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Making the workplace workfor banks and insurers
Research finds that transformed workplaces canincrease revenue by 16% and reduce costs by 13%.

Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

The workplace
is a source ofsustainable value
For banks and insurers, the workplace
has traditionally been seen as acost center. A place to maximize
transactional efficiency and reduce cost.
Employee experience (EX) is rarely
baked into workplace initiatives, yet theworkplace is where you can differentiate.
Our research into transformation drivers for banks
found EX at the bottom of the list – 20% compared
to 41% for the top drivers of greater innovation andstaying ahead of new entrants. The workplace is asource of sustainable value that most financial services
companies have yet to fully leverage.

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Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

What does good
WX look like?

Transform banking and insurance with WX

A positive Workplace Experience (WX) needs
three building blocks to take place:•Culture: Employees need to feel empowered
and motivated to make changes to the way
work is done.

•Operations: Management needs to keepprocesses and systems simple and easy to use,so they enhance employees’ ability to deliver
great customer service.

•Technology: Modern platforms and tools need
to be in place to allow you to scale up quickly
and cost-effectively.

The right workplace environment requires all
three plates to be spinning at once. Focusing onjust one element will not create the right workplaceenvironment. You need a holistic approach.
For example, you may motivate people by reskillingthem in areas such as AI or analytics. But if theprocesses are still complex, the new tools have notbeen integrated into existing systems or your culture
does not reward those who take time to reskill, thenthe impact of the investment will be limited and thecustomer experience (CX) will decline.

Reimagined
culture andemployeeexperience

Modernizedtechnology
ecosystem

Technology, security
and approaches
sustainably modernized

Reimagine culture andre-engineer end-to-end EX sothat it has parity with CX

Transformed
business
operations

Rewire the operating modeland physical work spaces toreflect the future of work2

Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

You can’t go it aloneThis means that IT, HR and the business divisions need to work together to make this happen. Working in silos will
not do. IT needs to advise the business on how technology will drive benefits; HR needs to engage and motivate
people to improve productivity; and divisional/line of business heads (e.g. retail banking, general insurance) haveto simplify operations to deliver integrated CX.

1. Which roles would your organization prioritize when
undertaking a workplace transformation initiative?
Responses to ‘HR role’Average

The good news is that most CIOs have positive relationships with the business divisions and a strong businessmindset that sees technology as a key enabler of performance. However, HR has often been the missing pieceand is rarely brought into major transformational projects, despite their input being critical, especially aroundworkplace issues.
Our recent research1 into WX for retailbanks and general insurers suggests thismay be changing:

••

1

•

When asked who should lead WX transformation,
respondents agreed that a board member should
lead a cross-functional group of business, IT andHR execs (cited by 42%).
Only 21% thought IT should work
independently with no other functional leads
involved. However, those who thought IT should
work with HR and business leads increased
from 12% (current situation) to almost 20%(what execs would like to see). This was thehighest increase of all the sectors covered,including retail, manufacturing, consumer goods,energy, utilities and chemicals.

•HR want to be involved in transformational workand are happy to work with IT and the business– almost half of HR respondents (47%)
in financial services thought their roles should
be prioritized when considering a workplacetransformation initiative. This was the highest
response across all sectors covered(industry average was 38%). (Graph 1)

38%

Retail banking/general insurance

47%

Other commercial sectors
Resources
Consumer Packaged Goods
Industrial manufacturing
Retail0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

2. What are the priority areas that employee experiencetransformation is focusing on in your organization?
Responses to ‘Adoption of new workplace technology’

72% of HR respondents said that adopting
new workplace technology was the top priority
in transforming EX – the highest across allsectors (industry average was 63%). (Graph 2)

Average

63%

Retail banking/general insurance

72%

Other commercial sectors
Resources

To successfully develop a great WX, it’s clear aholistic approach is needed. It’s also clear that HR
input is essential to such transformation work –and they want to help.

Consumer Packaged Goods
Industrial manufacturing
Retail0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

See Methodology section at the end of the report for more details

3Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

The benefits are significant
According to our research, senior banking andinsurance executives estimate that workplacetransformation has the potential to increase
revenues by 16% and reduce costs by 13%.
MIT Center for Information Systems Research foundthat the top performers in this area doubled customer
satisfaction and the rate of innovation, as well asincreasing profitability by 26%.
We’ve seen the importance of a holistic approachwith our clients. For example, as part of its“A New World of Work” program, Raiffeisen BankInternational wanted to use technology migration
as the foundation for further digitization and acatalyst for a more innovative, collaborative wayof working. The migration was viewed as a change
management project, not a technology upgrade.
We worked closely with the bank’s change, HR andcommunications teams, enabling collaboration acrossnational borders around the globe – even withexternal partners and clients.

“Working together in an agile way and creating
flat hierarchies requires a different culture andnew policies. So, our focus was not only the newtechnology, but also change management,”
commented Wolfgang Hausner, the project manager.
Getting WX right is critical because it’s the foundationthat will enable your other agenda items – suchas a distinctive customer experience or increased
productivity – to be realized. In a workplace survey
one respondent commented: “Customer experience,analytics, commercial capabilities – there are so manypriorities. But the modern workplace should be seen
as an enabler to all of these priorities.”“Customer experience,analytics, commercialcapabilities – there are somany priorities. But themodern workplace should
be seen as an enabler toall of these priorities.”4

Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

According to our research,senior banking and insurance
executives estimate thatworkplace transformation has
the potential to increase
revenues by 16% andreduce costs by 13%.
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Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

The battlegroundfor talent
Good WX can help attract – and retain – top talent.
Banks and insurers are experiencing serious challenges,
given the competition from fintechs and insurtechs,
as well as the major tech firms, in acquiring and retaining
talented individuals. Consider the following findings fromour WX research:•••

When we looked at banks’ drivers for digitaltransformation, the usual themes emerged:
more innovation, better CX and keeping aheadof new entrants (39%-41%). EX was bottom of
the list (20%).
The good news is that bank and insurance
respondents agreed putting EX on a par with CX is
critical for recruitment competitiveness (87%)
and talent retention (92%). When asked if
employees felt empowered to make changes tothe way work is done, 79% agreed.
Banks and insurers agreed that talent acquisition(40%) and upskilling (37%) are major WX
transformation challenges.

