard Business Review, that hybrid and remote employees tend to have fewer friendships at work, resulting in weaker social and emotional connections with colleagues.

Mónica explained how her institution adapted to these changes by developing community-building strategies. After implementing hybrid and remote work models, they discovered that some employees felt isolated and believed they were not receiving enough feedback.

There was also concern that remote work could weaken employees’ sense of belonging and make it more difficult for new hires to integrate into the organization.

As a result, Banco Atlántida implemented both in-person and virtual workshops focused on mental health and soft skills development. Thanks to these initiatives, organizational climate surveys showed a sense of belonging score above 95%.

The institution adopted remote and hybrid work indefinitely and continued implementing these workshops to reduce feelings of isolation and strengthen bonds among employees.

Change as the Only Constant in the Labor Market

Adaptation is essential to revolutionizing Employee Experience. Financial institutions that embrace this mindset and focus their efforts on understanding and meeting the changing demands of employees will be better prepared to thrive in a challenging and highly competitive work environment.

The ability to adapt will not only help attract and retain talent, but will also drive long-term growth and sustainable success for organizations in the future.

To learn more, download the whitepaper: “The End of Digital Transformation and the Beginning of the Era of Infinite Adaptation,” written by Chris Colbert, Former Managing Director of Harvard Innovation Labs and Chairman of the Board at Fintech Americas.

DOWNLOAD THE WHITEPAPER