If you could peek inside a functioning beehive, you’d see thousands of worker bees completing their critical tasks – gathering nectar, guarding the hive, caring for the queen and larvae, cleaning up, and, of course, producing honey. In fact, without these worker bees, a hive can’t sustain itself. They do the critical work required to keep the hive (ahem) buzzing and producing the sweetest output.

Your financial institution isn’t so different. Every day, thousands of employees are taking care of critical tasks that keep business moving, like approving loans, reviewing disputes, processing payments, and ensuring regulatory compliance. And while not every employee is customer facing, their activities certainly have an impact on the overall customer experience delivered.

So, what happens when the customer experience suffers because behind-the-scenes staff are feeling burned out and disengaged? Complaints about poor customer service are bound to increase and some customers will even leave. All of this hits the bottom line. Hard. In fact, businesses globally stand to lose $4.7 trillion in consumer spending due to poor customer experiences.

It’s time to take a hard look at how financial services employees are feeling about work.

How are your employees really doing?

Financial service professionals are under a lot of pressure and 42% say a heavy workload is making the burden feel even heavier.

Now add in ever-changing regulations, communications that are easy to miss, too much time wasted searching for information, and a remote working experience that leaves a lot to be desired. You’ve got a recipe for increased burnout and high turnover. Or at the very least, you’re susceptible to more “quiet quitting.”

In fact, a recent study found the finance and insurance sector reported one of the biggest drops in employee engagement, with about 8% fewer employees reporting willingness to give it their all on the job. It’s a big change from 2021, when the industry claimed the highest share of engaged employees (94%).

Time to re-evaluate your employee experience

One sure-fire way to improve engagement is to democratize the work experience for all employees – from the front lines to the back office. Here are a few ideas:

1. Eliminate barriers with an employee app. Centralize announcements, tools and anything else your teams need to get work done even when they aren’t sitting in the same space.
2. Improve communications and boost productivity. Workers report that operational challenges, like finding the documents they need and switching between applications, seriously degrades their efficiency and experience. A modern intranet can change the dynamic drastically – all while keeping your data safe and secure.
3. Reinforce key messages. When employees are working in-office you can use digital signage to make sure the information you want them to see is unignorable. Write once and publish across all your branches and offices so everyone’s on the same page.
4. Help them find their happy place. Make working in the office stress-free with an easy way to advance book rooms, desks, and even parking spots.

Want to dig deeper into the modern work experience for financial services employees? Head over here for more engaging ideas.

The future looks engaging

McKinsey predicts that today’s bank operations employees “are unlikely to recognize their future counterparts. Roles that previously toiled in obscurity and without interaction with customers will now be intensely focused on customer needs, doing critical outreach.”

It’s a view of the future where the pay is high, focus on innovation is prioritized, and empathy and communication skills are in hot demand in order to provide the “white glove” service customers expect.

Here’s the thing: If employees are going to provide this elevated customer experience, they need an equally great employee experience. To get more practical ideas around how to elevate their work experience, check out our financial services eBook.