Changing career tack
24 May 2018
Bankers of the Future. Just that description conjures up images of 20 somethings straight out of university with degrees in data science or IT. But more experienced workers, dare we say it older workers, also have a role to play.
In our ongoing series on who are the future bankers of ING, we talk to three employees that have changed tack in their career. How and why did they make the transition? What were their experiences? We also talk to HR’s head of Talent & Learning Lesley Wilkinson on how experienced colleagues can approach their career.
Smarter data!
Umar Latif
Name: Umar Latif
Country: The Netherlands
Job shift: ING’s Corporate Audit Services to the Chief Data Management Office (CDMO).
“Making the transition wasn’t so difficult. It was what I thought I wanted and it turned out to be really exciting stuff,” said Umar, who is in his late 40s.
“Having very supportive, professional and fun colleagues helps as well. I don’t think too much about the difficulties, but rather the chances and the future. The new role continues to give me plenty of positive energy to learn new things, and use my talent and experience as effectively as possible. Data governance within the bank is quite complex and requires people skills, a sense of business, control expertise and plenty of patience as well!
“I went through an ING programme called Career Boost which is for colleagues at the crossroads in their career. This helped identify what drives me most and what I would best like to do in the future.
“Data management is one of the foundation pillars of ING’s strategy so helping build effective data governance to support our data capabilities, I feel more part of the greater purpose.
“Am I a banker of the future? If the ‘banker of the future’ is interested in innovation, supports our future endeavours of digital banking and is open to change… then it could be me!”
Shifting gears in HR
Frédéric Evrard
Name: Frédéric Evrard
Country: Luxembourg
Job shift: From project manager Change Facility Management to project manager HR Unite.
“Earlier this year, I went from managing changes relating to Luxembourg’s head office move (to ING Lux House) to coordinating HR Unite, ING’s global approach to HR,” said Frédéric, who is in late 40s.
“The biggest challenge is to handle the technical aspects of the job (HR or Facility Management) while learning as much as I can about a new business. This requires plenty of energy and dynamism.
“Fortunately, this is not the first big transition for me. I have worked in departments very different from each other like Facility Management, Transformation Office, Quality Management and Tech.
“I am happy to live in another environment, to experience different things every day, face new challenges, learn permanently and improve my employability. This new challenge in HR is exciting. I like building new things, especially when the results are appreciated by colleagues as it was with our new head office.
“All my different experiences help me to put myself in the shoes of my clients (employees and managers of ING Luxembourg and ING Group) while realising the goals of the project. That helps to empower them.
“Am I a ‘banker of the future’? Well, at least not a banker of the past! I am agile but also able to meet new challenges and easily adapt to my new environment. Being a ‘banker of the future’ means being able to change and make the organisation evolve towards new ways of working to better serve colleagues and clients.”
The data quality guardian
Massimo Puglisi
Name: Massimo Puglisi
Country: Originally from Italy, now in the Netherlands
Job shift: From IT consultant to ING Data Quality officer.
“I’m relatively new to ING. I started my career as an IT consultant, but each of my subsequent jobs, and I have had many different roles, has had an underlying common denominator: data,” said Massimo, who is in his 30s.
“I’ve worked for very different industries (automotive, finance, consumer electronics and telecommunications). I grew into positions where I would always be in between the business needs and data operations. Each time, I endeavoured to close that gap. I soon realised that when the data reached a point where I could use it for a product, it was too late. Nobody had taken care of the quality of it. Sometimes, this was a real loss for the business.
“This brought me to ING and now my mission is to safeguard data quality for all the data in scope of the CDMO organisation!
“I’m quite proud of how far I’ve come. In some phases it was quite challenging because it required a totally different mind-set. When you’re responsible for solving an issue or delivering a final product, you have to think from an operational point of view. When you’re responsible for contributing to the business evolution, you need to think strategically.
“For me, it has always been about learning something new. For instance, I use bits of my spare time to study how moral philosophy can relate and connect to ING’s data ethics. Despite having a master’s degree in Information Management, I also took a master in Political Science, to investigate how new technologies could contribute to improving society by empowering people to freely express themselves. Something that later I discovered to be very closely related to ING’s Purpose to empower people to stay a step ahead in life and business.
“Do I consider myself to be a ‘banker of the future’? If we look at data as one of our most valuable assets, then yes. Being a ‘bank or a banker of the future’ will be more and more about data and the way we can use it to create value for customers, employees, shareholders and society as whole.”
Find your purpose…
Lesley Wilkinson
Name: Lesley Wilkinson
Role: Head of Talent & Learning, Global HR
“Banking has moved away from a typically set-up, static organisation. It is changing dramatically. There are many more variables now, such as technology.
“No longer do employees have a career role for life. Our role is to prepare people for that, equip them with the tools and support to empower their career, but we all need to drive it. What’s important for all of us is to have an appetite for learning.
“What we encourage in our Think Forward Leadership Experience sessions is encouraging people to find their own purpose and to match that purpose with that of the organisation.
“Nowadays, we’re not specifically looking for one type of person but rather a broad range of capabilities centred around the customer. The user experience, our customer journey people and skills to use our customer data to the best effect.”
