Change Management for Financial Services

We’re long passed the days where automation technology is the future of organisations — it’s happening now. Our client, a fast-growing financial services company, knows this better than most. 

Over a decade, this national organisation experienced remarkable organic growth and  had also acquired four smaller competitors. The rapid expansion swelled their workforce from 150 to approximately 550 employees and quickly positioned them in new markets. This growth was, in part, enabled by an incredibly strong focus on customer satisfaction and staff engagement.

However, like many organisations that experience rapid growth, their disparate internal systems and processes struggled to align and keep up. Thankfully, they were equipped with astute leadership, an investment-focused mindset, and a highly capable board, which placed them in an excellent position to take on large-scale change.

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Recognizing the need for change

Our client recognized the need for change due to the increasing complexity of their operations. When they were smaller, they were able to provide highly customized services to their clients, but as the business grew, manual customization became unsustainable. Aside from being extremely time-intensive, these customizations were — for the most part — not documented, which made them almost impossible to track, monitor, and manage and resulted in avoidable errors and reworking. Impacting the organisation and its customers.

The company wanted to standardise its approach, maintaining more limited customisation and enable for future scaling opportunities and efficiencies across its multiple entities. Leadership knew this was possible through new technologies that would improve speed, accuracy, and efficiency in this area — they just didn’t know how to do it.

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Engaging Rutherford HR

We were engaged to assist in the first steps of our client’s transformation to a tech enabled , efficient organisation that would generate continually improving customer outcomes. However an added ‘complication’ arose due to our clients focus on the engagement of their people. The project would replace ‘manual’ work with digital automation, however, our brief was to achieve the efficiency gain with no retrenchment of staff.

This approach had a significant, tactical benefit. With so much institutional knowledge held in the heads of those whose roles would substantially change, we needed the engagement and involvement of all team members to create the expected client and efficiency benefits.

Rutherford HR's two-prong approach

In virtually all tech-focused transformations (especially automation), three areas of focus contribute to success. 

1. Process: designing efficiency, effective and repeatable workflows
2. Technology: building technical solutions that deliver those workflows
3. People: supporting those affected through the change to enable project and sustainable success.

Playing to our strengths RHR was engaged to handle the people related activity, Partnering with Winning Formula who led the process and technology activity.

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Communication

The most substantial initial hurdle in our change activity stemmed from the need to conduct technical feasibility work, which extended over a four-month period. Until this crucial phase was completed, we were unable to define the future structure of the organisation, the number of roles required, or the specifics of those roles.

This period was understandably unsettling for the workforce, highlighting the importance of a well-crafted communication strategy. While we aimed to minimise uncertainty regarding job security and opportunities and provide clear details and expectations, we could not provide this until the feasibility work was completed. To address this challenges, our communications strategy was comprised of three parts.

1. We established weekly “town hall” meetings designed to maintain transparency about the ongoing work. The nature of technical feasibility work meant we rarely had concrete updates or more information. Nevertheless, we dedicated time to answer questions to the best of our ability and listened to employee concerns, ensuring that we remained accessible and visible.
2. We had  frequent interactions with people managers and sub-team leaders. These individuals had the trust of their teams, making them a conduit for the sharing of fears and concerns. Earning the trust of these managers was central to our communication strategy, as it allowed us to better understand and support the workforce throughout the process.
3. Beyond direct communication channels, we implemented an indirect communication strategy by regularly briefing the leadership team. This ensured that the core messages surrounding the project were consistently conveyed during informal conversations. To aid these discussions, we provided concrete talking points, enabling more natural "water cooler" conversations to occur.

Redeployment & upskilling

From the start of the project, it became evident that one of the outcomes would involve a reduction in the number of employees handling the current workload. With zero redundancies as one of our main objectives, we implemented a series of redeployment and upskilling initiatives to ensure a smooth transition for employees.

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Skills assessment

Running alongside the technical feasibility study, we conducted a comprehensive skills audit in collaboration with our client's leadership. This audit revealed untapped talent and capabilities within the organisation that had gone unnoticed. We discovered individuals with diverse backgrounds and extensive experience in different fields, all hidden within the ranks of the company. 

To support  the potentially impacted people we engaged in candid discussions about their career aspirations. For those unsure about their future, we ran workshops to explore and uncover the types of work they might be interested in.

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Upskilling

Within the group most affected by the impending changes, we identified individuals who could engage in the development of the new digital tools. These people received specialised training to become developers, positioning them for redeployment in this capacity.

This subset primarily consisted of individuals who held intricate knowledge of the customisation processes and complexities. Our training efforts aimed to equip them with the skills needed to translate their knowledge into a digital format, creating sustainable solutions for future customization tasks.

Following the completion of the technology feasibility phase, these individuals transitioned into roles within the project team, contributing to product development and developing the tools that would later be deployed.

Training for internal Hiring Managers

To further support the workforce, we assumed responsibility for our client’s internal recruitment process. When internal positions became available, employees affected by technological shifts were prioritized. In many cases, based on our skills audit and career discussions, impacted individuals were invited to apply for roles proactively.

To maximize internal opportunities, we worked across the entire organization, reshaping hiring managers’ selection criteria. Instead of searching for external candidates with specifications and sometimes deep expertise, we encouraged hiring managers to consider internal candidates who possessed a deep understanding of the company culture and operations, even if they required skill development. External hiring was only considered when absolutely necessary.

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Results that speak for themselves

Rutherford HR's involvement with the change project spanned nine months, during which several positive outcomes were achieved.

• Zero redundancies: There were no staff redundancies, preserving the job security of our client’s workforce.
• Successful role transitions: Where roles evolved and shifted, internal role transitions were smooth and well-managed.
• New career opportunities: The project created exciting career pathways in robotics and automation for several employees, others transitioned into other customer support roles, and built their careers in sales and marketing functions - allowing them to start new, career journeys within the organization.
• Sustained employee engagement: Employee engagement remained consistently high throughout the project, as shown by pre and post-project surveys.
• Beneficial task automation: The consolidation and automation of multiple manual tasks translated to multi-million dollar annual cost savings.
• Amplified efficiency: The introduction of AI technology significantly enhanced operational efficiency, equating to the work output of 60 full-time employees.
• Improved customer satisfaction: Despite extensive changes, our client’s dedication to customer satisfaction remained intact and customers reported higher satisfaction through ongoing feedback mechanisms, 
• Effective expansion: Following the success of this project, new technologies and systems were rolled out to newly acquired entities. Notably, our client was empowered to independently manage these subsequent rollouts and strategies, ensuring a sustainable and scalable approach.

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Need change management for your organisation?

Our client’s journey illustrates the transformative power of effective change management in a fast-growing organization. By focusing on communication, skills development, and internal flexibility, we helped this organization navigate technological changes while preserving its people-first approach. 

If your organization is facing similar challenges, let’s collaborate and co-develop solutions that take your business from where you are to where you want to be. Contact us today to start the conversation.