Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on April 20, 2022
TD Bank’s Head of U.S. Contact Centers is building a culture of financial well-being through empowered colleague development.
By Paul Bajus, Head of U.S. Contact Centers – TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, Executive Lead, Veterans Pillar – TD’s D&I Program
With inflation hitting 40-year highs and more pressure on our wallets now than even experienced during the Great Recession of 2008, financial well-being remains a popular, and an unfortunately often stressful, topic for many Americans – a quick internet search easily confirms that.
As a people leader, what remains most striking to me is the direct relationship between strong financial well-being and employee productivity and moral – and that’s no secret either. A report compiled by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that 81% of American workers admit that financial problems have impacted their productivity while 39% spend at least three hours each week either thinking about or dealing with financial problems at work.
So, it’s more than obvious: businesses must do their part to provide tangible, approachable ways to learn and hone sound financial tactics and habits so employees can feel more secure in their financial future. After all, less stressed employees are happier, more productive employees and that inevitability makes for happier customers.
When I arrived at TD nearly two years ago to lead the more than 2,400 talented, passionate colleagues of the bank’s U.S. contact centers, I was keenly focused on not only driving business results and building a strong team, but ensuring we were doing everything possible to help our colleagues grow holistically in ways that mattered to them.
It’s a mindset I’ve kept throughout my professional career: Developing others is a passion and leading them is a privilege. Service-based leadership is a professional trait I’ve always considered vital to the overall success of any team, and as such I firmly believe I have a responsibility to enrich the lives of every colleague I serve, not only to help them be the best they can be for our customers, but for their own personal growth and development.
If I can have a positive influence on my team’s lives – whether it’s their professional development or their personal financial well-being – it has a lasting, positive impact for the business, but most importantly our on our colleagues, and that is a culture any leader should want to build and grow.
PwC’s most recent Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 59% of employees said financial matters caused them more stress than any other life stressor – including job, relationships and health concerns combined – while an ING study revealed 72% of employees experience decreased financial stress after enrolling in their employer-based financial wellness program. These insights were all the confirmation I needed to move forward with developing a customized program specifically for our contact center team.
Thankfully, TD’s comprehensive Total Rewards program has a multitude of resources, tools and training available to all TD colleagues, so the contact center training team and I were able to streamline the experience for interested contact center colleagues by providing specific direction to resources without diluting the impact. We spent a lot of time refining our approach, so what we are offering our colleagues makes sense for our time-constrained contact center environment.
Once we finalized the structure and timing of the program, we dove into ensuring curriculum not only helped our colleagues learn about the basics of financial well-being but also gave them the ability to apply their personal financial situations to what they were learning. Based on that, we identified six foundational elements of financial well-being:
Each quarter kicks off with a team meeting on an educational topic and overview of what to expect for additional activities throughout the quarter. Since financial well-being is such a personal topic, we wanted to ensure we build in time not only for team learning and collaboration but also for self-paced activities that are tailored to their personal situation. Each quarter looks a little different depending on the topic, but all include various elements of learning and engagement, including team meetings, self-paced eLearning, seminars, “Ask the Experts” sessions, goal setting and self-reflection time for a total of 20 hours.
Of course, we are well aware there is no “one size fits all” approach to financial well-being. So, it was equally important for us to have the biggest impact for our diverse group, allowing contact center colleagues to choose from specific “paths” or focus areas:
The program launched a little over a month ago and we’ve already received positive feedback from those participating. I am most excited to see how the program continues to evolve over time because developing a comprehensive program that continues to meet the needs our team is one of the most critical components of our effort.
Above all, our continued, meaningful investment in our colleagues that empowers them to invest in their financial future now, will no doubt pay us a valuable return in terms of the same passion and level of service they put into supporting our customers.
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