The Client
Rabobank is an international financial services provider operating on the basis of cooperative principles. It offers retail banking, wholesale banking, private banking, leasing and real estate services. As a cooperative bank, Rabobank puts customers’ interests first in its services. Rabobank is committed to being a leading customerfocused cooperative bank in the Netherlands and a leading food and agri bank worldwide. Rabobank employed 43,272 per 31 December 2020. Rabobank Group is active in 38 countries.
Rabobank aims to be a part of building a better living and working environment. This is what they say about leadership: Everyone is a leader in transforming tomorrow’s bank today.
The Vision
In 2016, the World Economic Forum outlined the ten most important work skills for the future in an environment where computers and robots are taking over more and more tasks. Rabobank added two more skills as part of their drive to build skills for the future.
The Bank’s 12 skills programme is available to all staff at all levels. Rabobank employees are in charge of their own development; they shape that future by making sure they are prepared for the future world of work with a set of skills that apply across all domains.
The Training
Self-reflection; story-telling; complex problem solving; agility; service orientation; coaching; judgement and decision-making; emotional intelligence; negotiating; collaborating; creativity; and networking. Skills that allow everyone to strengthen and develop to stay relevant for the future.
Employees were asked to focus on two skills per year – one in particular they would like to excel in, and the following year they may be working on other skills, or perhaps continue with their original choice to master the subject in greater depth.
Courses are offered at Foundation, Practitioner and Master levels, starting with Foundation level. Stakeholders can work towards Master status and can use the skill they learn in their GROW performance conversations, promotions, leadership, management, recruitment, etc. While not every employee will decide to go work towards Master level, each employee makes their own decision as to what is most appropriate and suitable for them and their career path.
The Bank introduced the programme at the end of June 2019 and in 2021 introduced Practitioner and Master level courses. Courses ran as webinars in Europe where business English is spoken, and all employees can access the training without them having to travel.
The Bank is encouraging employees to take charge of their own development and prepare for the future and shape their own future, by making sure talents remain relevant for the future with a set of skills that apply globally.
Our Approach
Our coaches Liz Oseland, Snéha Khilay and Paul Corke started by running five skills workshops:
- Negotiating
- Coaching
- Collaborating
- Creativity
- Networking
All offered at three levels – Foundation, Practitioner and Master.
These were initially run as face to face training in 2019, pre-Covid, in the form of half day workshops. They are now run as 90 min webinars with interactive workbooks.
Outcomes
Development and continuous learning are key to the Rabobank approach. The success of the programme is reflected in that their people really took time to learn, accessing the webinars which are a bite-sized knowledge exchange, and are then offered materials and links to videos, and suggested books, so that learning is embedded in the business and not stand-alone.
Within each branch of the business there is an ongoing knowledge exchange, employees talk to line managers about their learning which is embedded in KPIs and built into future development plans. Everyone has the opportunity to move through the three levels if they want to do so, and they are encouraged to think about how they can use and share their new skills. In this way, skills are used and cascaded throughout the organisation.
Managers have said that skills are embedding in their GROW output, in talent and leadership and talent programmes. Every team is seeing the benefits because the programme is simple and applicable to everybody; it is not just the senior team who are targeted but training is open to all.
Client Feedback
Feedback has been positive in respect of all five courses:
- I really enjoyed the course. I never thought I was creative but the way the presenter delivered the course it brought out my creative side! I am now looking at things in different ways and thinking outside the box. Very, very good course.
- Great session and good to have a handbook to refer to. Could have maybe been a longer session.
- Really appreciate great SCAMPER technique and also learnt from other participants and their comments. • Great session and fully engaging.
- Really enjoyed this interactive session with a lot of practical tips to take away. learnt so much! • Thank you for this valuable training. I really enjoyed it and
- Great course, really useful and, as I said at the end, I think everyone could benefit from this course (or something similar) as preparation for coming back to the office. There was a real feeling of camaraderie in all the previously unspoken things we have all been through and also how we each have built coping mechanisms etc. and on this point I would like to extend my thanks to all the participants who attended the same session as me, I really enjoyed their company.
- External coach was very experienced and knowledgeable and provided some great pointers.
- A very interactive session and useful stop points to collate examples/ideas and then sharing them to the group.
Skills for the Future
Jan Nieuweboer, Future of Work-expert at Rabobank, says:
“ We used to talk about developing competencies internally, but that is far from simple. If you want to motivate employees to develop, you have to make it easy for them. That’s why we decided to offer training aimed at a specific skill. If you develop a number of these skills further, you will be even more interesting for Rabobank and in the future for other companies as well.”
Quote from Amy Bollato-Velda, Learning & Development Manager at Rabobank:
“ These skills not only ensure employees are in charge of their own career, but also can guide an employee in their career map within the organisation. Additionally, they provide invaluable insight to managers, who in turn are able to give the right amount of support at the right time to employees, encouraging collaborative engagement throughout the organisation.”
To learn more about the interventions we used and the outcomes of this project, click below.
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