Fit to compete: Accelerating digital workforce transformation in financial services

Explicitly articulate the business benefits you expect to achieve through your digital upskilling investments. For many firms, the primary goal is to optimise the value of these investments by equipping the workforce with the skills needed to effectively engage with and apply digital tools.

The narrative about the purpose and efforts of your transformation is critical to its success. Employees need to feel that they are part of the journey. The story needs to be communicated in a way that reaches people throughout the organisation and gives them a chance to take it to heart.

Most firms select a limited segment of the workforce to pilot digital upskilling initiatives. This agile approach is wise, as it allows for the dynamic revision of the digital workforce strategy over time.

The digital upskilling programme should not exist in a silo. It is critical, in other words, to connect the effort with existing learning and development and talent programmes across the organisation. Your upskilling effort is not a panacea; it must be closely involved with how you reward and recognise people, how you manage their performance, how you mobilise people on agile programmes, how you on-board people, and how you move employees to new positions in an organisation. Alignment with, say, your recruiting functions, ways of approaching projects and internal mobility programmes will further reinforce the organisational commitment to digital transformation and help drive employee participation.

Launching a successful programme can prove challenging, and obstacles will inevitably arise. Look in advance at the concerns people may have, and at other possible unintended consequences of your efforts. Put in place thoughtful contingency plans so that you can deal with these ‘side effects’ and challenges in a timely way when necessary.

Particularly in organisations that have experienced change fatigue, there is a risk that employees will perceive digital upskilling as a fad that will soon pass. To mitigate this possibility, the digital workforce strategy must extend far beyond learning and development techniques, and influence culture and ways of working. Put simply, digital curiosity must become part of the firm’s DNA.