The future of Work Management in the Financial Workplace

"The future will happen, it’s not only inevitable it’s unavoidable"

The world of work is currently going through a radical change. It’s not so long ago that it was about having the same job for life, learning what to do and getting comfortable with the tasks on hand. Changes in work patterns and skills coupled with the demands for flexibility has led to a very different approach in how we assign staff and allocate work across the organisation.

In the corporate workplace, tasks are traditionally allocated to the tune of the mailroom. In the good old days the post would arrive, then be separated, scanned and delivered to the appropriate departments for action. Sometimes, as things got more sophisticated there could be a second delivery in the day - now that was real progress!

However, today the practice of work allocation still mimics this old world practice in many organisations, systems have improved and automation has been more widely adopted but the core delivery of tasks and work remains the same. 

As financial organisations operate in a highly regulated and controlled environment, there are set procedures and tasks that are required to be completed on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. Effective Corporate Governance is critical for the proper functioning of these organisations and this filters down to the policies and procedures that are set in place. But, conditions are changing fast with the need for a more dynamic approach to how work is distributed and allocated to the right person, with the right skills within the right timeframe.

Control and auditability built into each step of the process ensures that the financial organisation can improve responsiveness, increase efficiency and importantly deliver enhanced customer satisfaction.

This is the new world of Agile, a much used word taken from IT development and now used to help improve business practices across organisations. By Agile I mean the ability to rapidly change to the business requirements, becoming more people focused, taking responsibility, and continuous improvement with a focus on delivering customer satisfaction. It’s worth noting that the customer can be both internal and external, a point often forgotten by some in the delivery of customer care.

Today’s financial organisation needs to move from the old siloed approach, where separate work teams look after and manage their distinct tasks and deliver within their defined timeframe, to a new dynamic approach. We need to reexamine how we allocate and manage work across the organisation and look to change long established patterns for the betterment of all.

Conclusion

If your business units handle large volumes of incoming tasks on a daily basis then it’s important to ensure that work is allocated in a way that gives your Supervisors and Team Leaders full visibility of all incoming tasks, enabling them to see what needs to be done, who is doing it and to make the necessary adjustments as required in real time.

Let Auditability, Accountability, Compliance and Efficiency become the key cornerstones of your Work Management.