How automation can help nurture employees in the banking industry

By Keelan Singh, Industry Practice Director at UiPath

Like many industries, banking can be demanding. Long hours, a competitive landscape, and rapid decision-making make it a challenging, but also a highly rewarding, career path. However, in an age where businesses are in a race for competitiveness to retain talent, organisations within the industry need to look at how they can best respond to a rapidly changing landscape.

The industry is incredibly broad. Encompassing, but not limited to, legacy banks, building societies, challenger and even retail banks, the sheer variety of challenges within these different settings is vast. There is common ground however, with one particular challenge plaguing each of these organisations; the high volume of repetitive tasks workers must complete on a daily basis.

Whether it’s loan processing, account closures, anti-money laundering, or even accounts payable, organisations need to look at innovative ways to reduce the repetitive, data-intensive tasks which are still being carried out by staff. This requires an adaptable technological solution which can free up worker time and improve their day-to-day roles, and that is exactly where software automation comes in.

Software automation in banking

Software automation isn’t a new solution to the banking industry. In fact, it is already in many banking organisations worldwide, working behind the scenes to improve customer service and increase operational efficiency. But, many are overlooking its potential to help support and nurture their employees even further.

It’s important to note that software automation isn’t a replacement for human teams, rather an accessory for them. By emulating human workers on the software they use within their jobs – such as ERP systems and MS Office – via a front-end interface, automation can perform rule-based, tasks, taking these repetitive and tedious tasks away from workers.

Interestingly, a staggering 43% of all work in financial services has the potential to be automated, which would give back vital time to employees, helping them avoid burnout, become more productive and, hopefully, happier in their roles.

Putting the employee first

There are many strings to the automation bow. An inherently customisable solution, it provides real potential for every team and can empower individual needs. For example, we are currently seeing significant use of automation at the back end, such as reconciliation and updating general ledgers, however, it can be especially empowering for customer-facing employees in call centres and retail branches also.

It’s undeniable how important human empathy is within customer interaction. When it comes to finances, customer-facing teams often have to deal with emotional and serious situations. In these cases, it is important employees can engage with the customer, create a rapport and have the right information on hand to swiftly solve issues. Having to sort through multiple siloed and legacy systems to find a solution is not only tedious but can result in poor customer service. Having a solution – such as automation – in place which can source masses of data within a few keystrokes can speed these interactions up and provide an overall better experience for both the customer and, just as vitally, the employee.

Expanding the use of automation to every area of the organisation is important in helping all employees feel equally supported and satisfied in their work. Personalised robot assistants are another way in which automation can assist, ensuring each team feels encouraged to put their energy into the heart of the job and can focus on what they want to be doing, rather than simply getting through admin work. KYC checking, client onboarding, replying to emails requesting information, and many more time-consuming tasks can easily be automated.

Empowering the workforce

With hundreds of IT systems in play at once, banks generally can’t afford to carry on the way they are – reliant on legacy IT systems which often aren’t compatible. This current setup creates a lot of repetitive work involving moving, transforming, and validating data, and often leads to attrition and frustration within teams.

Traditionally, there has been a widespread fear that automation will replace a large number of jobs, but this couldn’t be further from the case. In fact, automation is at its best when used to complement human workers and their skills, while also providing them the freedom and time to upskill and reskill in areas that can truly impact business growth.

Simply put, automation creates additional capacity for banks to further develop the skillset of their staff. This, in turn, boosts employee satisfaction and enables financial organisations to retain highly skilled talent while automation meets demands in other areas.

Profiting from automation

Due to the digital and rules-based nature of the tasks performed by bank workers, automation has presented a great opportunity for financial organisations to modernise their services into the digital age. In the industry, automation is already performing tedious work of thousands of people in many banks and expanding its use will be key for improving the employee experience and talent retention.

The simplicity of automation adds to its appeal. It is possible for one person to automate a simple process in as little as a few days, making it a disruptive delivery solution with transformative ROI and time to value.

Financial service organisations need to jump on this opportunity as a way to boost employee satisfaction sooner rather than later. By giving back precious time once spent on time consuming, data-heavy processes, employers can have a tangible impact on the employee experience and significantly improve the level of engagement of workers.