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Financial institutions are setting up successful strategies to survive VUCA.
In an environment that is filled with VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) tendencies, financial services is often one of the most heavily affected industries. Strategic planning becomes increasingly difficult with each additional element of uncertainty and unpredictability within the market. Managing the neverending changes the industry faces can be quite daunting for financial institutions, but they can do it if the right tools and processes are in place.
Employee development
Before even considering taking on the top unique challenges the industry sees, financial institutions must ensure that their employee development strategy is sound. Without it, there is no base from which the companies can work. The basic developmental needs within finance aren't too dissimilar from other industries.
Monica Goodale, assistant vice president of L&D at a midsize workers' compensation insurance company, places a strong emphasis on establishing a clear curriculum of core competencies: "Even if somebody didn't have a great school experience, using the words like curriculum and core topics and electives, people get it right away." And that buy-in is important.
Establishing a positive attitude surrounding learning within the organization is crucial, especially in finance. Companies can't have employees going into a training program with an "Oh, corporate told me I need to do this" mindset. That type of reactive thought is precisely how VUCA takes down organizations. Workers must be able to think on their feet and understand what it takes to not only succeed under present conditions but roll with the punches that will inevitably come their way.
Although her company has a particularly strong learning culture, Goodale believes that this should apply more broadly across industries. "Everybody's an academic at heart," she says. And rightfully so; workplace success derives from the ability to learn and adapt.
Even though the finance industry is so fluid and there's a seemingly endless net of material to learn, there must be some form of curriculum. In Goodale's view, companies must understand that they'll have to teach some things across the board and also that all employees need to own their individual development.
That's not to say that there can't be some degree of deviation from core content. For example, Dacotah Bank will roll...