The banking industry is one of the most competitive and dynamic industries, associated with high risk and turnover. These characteristics are what make bank staff training crucial for success. A good learning environment may be the key to excelling among many obstacles and many competitors. It also creates a win-win situation, contributing both to the employee and the employer.

The success and failure of an organisation depends on the employees. When it comes to the benefits of training, improvement in an employee’s performance or knowledge is an indirect gain for the organisations as well. That is why the training of staff usually aims to develop the skills of an individual to fulfil the current and future needs of an organisation.

But what are the benefits of training employees in the banking industry? With years of expertise in the eLearning industry and employee development, we identified 5 benefits of bank staff training.

1. Higher Performance

Higher performance and increased productivity are always on top of the list of benefits. Employee training usually focuses on improving the essential knowledge needed to do the job. If your employees know what they are doing, their productivity will increase!

Research from all around the world reveals the positive effect of training on employee performance (i.e. Kumar and Siddika, “Benefits of Training and Development program on Employees’ Performance“; Agboola and colleagues, “Effects of Training and Career Development on Bank Employees’ Performance”).

This is perfectly reasonable considering that well-equipped employees often deliver the job, which leads to satisfied customers, which then leads to higher profit.

2. Decreased Turnover and Employee Retention

The times of long tenures for employees are long gone. Instead, there are more dynamic job markets with high turnover. One reason behind that is the changing characteristics of the workforce. With more millennials entering the job market, employees are now looking for challenge, recognition, and growth.

Employee retention in the banking industry, which should be a top priority for organisations, is becoming highly dependent on opportunities for learning and skill development. Career growth is a priority for many employees when choosing a job.

Constant learning brings excitement to employees’ careers and makes them more desirable in the market. elearningindustry.com suggests that employees who are ready and willing to adapt and grow within their company will not only feel recognized; they will want to stick around, too.

The bottom line is that if you are aiming to hire top talents and make them stay at your organisation, you must establish a learning culture within the organisation where they can blossom.

Let's consider the flipside – if your organisation is not retaining employees, it's simply losing revenue. Recent research suggests that employee retention is less costly than hiring new staff.

According to McKinsey’s research, reskilling is 20% more cost-effective than hiring new staff and this robust investment in people boosts organisations’ brand reputation by showing how valuable their employees are to them.

3. Easier onboarding

Despite the efforts of a company, sometimes turnover is inevitable, and therefore organisations are constantly looking for replacements. Hiring and onboarding new personnel are very important processes for new employees to feel welcomed, but this is often a tedious task for many banks. They usually offer an intensive introductory course that lasts for over six months.

However, these processes can be simplified with the correct tools. Easier onboarding is possible through a purposeful training design. As a result of a good onboarding experience, employee retention can increase by 50%, and productivity of the group by 62%, according to Harvard Business Review.

The secret is to know and apply the learning principles correctly, but there are platforms and software to give you just the right environment. Read this blog on compliance training in the finance sector to discover the essential features of an employee training program and the world of smart learning.

4. Better Decision-Makers

Bank employees must make daily critical decisions to stay compliant with Know Your Customer (KYC) or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. Can we say that well-trained personnel can make better decisions? Well, that is quite obvious, right?

Just by giving your staff the technical knowledge they need and thoroughly informing them about the company, you can help them make the right call at the right time.

That is not the case for every bank, but more and more banks are integrating leadership training into their learning environment. Moreover, Forbes recommends leadership training for all employees, not only for those in leadership roles, because leadership can be demonstrated throughout all levels of an organisation. The common understanding is that if employees are supported with leadership education, they usually become better decision-makers.

Adding leadership training to your environment is worth considering. It has many benefits such as managing change and uncertainty, improving communications, supporting personal initiative and proactiveness, and retaining employees.

5. Risk Mitigation

One of the biggest challenges for the banking sector is to adapt and stay relevant against the constantly evolving regulations, technologies, and customer needs. Thus, bank employees confront risk management, which may have severe consequences such as loss of reputation or even legal consequences.

Tycoon Story points out training as the most significant way to stay in the game – compete with many other competitors and avoid becoming obsolete.

If you have an adaptive training program for bank employees, you are one step ahead of others. Training keeps employees up to date with current developments in the industry and helps mitigate risks associated with change.