Upskilling in action at Canadian banks

Canadian banks are making significant investments to help their workforces transform. While many have focused on investing in training programs to upskill their workforces on technical and human skills, we’ve also seen Canadian banks embrace other aspects of the upskilling journey, such as internal exchanges or job rotations that offer employees opportunities to develop and apply what they’ve learned and gain exposure to different areas of the organization.

Besides formal programs, some Canadian banks are transforming workspaces to build more innovative cultures by creating more open-concept, flexible and collaborative environments. Many have invested in cloud-based productivity tools that help employees collaborate and promote flexibility and opportunities to work virtually.

Citizen-led innovation in the finance function

While Canada’s banking industry has been proactive in introducing upskilling programs, we’ve also seen examples of leading practices by banks elsewhere in the world. An interesting example of citizen-led innovation comes from a major global bank that has been transforming its finance function.

The goal was to harness the power of employee-led innovation by rolling out a program to empower employees to apply new digital tools in their day-to-day work. To achieve this, the bank started small, working with about 100 people in the controller’s area of the finance function and identifying select use cases.

By analyzing end-to-end processes and identifying key manual processes and pain points, more than 150 use cases were identified and a business case was created for those offering the greatest opportunity.

Seeing the benefits and efficiencies from the initial use cases in the controller’s area of the finance function, senior financial leadership explored ways to scale the program and increase the impact. The business is setting up the infrastructure needed to standardize the approach to employee-led innovation by creating a standard set of tools and updating governance practices and program management.

The bank is also empowering employees through training on key data analytics skills and automation software and is supporting the program through proactive communication, visible leadership support, gamification and incentives to inspire people to contribute their own ideas.