The client faced significant challenges in its national call centres (10,000 employees), particularly the lack of employees from older demographics with the necessary experience to effectively communicate with and support the bank’s older customers. This gap affected customer satisfaction and highlighted broader issues in its recruitment and onboarding processes.

Additionally, the overall experience for colleagues—whether being newly recruited, being promoted within the organisation, or leaving for retirement—was notably poor, resulting in disengagement and high turnover rates. Addressing these issues was critical to enhancing both employee and customer satisfaction.

Programme details

• We comprehensively reviewed the client’s recruitment and onboarding journey, focusing on enhancing inclusivity and the overall candidate experience. This included interviews, focus groups, and desktop reviews of processes, policies, and systems.
• We mapped out the recruitment and onboarding experience for each demographic (age, gender, race), and for 3 priority journeys (new to bank, promotion, retirement) to identify and address potential barriers to diversity within the processes and to ensure that all new hires feel welcomed, valued, and supported from day one.
• We designed targeted strategies and leveraged our expertise in culture change to create a more inclusive and engaging recruitment and onboarding experience that aligns with the client’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

OUTCOMES

• We identified barriers to diversity across processes, policies, and systems and provided a comprehensive report of initiatives as part of the bank’s HR transformation programme. This revised approach to recruitment will foster a more inclusive environment.
• We developed targeted strategies and cultural change initiatives designed to improve the recruitment and onboarding experience and attract a more diverse talent pool, including individuals from older demographics who can better relate to and serve their older customers.
• Mapping out the experiences and sharing this with stakeholders and hiring managers ensures that all employees, regardless of their background, feel welcomed, valued, and supported from day one.
• To support the attraction and recruitment of certain demographics, we designed additional initiatives that are aimed at retaining these colleagues and supporting them through their next stage of life (for example, new advertising material and job descriptions to attract older demographics and a redesign of the Employee Value Proposition to include new benefits that support people through to their retirement)