The pandemic has forced businesses to alter the way they conduct operations. It had the same effect on banks also that had to reskill employees because they had no other option when the customers were not willing to come in person. The banks also can’t afford to fire redundant employees because their operations need individuals with integrity. The banking employees have to be hired after rigorous criminal checks, due to which frequent hiring is not possible. Apart from that, employees are hired after testing them for mathematical aptitude and English comprehension skills.

Hence, banks have to reskill such employees by keeping a close watch on the changing trends. You can conduct tests with employees to know the skill gaps required for fulfilling crucial business goals.

Banks also have to check whether the training program they are looking to implement matches the needs of the trainees, whether they want a hybrid or an online solution.

An online banking training program is of two types, one of which is related to banking operations such as handling checks, checking whether the currency or the check submitted for deposits is counterfeit or not.

The second category of such programs includes elucidating on the business etiquette and the latest regulatory compliance rules.

Why is a banking training program required?

• Lack of employees:

The training of employees can be done with employees from other departments, for example; customer service representatives(CSR) can be trained with the Operations employees so that the former can enhance their knowledge of banking services. The latter can improve their communication skills and hence can deal with customers when there is a shortage of CSR.

• Training freshers with different educational backgrounds:

Banks need to have scalable training content, too, which can be provided to a larger number of employees when the need emerges. Hence, they should have training resources for online mode also when the new employees can’t attend training physically.

The training content should be reusable so that changes can be made to it as per the modifications in compliance laws. The main problem before taking up a banking training program is that it needs to be specific. There have to be different programs for new and old employees, where the former need onboarding but the latter need upskilling for better roles. Hence, the challenge lies with the e-learning companies USA, who have to prepare training material as per employees.

Onboarding is also tougher for freshers who have the relevant degrees but don’t know the exact duties of their job role. In India, a banking training program is a must because the graduates in different streams are hired. Thus, such programs teach the fundamentals of banking to non-commerce graduates and about the proprietary banking software to those who are not accustomed to working with IT.

The employees can be taught about the banking infrastructure, which can make them work better. So recruits can be taken through simulations where they can be shown how banking employees work in conjunction with each other to make things happen.

A banking training program is also vital for employees because when there is a hike in demand for services, they can easily adapt to different roles. It’s because a banking training program teaches graduate freshers different skills including business, communication, and software skills.

Divisional training is also part of a banking program because new employees might be working in different departments of the bank such as commercial banking and investment banking etc.

• Training employees for quality and not quantity :

Banks also have to check whether the employees are performing reliably and are not committing mistakes due to the pressure of working at speed. This can cause a lot of problems for the bank because any unintentional error with the customers’ money can cause them to pay for damages and lose customer credibility. Hence, even if employees are doing their work at a pace, they should be trained to double-check their data entries before pressing the “SUBMIT” Button.

It’s better that the repetitive tasks should be delegated to AI-based software, since the employees can commit mistakes if working quickly.

AI is also helping banks to carry out the tasks of record-keeping efficiently. Banking employees are also faced with lesser work due to the implementation of AI. They can put their attention into creative tasks, such as suggesting ways to customers to save profitably.

How can banks make employees imbibe knowledge from such programs?

Banks have to ensure that the employees attend such programs, which can happen when it’s a must for staying hired. However, employees also have to be rewarded for learning from these programs by introducing metrics to measure an employee’s learning. Whenever an employee scores the highest marks on a quiz, it can be informed to everyone else in the organization.

Every quiz should have a level attached to it. But these quizzes must be related to credit-based courses, such as teaching employees about how to handle loan requests based on a borrowers’ credibility assessed from his tax return and other financial statements, etc.

There can be different such courses for banking employees who make decisions to lend to high worth borrowers and conventional borrowers, such as those for home loans etc. Evaluating the creditworthiness of borrowers is important because any loan default means a loss for the bank. Hence, the documents such as tax returns need to be checked whether a borrower has enough salaried and non-salaried incomes for the requested loan amount.

A banking training program also helps employees in judging that if the collateral is getting used for securing the loan, is it enough to recover the dues in the situation of non-repayment.

Hence, a banking training program ensures that employees in such decision-making roles have proper job aids. When employees have completed a banking training program, they also have a scope for career progression in the same bank.