Procedimientos

Current digital experiences

The digital transformation in private banks has been undertaken due to the high demand from the clients. They have developed an e-banking service and are able to track documents during the shipping process. The private banks are followers of trends concerning the technology and are not pioneers to explore new solutions. Therefore, their digital development is much less advanced than the big and foreign banks. Nevertheless, they are on the eve of an automation of repetitive procedures and which will especially impact the people occupying positions of the back office.

Yet, there are a lot of tasks that are still done without machines, as the contact with the customer is an important step. An account opening is very traditional - the client's signature is still needed compared to other banks where an online subscription is enough. Private banks are still far from saying that they no longer need the workforces, because they will be contacting the prospects, doing more complex tasks - like setting up a credit for a chalet - which require some reasoning that is still done by a human. Plus, private bankers offer extra services not related to the banking offers, such as booking hotel rooms for the whole family, sightseeing or even taking them to an art gallery. These services are considered as added-value activities. In short, private bankers are not much focused on becoming the banks of tomorrow. They would rather

keep their current status of being a traditional bank that customers have known for years and are perfectly satisfied with today's products and interaction without major change in work procedures.

Employee’s skills and knowledge

As private banks are less involved in the digital transformation, the skills and knowledge required are very standard. Not only due to their low digital involvement, but also as their client segment does not force them to enter those trends. Indeed, wealthy clients consider their banker not only as a third party managing funds, but rather as an associate or friend with whom they exchange more than just business matters. Therefore, excellent interpersonal skills and cultural knowledge are necessary for maintaining the relationships. In the office, employees should manage computer skills to navigate through large databases, such as Microsoft Package, Avaloq or PeopleSoft, which are basic management software. An employee must also have some abilities in prospecting, because the survival of private banks is mainly possible thanks to the transfers of new wealth. Coding or developing software are not important.

Banking jobs’ transformations

A dozen of new positions will appear in the information system fields, such as data analysts and developers to maintain the digital structures and ensure security. They also suggest that Community Managers will have an important role to play in making sure that their reputation is present on social networks.

In terms of jobs that will evolve, employees working in the back office will be put in front office to serve the clientele, because the competitive difference for this sector is focused on the service, including the quality and the speed. The other jobs are not expected to evolve further than a digital change in processes, again due to their low involvement in digital tools.

In terms of jobs being replaced, the opinions are unanimous. They do not think that current jobs will disappear in private banks since they remain fairly important for the clients to interact with. The repetitive tasks will be done in a computerized way and those in charge of these tasks will be assigned to other duties or will be redirected to other departments. As a result, the number of employees will not change as they prefer to keep their traditional business model.

Skills development programs

Their training programs are not as developed as the big and foreign banks due to the limited capital. The interviews revealed that their current programs are not oriented towards the digital transformation. Nevertheless, they have a training policy which allows their employees to pursue trainings externally to develop one skill or be certified. Even though, they do not offer specific programs linked with digital transformation, they do keep their associates updated on the latest news by organizing events where guest speakers are invited to debate on the subject. Thanks to their small infrastructure, the flow of information is easily passed across the network and an possible training on digitalization could be efficiently put in place in the future.

Other solutions proposed

Interviewees believe that people should be responsible, and banks have the means to warn them of what will happen and what is recommended to them by setting up trainings so that they can decide to start on their own. It is their responsibility to be effective and innovative. These considerations are probably made due to the limited capital for trainings. Private banks’ responsibility is to warn them that things evolve and tell them to "pay attention".

Banks’ and workforce’s future missions

As the range of clients is very wealthy, they tend to have many bank accounts in different types of banks. Therefore, big banks will be used to gain access to commodities and worldwide accessibility, but private banks will be used to keep the human aspect, the quality of the service, the speed and deal with procedures which are far less complex. Private banks do not have the same concerns as the big banks, thus digital tools will not really impact the jobs. The number of employees will remain the same and their role will not change either.