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To reap the most out of their digital banking solution, savvy banks and credit unions are approaching the solution from the inside out, treating the employee user experience (UX) as strategically as the account holder UX. This holistic approach not only improves employee satisfaction, making it easier to attract and retain great employees, but also ultimately trickles down to positively impact the account holder experience as well—a win-win proposition.
The employee experience is of particular interest these days as frustrations with technology and legacy banking systems continue to negatively impact employee turnover, a mounting concern in today’s tight labor market. In fact, according to The Financial Brand, two-thirds of financial institutions (FIs) consider talent a top concern with 40 percent of digital banking decision makers expressing employee turnover as their institution’s greatest risk over the next 18 months.
The good news is, millennials want to work for FIs, as revealed in our survey with The Center for Generational Kinetics. The study shows that 66% of Millennials think that working at a bank or credit union is a smart career move. This is promising news, yet the key to attracting and keeping them is the ability to offer a better employee experience.
Getting it Right
One community bank that is getting the employee experience right is STAR Financial Bank out of Indianapolis, Indiana. With the goal of attracting and retaining high-potential employees, STAR Bank has incorporated the employee experience into its strategic plan. “We see a direct tie between our employee experience and our customer experience,” said Brian Avery, chief technology officer at STAR Bank. “We believe if you give your front-line bankers better tools to manage the customer experience, it will not only empower them as employees but also position them to provide an excellent customer experience.”
Fueling this employee and account holder satisfaction, the benefits of automating processes are plentiful, including: freeing up time to upskill and convert team members so they can focus on projects driving more value; Reducing manual processes and repetitive tasks thereby mitigating errors and speeding up process time; and driving scalability. Bottomline is digital banking is a catalyst that can help FIs scale and grow while deepening relationships with both employees and account holders.
Three Steps for Success
FIs can utilize these three steps when designing new platform processes to ensure they are optimized for automation.
1. Identify the problem you are trying to solve – Specifically consider revenue generating opportunities and things that will help to minimize risk. Some common tasks that come up include wire processing, new user onboarding and ongoing business maintenance.
2. Immerse your team in that environment – Focus on and understand the pain points of these areas. This allows you to think about the problem and solution differently. Be open to new ways to approach the issue.
3. Question if there is a problem before you automate it – Automating a bad process is still a bad process. Confirm it is a practice that should still exist and then look for ways to enhance it.
Best Practices for Maximum Impact
If you are ready to enhance your employee experience, start with ensuring your digital banking solution is up to the task. STAR Bank’s Avery offers the following advice for effectively evaluating a digital banking solution:
- Look at the infrastructure – How reliable is the platform? How will service continue if a problem arises? Be sure to talk through the technical stuff. Get your infrastructure team in early to kick the tires and challenge the provider. Be sure they are willing and able to accept challenges.
- Examine the platform’s roadmap – And, as important, their history of implementing that plan.
- Look for a partnership – Evaluate their culture and make sure it aligns with yours. Do a site visit to confirm what they say matches what you see. You want someone who is passionate about what they do and the solution they bring to the table.
- Empower your front-line staff – Make conversations around employee experience a priority. Make it a part of your strategic plan. Engage employees of all levels in the process as a sounding board, whether as formal feedback groups or workshops. Then, be sure to celebrate success. This will create a perpetual cycle that leads to happy employees, and ultimately, happy account holders.
At the end of the day, people–both account holders and employees—are your most valuable resource. Leverage your digital banking solution to care for them and improve the UX for everyone.
To learn more, tune in to our on-demand webinar on why employee experience matters in digital banking.