What can you do about this?
Using modern collaboration tools and employee value propositions leads to faster innovation, improved productivity
and boosts employee satisfaction. It also helps break down silos within the business and drives cross-functional
activity. All these elements combine to develop a new way of working and a different culture.

For one global insurer, with over 112,000 staff
and agents, we created a workplace experience,
where employees can collaborate and workfrom anywhere. The client now has a single
consolidated employee productivity toolsetthat is accessible globally from any device. Ourchange management team trained the client’s
IT team to facilitate and expedite the adoptionof the new environment. This has reduced theadministrative burden and allows IT to create
differentiation for the business by spending moretime with employees and enhancing criticalfeatures such as security.

For a European bank, we helped create
an internal collaboration platform among its
100,000 employees. The vision was to improve
collaboration and facilitate open social
communities on specific topics and circumvent
hierarchical constraints. The bank now has aunique way to get closer to colleagues so they canshare their experience and solve businessissues – effectively ‘the wisdom of crowds.’
One employee commented: “Our collaboration
network is very precious because it allows us
to find answers to problems based on ourpeople’s competencies.”

The reality for banks and insurers is that their people
need to develop new skills, their best employees arebeing poached and that the best talent in the market
simply may not want to work for them.

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Workplace Experience Financial Services ResearchBanks and insurers agreed
that talent acquisition(40%) and upskilling(37%) are major WX
transformation challenges.

7Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

What next?

Here are three recommendations to get you started on developing great WX:
Be holistic in your approach:Emphasise benefits realization:

Manage stakeholders:•Build bridges: Work with IT, HR and line-ofbusiness leaders to form a coordinated unit.
The good news is that HR want to be involved.

•••

Work across functions: Develop a pragmatic
strategy, consult with delivery executives about
the implementation challenges, use all yourspecialist skills and experience – especiallyaround your use of physical workspace –and consider how you seamlessly integratetechnology with the working environment.

Drive ROI: Greater employee wellbeing andengagement will increase productivity, lower
cost and lead to business growth through asignificantly improved CX. The bottom-line
benefits will justify your WX programme.

Reflect diversity: Understand that thevarious groups needed for successful WX
transformation – IT, HR and line-of-businessleaders – have differing agendas. These need
to be managed together.

•Boost recruitment: Forward-thinking banks
use WX to generate differentiation in themarketplace, especially against fintechs andBig Tech. In a highly competitive job market,
this is a serious advantage.

•Employee focus: Invest in reskilling (e.g. AI,analytics) and make it easy for staff to use thenew workplace tools you provide.

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Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

Further information
Find out more about Avanade’s approach to developing
great WX for banks and insurers.
Our overall industry research findings can be found here.
Methodology
Avanade commissioned independent technology market research
specialist Vanson Bourne to undertake the research on which this reportis based. For the study, 1,375 senior decision-makers across 11 countries
were interviewed in summer 2019. 175 were banks and insurers.

Global research sample

Figure 1: Country breakdown
US and Canada

Figure 2: Industry breakdown
300

UK and Ireland

175

France150

Germany

150

Industrial manufacturing

178

Retail banking andgeneral insurance

175

Consumerpackaged goods

175

Netherlands

100

Resources

175

Italy

100

Retail173

Spain

100

Other commercial sector

Nordics

100Japan100

Australia

100499Figure 3: Functional role breakdown
HR decision-makers

278

Operations
decision-makers

276

IT decision-makers

274

Marketingdecision-makers

206

Service and support
decision-makers

204

Other*

137

The interviews were conducted using online
interviewing. All were undertaken using arigorous multilevel screening process toensure only suitable candidates were given
the opportunity to participate. Respondentcompanies have a global annual revenue
from $500 million to more than $50 billion,
have 3,000 or more employees and participate
in private industries only.

*including CEOs, CFOs and other board-level roles.

9Workplace Experience Financial Services Research

We can help transform your WX
Avanade can help you redefine the workplace as a creator of sustainable value. We transform culture, technology,experiences and operations to increase cost efficiency, productivity and growth. Our end-to-end approachcombines strategy, implementation and managed services, augmented by industry expertise, specialist tools and IP.
Visit www.avanade.com/WX to find out more.

North America

South America

Asia-PacificEuropeSeattle

Sao Paulo

Australia

LondonPhone +1 206 239 5600

AvanadeBrasil@avanade.com

Phone +61 2 9005 5900

Phone +44 0 20 7025 1000

AsiaPac@avanade.com

Europe@avanade.com

America@avanade.com

About Avanade
Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences on the Microsoft ecosystem.
Our professionals bring bold, fresh thinking combined with technology, business and industry expertise to help make a human impact on our clients,
their customers and their employees. We are the power behind the Accenture Microsoft Business Group, helping companies to engage customers,
empower employees, optimize operations and transform products, leveraging the Microsoft platform. Avanade has 38,000 professionals in 25countries, bringing clients our best thinking through a collaborative culture that honors diversity and reflects the communities in which we operate.
Majority owned by Accenture, Avanade was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation. Learn more at www.avanade.com©2020 Avanade Inc. All rights reserved. The Avanade name and logo are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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