Digital banking technology is still poised to shake up the financial services industry. Banks that go digital not only reduce costs, but also improve the overall experience by creating more opportunities for engagement – both for customers and employees. Briony Richter speaks to Tao Baker, digital and strategy director at Arora
Banks have long relied on legacy systems to push out products and services that meet customers’ needs, but often do not go far enough.
Go deeper with GlobalData
By moving into digital ecosystems beyond the traditional core, banks are able to strengthen their engagement with customers, and drive innovation across all levels within their organisations.
Tao Baker focuses on global digital transformation across the financial services industry, and helps banks to create strategies that will enable them to be competitive and inclusive across all channels.
Speaking to RBI about how to create a healthy environment, Baker outlines her main focus points. “For a successful future, these would be my top three: first, commitment to employing skilled, successful women in senior leadership roles; second, a strong focus on ensuring that current and future leaders are skilled and have the right training to lead staff, inspire people and be successful managers; and third, commitment to focusing on staff and customers. Organising the company so that it is customer-centric and creating an environment for staff to develop and love the brand they work for.”
Innovation from banks has to start from within the organisation. That includes strategic training and making sure employees are encouraged to take courses, while also ensuring that the right people are hired to senior roles.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData“Banks need to really focus, look internally and acknowledge the current skills gap that exists today, especially in senior leadership roles. All too often, hiring managers in senior roles are threatened by more experienced, intelligent hires that have a strong reputation of success,” Baker states.
“Banks need strong, skilled HR directors to challenge the hiring process and disrupt the comfort zone of senior hiring managers to bring in the skills needed to transform organisations. This quote says it all: ‘If you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.’”
As well as challenging the status quo within the hiring process, banks also need to work hard on improving and digitising their infrastructure. Legacy systems continue to make it difficult for banks to keep up with the speed and flexibility that digital challengers can achieve.
Dynamic environment
Innovation is a baseline expectation for all organisations, and this is especially true for the financial industry.
That being said, it is something that banks can often struggle to achieve. Baker highlights that to create a successful workforce, the industry must put more effort into training.
“Training is critical, not from just a regulatory perspective but to ensure that employees are able to adapt to change, transformation and moving the organisation forward in a digital-first mindset. Most senior leaders and managers don’t keep their skills up to date with the industry and global best practice. Lack of training will impact any bank negatively.”
The financial industry is definitely moving forward with the times; there is, however, still much room for improvement. Baker is also a keynote speaker, and discusses topics such as the environment and women in the financial industry. Looking ahead, she notes that there remains a lot to do to achieve gender equality.
“The industry is getting slightly better; however, they are not transparent enough around the hiring of female staff and are very far from achieving true gender equality. In the UK, some companies in the financial sector have hired female staff from the US. The UK and EU have a lot of smart and extremely capable female staff; there should be absolutely no reason to look outside the UK and EU,” Baker notes.
“Banks that have employed female leaders from the US are increasing costs with travel and the carbon footprint. There should be significant repercussions to these companies who have done this. Top MBA schools in the UK have outstanding female talent; however, the finance sector never goes to these institutions to actively recruit them. Companies should voluntarily publish the number of senior female leaders to the market and the countries from where they have hired these female leaders.”
She concludes: “Global banks that have recently made hiring females a priority are also not hiring the right-quality candidates.
“Again, it’s a massive rush to demonstrate gender equality while missing out on key fundamentals like having the right experience or skill set for the role, and hiring high-performing candidates at the top of their field – energetic individuals who are ready to make a difference in the finance industry.”
