The secret to Metro Bank’s award-winning EX strategy

The Best Practices Institute has surveyed 1.4 million workers to identify the top companies where employees are happiest and most satisfied in their work.

The survey considered the views of company execs, external ratings from sites like Glassdoor, as well as employee surveys. It then analyzed these data points to compose its first annual Most Loved Workplaces ranking.

The list was dominated by US-based businesses, which were praised for their internal employee cultures. But there was one entry that broke the mold – Metro Bank. The only UK workplace to make it to the top 10, it ranked seventh overall for its employee experience (EX).

CX Network caught up with the bank’s the director of colleague experience and inclusion, Simi Dubb, to find out Metro Bank’s secret to EX success.

Why EX is important

As CX Network explored during CX Network Live: Employee Experience 2022, companies that invest in EX have been proven to be four times more profitable than those that do not.

Several further studies have confirmed a similar correlation between improved EX and positive CX, including the 2020 IDC EX survey. This article by Forbes also noted that “79 percent of staff at companies with above-average customer experience are themselves ‘highly engaged’ in their jobs, compared to 49 percent of employees at companies with below-average CX scores.”

As Dubb explains, Metro Bank’s EX strategy is “governed by looking at each colleague individually and putting an equity lens on all we do for our colleagues”. This is achieved by “considering all touchpoints across the colleague lifecycle from a colleague perspective.”

She says: “It is not easy to sum up what colleague experience and inclusion is as it touches across many aspects. It encompasses the physical, technological and cultural environment of our business, takes into consideration how colleagues see, hear, believe and feel about all aspects of their employment. These aspects stretch from the recruitment process through to their last day at our company.

“In other words, it is a colleague-centric way of looking at an organization. The impact on colleagues is that it strengths the already strong culture where they are at the heart of the business, ensuring that we have an inclusive culture, while balancing the demands and requirements of our shareholders and regulators,” she continues.

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How Covid-19 reshaped EX

Triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation saw a dramatic uptick in attrition and it reshaped employee attitudes toward work and retention. As CX Network has reported, labor shortages currently affect 28 percent of public companies, according to analysis conducted in Q3, 2022.

While EX trends have taken some surprising turns in recent years, Dubb says Metro Bank’s current approach pre-dates the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Dubb says the decision to put colleagues and customers at the heart of the business “has helped us to respond quickly to colleague needs throughout the pandemic.” She says:

“Metro Bank is a purpose-led organization. We are here to serve customers and win fans.”

What has changed, Dubb says, is the “rapid pace in which we were able adjust across the organization and scaling up the plans and approaches that were already in place”.

The changes include hybrid working models, which have been facilitated by refits and consolidation in branch locations. It has further been supported with online learning which has seen Metro Bank offer resources to support health and wellbeing and train its leaders to manage uncertainty and change.

In many organizations, moves such as this have had a positive impact on attrition trends. While Dubb confirms the labor market for financial services workers in the UK is “competitive”, the data show Metro Bank’s employee experience is resonating with its staff and this is not the first time it has been recognized for its EX gains.

Glassdoor named the bank “one of the best places to work” for 2019 and in 2022 its accolades have included a recognition for most loved workplace and top high street bank for customer service.

Dubb says: “Due to our colleague and customer proposition, we have been able to attract talent in the market. With that context, our colleague experience suggests that colleagues are engaged and committed to the success of Metro Bank. We are eight points above the global benchmark for ‘I would recommend Metro Bank as a great place to work’.”

Changing customer needs in finance

As banking continues to digitalize, customers are becoming more independent. This is reshaping the role and responsibilities of employees across the board and Dubb says there are four ways Metro Bank expects this to reshape its overall EX. These are through self-service, automation, the digitalization of back-office activities and enhanced professional development.
These shifts will see employees take on more support-focused roles, with time freed up to engage in meaningful work while automation takes care of the more repetitive tasks.

On the back-office impact, Dubb says: “Technology and the new ways that work is innovation will likely result in improved experiences for back office colleagues, giving them access to better data, tools and technologies to complete daily tasks. We expect this to drive up productivity and lead to improved colleague and customer experiences.”

Dubb concludes: “Further digitalization across banking will likely require and speed up the need for new and more technology-focused training for colleagues. Training will focus more on banking, problem solving and customer support, moving away from systems-based training that is required to support repetitive tasks which will now be automated. Such a shift will be more engaging for colleagues, it will prescribe a more transferable skillset and it will directly translate to improved career progression and personal development.”

CX Network contributor Colin Shaw, has more on the links between EX and CX here.