Employee and customer experiences are inherently connected. By working to improve the employee experience, 67% of the financial services leaders responding to an IDC “Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending” survey said their organization has achieved a large or significant — and measurable — impact on customer experience.

Yet hybrid work and remote work have complicated the delivery of seamless employee experiences. This is especially the case in the banking industry, where security and compliance have traditionally taken precedence over ease of access to data and applications.

In addition, banks are reeling from a talent shortage. “We’ve never faced more competition for talent, and [it is] particularly acute in the engineering, AI, data, mathematics, and coding space,” said Dave McKay, CEO of Royal Bank of Canada, in an interview with the Financial Post.

There’s also the reality that employee expectations have changed, with workers now wanting the same consumer-like experience offered by retailers such as Amazon or Best Buy. This will only become more urgent as digital-native generations enter the job market expecting tech-friendly workspaces without friction.

To accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s banking workforce, financial institutions must find ways to address these issues, lest they affect customers’ experiences — and thus revenues.

Deliver seamless, personalized, effective employee experiences

A digital experience management (DEM) approach optimizes employee experiences and reduces the burden on overstretched IT teams. It’s data-driven and understands the user journey.

“Rather than bucketing people by persona types, DEM allows us to take a personalized approach,” says Dennis Perpetua, CTO of Digital Workplace Services and distinguished engineer at Kyndryl. “It takes into account individual attributes, user behaviors, device telemetry, regulatory requirements, and more and then designs seamless, customized experiences for employees.”

A frontline bank worker, for example, has much different attributes, behaviors, and access requirements than a financial analyst, bank trader, or senior executive. Also, they each approach work in their own way. One may prefer to open multiple browser tabs to find information, another might want to work solely on their smartphone, and another individual may be inclined to turn off their virtual private network (VPN).

To better understand these attributes and behaviors, Kyndryl uses predictive capabilities and integrates automation, analytics, and cognitive intelligence such as natural-language processing (NLP) and virtual agents. Thus, Kyndryl can proactively identify issues that take up IT support time — or that never even make it into traditional support channels. These insights can be used to make iterative changes to optimize devices and user behaviors while not disrupting their workflows.

For example, a well-designed digital experience might uncover that a trade manager uses an old plug-in for stock price updates. DEM would proactively provide self-service support and guidance to change that risky behavior.

A DEM approach provides employee experiences that are:

• Tailored to individuals and their roles and behaviors
• Secure, with improved data loss prevention practices
• User-friendly, with accelerated access to the data and apps that employees require for improved productivity
• Continuously enhanced with telemetry data to optimize adoption of functionality and services

“We have worked with some of the largest banks as well as more boutique financial institutions, so we understand that each bank’s journey and goals are different,” Perpetua says. “We look at their digital maturity, how they’re applying regulatory policies and controls, and where they have points of friction, etc., and then we get granular into shaping the right employee experiences for them.”

To win the battle for talent and customers, banks need to focus first on developing engaged employees. That means giving them seamless digital workplace experiences that feel natural, personalized, and productive.

Discover how digital experience management can improve your organization’s bottom line. Get a 30-minute no-cost strategy session with a Kyndryl expert. Visit kyndryl.com/services/digital-workplace