Leaders need to act now to build future-ready organisations

It is no secret that the financial services industry is undergoing massive change. As new technologies shift the needle across the way clients access financial service products and the way large global banks conduct their business, significant change is afoot.

As the sector undergoes a significant period of transformation, strong leadership has never been more important and with the industry now sitting at a fork in the road, leaders who transform the way employees work and engage, are not only expected, but necessary.

What lies ahead for leadership teams is ensuring that amid this rapid change, teams feel connected, valued, and continue developing the right skills for sustainable careers in an ever-changing world.

Leading with empathy is the new normal.

As a Chief Operating Officer in charge of a large team, I am often looking for ways to remain relevant as a strong leader that inspires collaboration and a collective spirit each day. As an organisation, Standard Chartered has been at the forefront of driving greater flexibility in the workplace and fostering a diverse yet unified team culture.

Since the global pandemic, which upended the way we all work, leaders have had to adopt a more empathetic approach, where listening to employees is paramount along with understanding what makes people tick to better support their physical, social, mental and financial wellbeing.

“We know that building an inclusive culture is critical to our business success as it is essential for psychological safety which, in turn, supports innovation and better decision-making.” – Graeme Greenaway, Chief Operating Officer, Corporate & Investment Banking and Europe & Americas, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Standard Chartered.

We strive to support all colleagues through inclusive policies in areas like flexible working, menopause, caregiving responsibilities, and global parental leave benefits. Feedback shows us that flexible working arrangements boost productivity, with 90% of our colleagues saying it had a positive impact on execution, 87% saying it boosts a sense of belonging and 86% agreeing it improved their wellbeing.

In fact, a recent study by the International Workplace Group has echoed this approach. The research surveyed 500 CEOs and found that 75% of those surveyed agreed that flexible work arrangements improved productivity, while 76% found it helped with employee retention.

Creating an inclusive work environment is critical

Listening to our colleagues to better understand their unique experiences, and then making targeted, meaningful changes to improve inclusion has been a longstanding approach of our bank and leadership team. We know that building an inclusive culture is critical to our business success as it is essential for psychological safety which, in turn, supports innovation and better decision-making.

To further progress our work in building a more balanced and fair industry, the bank signed the UK HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter in 2016. We have seen a positive trend in women taking up senior leadership roles, increasing from 25% in December 2016 to 32.5% at the end of December 2023, and this is reflected in the division I lead where more than half of our senior leadership team are women. Our Group’s goal is for 35% of senior leadership roles to be occupied by women by 2025.

The recent International Workplace Group report also found that flexibility and diversity can be interlinked, with flexible working arrangements improving a firm’s ability to hire a more diverse range of talent. The survey found that 71% of CEOs believe that with improved flexibility they were able to consider and offer roles to a more diverse range of candidates.

As a bank, we measure progress in improving representation in several different ways. Inclusion is the choice we make as individuals to embrace the richness of backgrounds and perspectives of our colleagues, clients, and suppliers. It is recognised that inclusion can be considered an intangible emotion, which can make it hard to track, and yet it undisputedly has a big impact on employee engagement and productivity.

As such, we have developed an internal inclusion index to help our leaders better understand inclusion within their teams. It comprises eight existing questions from our annual engagement survey that all relate to inclusion. We will continue to listen, understand, and take action to ensure we remain on track to achieve our aspiration of 84.5% in our culture of inclusion rating in 2024.

Ensuring people have the right skills for growth

Fostering a collaborative and collective spirit in the workplace also extends to giving our colleagues the right tools and skills to do their jobs effectively and productively as we witness rapid transformation across the industry.

Our recent report, Resetting Globalisation: Catalysts for Change, identified that nearly four in five employers globally reported having difficulty finding the talent they needed in 2023. That was the highest level in 17 years with shortfalls including technical skills spanning tech, engineering, data and sales, as well as skills like creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. The report also found the global skills shortage could lead to USD8.5 trillion loss in potential global annual revenue by 2030.

New technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have put some employee groups in a tailspin but the right technical and human skills are critical in driving an organisation’s performance whilst helping employees to be future-fit and develop sustainable and resilient careers. At Standard Chartered, we recognise the need to transform, adopt new technologies, and bring our colleagues on the journey with us leveraging these tech advancements as enablers. 

As a skills-based organisation, we have embarked on a significant reskilling and upskilling programme to help colleagues remain more relevant to evolving business needs, both within the bank and across other industries. This includes championing our SC Axess Academy learning centres spread across five locations providing up-to-date curricular that revolve around classroom and virtual learning, with a strong focus on developing our technologists.

With increasing pressure on financial services to transform, it is clear organisations need to act now to prepare for the disruptions of tomorrow. Strong leadership is vital and as we witness rapid shifts across things like technology, workplace flexibility, diversity and inclusion, leaders must also transform, or risk being left behind.

About the author: Graeme Greenaway is Chief Operating Officer, Corporate & Investment Banking and Europe & Americas, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Standard Chartered.