How will employee engagement power successful digital banking transformation?

Financial services providers are actively leveraging advanced technologies to drive digital transformation. Last year has seen the development of numerous digital banking methods as the COVID-19 pandemic propelled a no-touch environment. Many banks and fintech companies brought new ideas to facilitate effective banking services, leading to digital banking transformation. It significantly allows customers to access financial services digitally. Besides improving the customer experience, digital banking transformation fosters employee productivity.

As digital transformation entails the shift to offering online services, many banks face challenges when making digital endeavors. Involving every individual within an organization will evidently define the success of the transformation. "Employees can be either the greatest inhibitors or the greatest enablers of transformation success," according to MIT Sloan Management Review. This statement profoundly indicates that engaging employees is of utmost importance in the digital banking transformation. They can look at different ways to solve challenges, redevise product offerings, and use data analytics solutions to personalize the customer journey while fuelling digital engagement.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Digital Banking Transformation

Digital banking transformation is the fusion of data, advanced analytics and technology into all areas of a financial institution. This has the potential to change the way work is done, priorities are set and services are delivered. According to McKinsey, the shift towards digital platforms in banking is likely to surge, transforming the way traditional banks engage with customers and creating several new banking options.

One of the key requirements for digital change and transformation is employee engagement. Financial institutions must enable and empower the workforce to engage wholeheartedly with the transformation programme. This will essentially contribute to digital business transformation success.

Understanding the importance of internal people in digital transformation with some examples.

Researchers at Harvard Business School found that employee engagement was the key to driving customer satisfaction and hence market success. They unveiled that if employee engagement drove a 5 percent increase in customer loyalty, it could bolster profits in the company by as much as 25 percent.

Rutgers University's Center for Human Resources Strategy revealed that businesses with highly engaged workforces were on average 3.4x more effective financially in terms of sales and revenue growth.

The above instances demonstrate that digital transformation in banking will not happen until the successful engagement of employees and millennials.

Creating a Digital Customer Journey

Fundamentally, creating a digital customer journey means integrating everything into a single online and digital platform, so that customers can be handled through the same tools and with the same information throughout the process. Understanding what customers want and need rely on firms' technology infrastructure and back-office functions with online systems that have enabled customer access.

Digital banking transformation efforts can vary widely based on an organization's business objectives, target audience, digital maturity and culture. But what would be common in this whole scenario is the engagement of employees and other internal people. So, when it comes to bringing digitization within banking, financial institutions should set their paths toward becoming more client-centric, more tech-savvy and more inclusive, all with effective employee engagement.