1. © 2015 Clarity Advantage Corporation. All rights reserved. www.clarityadvantage.com
Within five years, bank employees at the larger banks and,
perhaps, most community banks will learn the knowledge,
processes, and skills in very different ways than they do now.
The future ecosystem may be only vaguely recognizable as a
successor to the current models that are, still, largely based
on models developed in the late 19th century.
This shift will happen because of changes in the definition
of work and jobs, economics, learning styles, education
philosophies, intranet and Internet bandwidth, software, and
client needs.
The content and extent of training will change and,
in many cases, diminish.
Somewhere on the planet, a banker sits down at her computer to prepare for a
conversation with a business-owner client who was NOT able to serve herself by using
cloud software from any number of non-bank or bank service providers. After typing
the client’s name into her artificial intelligence-based software, the banker waits a few
minutes. Her printer then spits out an analysis of the client’s business and personal
financial statements; a set of projections based on Monte Carlo simulation; an assessment
of the client’s recent business and personal expenditures; an updated version of the
client’s personal financial plan reflecting changes in the client’s industry, the economy, and
Clarity Advantage Corporation
28B Junction Square Drive
P.O. Box 1429
Concord, MA 01742-1429
978-369-4755
www.clarityadvantage.com
A View of The Future of
Training In Banking
Nick Miller, President
Clarity Advantage Corporation
September 2015
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2. © 2015 Clarity Advantage Corporation. All rights reserved. www.clarityadvantage.com
financial markets; a recommendation for changes in the client’s business and personal banking
and investments; and a call plan including recommended discussion points, questions to ask,
preliminary recommendations, and the reasons for the recommendations.
During the call, as she takes notes on her tablet, the bank’s
software provides suggested questions to ask, prompts,
warnings, suggestions for action or thought, and updated
product and service recommendations that reflect the new
information received during the discussion.
When the client asks a question about a particularly difficult
issue, the banker shares her tablet with her client, starts a video
that explains the issue, then connects the client with live two-
way video to an expert in the bank’s Business Service Center for
additional discussion.
This scenario (all based on existing or close-to-market products) raises a number of questions
including:
• What skills, capabilities, and knowledge does this banker need to perform well in her job (as in,
which does she need and which will the software and performance support tools provide to her)?
• How best to help the banker develop the skills and knowledge that she needs to complement the
software she’s using?
• Would the answers be different for bankers serving mass market consumer and small business
clients and bankers serving middle market or large corporate clients?
During the next five to seven years, sophisticated software will perform the work described
above and more; bankers’ roles will become, increasingly, “schmooze at the front end” and “guide
fulfillment at the back end.” Software will analyze clients and markets, guide conversations,
recommend appropriate solutions, initiate product fulfillment, and check on client progress.
Bankers will need to learn far less about many of the topics on which they are trained now. This
will be true for all lines of business in commercial banks, no exceptions. The question will be – how
quickly.
The delivery of training will shift more toward “when needed” –
just in time, just enough, just for me, integrated with work tasks.
Just as many of us have become accustomed to learning what we need when we need it,
frequently through apps on our phones or tablets or “short courses” on line (think Kahn Academy,
for example), so the delivery of training will change. Increasingly, bank employees will follow
‘learning paths’ or ‘certification paths’ that prescribe combinations of learning, practice, and
application experience. They will participate in training experienced electronically at prescribed
points in those paths. These will be integrated with performance of job tasks.
While the argument about “is in-person training better?” will continue, the “blend” in “blended
learning” will continue to shift toward “learning remotely.” Through currently available software
and computer-mediated learning, bank staff will learn, practice, and master skills ranging from
completing teller transactions to sales conversations. In many cases or most cases, they will learn
better and faster because of the software – less wasted time, customized remediation, accurate
assessment of progress.
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3. © 2015 Clarity Advantage Corporation. All rights reserved. www.clarityadvantage.com
The need for coaching or facilitation will increase.
That said, bank executives will become significantly more concerned about and focused on
employee development, largely driven by regulatory oversight – regulators will increasingly require
that banks demonstrate their employees have mastered the personal skills and software utilization
skills that are required for their jobs. These requirements will drive an increase in facilitation and
coaching and increased attention to assessment and certification.
I once designed and built an 80-hour self-study course for bankers through which they learned
to analyze credit and structure commercial loans. [Yes . . . 80 hours, not 8 hours or .8 hours!]
While that commitment of time is almost unthinkable today, we learned one very important
lesson that will carry forward with renewed
importance: Self-study for sophisticated or
“more than 8 minutes of learning” modules or
courses MUST be supported by either human or
machine intervention at prescribed points to keep
the learners moving forward and to help them
process and master their learnings
Thus, at prescribed points in their learning paths,
bankers will meet individually or in small groups,
remotely (in cloud-based meeting rooms), with
other learners and facilitators who will hold them
accountable for completing the assigned learning
activities and lead them through discussions and
practice activities.
First-level supervisors will step up their games to coach performers in real time to apply their
training and make sense of their job experience on their ways to mastering their craft.
Where human interaction isn’t needed or is too expensive, learning will be supported by additional
software that will, on a prescribed schedule based in the neuroscience of learning, pose questions,
problems to solve, or other activities that help move learning from short term memory to long
term and from awkward beginnings to mastery.
Third party-provided programs will increase in importance . . .
again
These changes will drive dramatic consolidation in the training industry. Sophisticated
performance support software and learning software is complicated and expensive to develop
and maintain. 85% of bankers jobs are the same, regardless of the bank they work for. Thus, it’s
likely that third parties (e.g. industry organizations like the BAI, for profit or non-profit education
institutions, large private software or training companies) will provide (almost like a utility) the
performance support software, learning tools, and training focused on the 85% “core” elements
that all bankers will need for their jobs.
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4. © 2015 Clarity Advantage Corporation. All rights reserved. www.clarityadvantage.com
Smaller companies or bank learning and development departments will likely develop, deliver,
and maintain the bank-specific or problem-specific learning that addresses the remaining 15% of
bankers’ jobs and specific performance improvement or initiative-based training or learning needs.
Learning Transferability Will Go Up
Certification will become universally expected and, just as in higher education, transferrable
from institution to institution. Credit for “life experience” and “certification by one of the major
providers” will transfer easily from one bank to another, thus increasing the liquidity of the banking
labor market and banks’ abilities to manage variable staffing models.
How Much, How Fast?
The time frame for these changes? One can see leading tendrils of each change in industry and
academic settings; the banking industry is, already, adopting performance support software and
cloud-based learning for skills ranging from simple transactions to complex conversations. The
direction is clear. The timing for individual banking institutions may vary from three years to ten
years. A significant shift will be visible within five years.
Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage, helping banks and credit unions manage and train
their associates to attract and generate more profitable relationships, faster, with owner-managed
businesses, their owners, and employees.
He can be reached at 978-369-4755 or at nickmiller@clarityadvantage.com
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