team spirit - Bankier.pl

manager, the higher his classification in the Sales Academy
and the more tailor-made to his requirements are the training
opportunities offered to him. For our top performers, we
implement training strategies such as those used in professional
sport or in encouraging highly gifted individuals, which are
scientifically based and proven in practice. In this way, the performance-enhancing
Sales Academy programmes should
encourage staff to try and join the “champions league” of
sales and also help top sales performers to fully realise their
potential. Feedback from participants has been extremely positive.
As far as content is concerned, topics are chosen which
are of utmost importance for achieving the ambitious sales
targets. The topics range from essential sales skills as part of
the basic qualification for newcomers to the sales division to
sales strategies, cultivation of a personal attitude and efficient
use of relationship management tools to optimise work techniques.
As far as methods are concerned, we offer a choice of
seminars, regional power training and compact training units
related to marketing campaigns, which should enable coverage
of the existing training requirements for sales staff with a
minimum of time and expense.
We have further developed in-house trainer programmes and
repositioned them under the title TrainerAcademy. This programme
offers optimal support for the development of inhouse
trainers. Emphasis is placed on personal advice and on
tailor-made basic and advanced training for the respective level.
The aim is to increase the efficiency of training for trainers
as well as to increase the attractiveness of working as an inhouse
trainer. This is a basic requirement for maintaining and
further developing the high level of expertise of Bank Austria
Creditanstalt’s staff who serve our customers.
Training support for bank projects: Based on our core competence
in the didactical and methodical areas we were
involved in various bank projects such as “Fit for Sales” (e.g.
roll-out of new relationship management models), Basel II
(new rating models) and “HyperPC-GFA” (an IT project). In
view of the large number of employees affected by these projects,
we used the blended-learning method. This procedure
combines e-learning and traditional face-to-face seminars into
an efficient mix which saves costs and resources.
Human resources development
For high-potential employees from middle management, the
management development programme, a widely-respected
course of studies geared to prepare students for top management
functions, was further developed. Together with its new
cooperation partners, the Vienna University of Economics and
Business Administration and the Warsaw School of Economics,
Bank Austria Creditanstalt took advantage of experience with
MBA programmes and focused course contents on the bank’s
area of responsibility – the growth markets in CEE. On account
of the high level of acceptance enjoyed by these training
methods throughout the Group, the programme is used not
only by Bank Austria Creditanstalt but also by HVB since 2005.
Mentoring
One of Bank Austria Creditanstalt’s numerous diversity measures
is its mentoring programme. Young high potential
employees are paired with experienced top managers of the
bank who accompany them along their career paths for
twelve months to enable the mentees to learn from them.
Although the programme is open to candidates of both sexes,
it is predominantly used by female employees. The mentoring
programme is also suited to increasing the proportion of
females in more demanding positions. Due to the large number
of interested parties the third programme is now being
organised and partnered by Human Resources for 40 to 50
pairs of employees. The programme provides a special method
of disseminating experience and knowledge.
In order to maintain the high level of commitment, performance
and health of all our staff at Bank Austria Creditanstalt
we attempt to take various situations in the lives of our
employees into consideration and create general conditions
enabling our employees to remain healthy and let them balance
their work with their private lives. For this reason we
offer various part-time work models, flexible working time,
company kindergartens with a capacity for about 200 children,
support during maternity leave as well as seminars for
people returning to work afterwards.
Health and employee safety
Maintaining the health of employees is an important concern
for Bank Austria Creditanstalt. Employees have access to the
latest advice and treatment by a highly-qualified team of doctors
and therapists from different medical disciplines at a number
of locations. Specialists in safety at the workplace provide
on-site advice in regard to ergonomic issues. Numerous precautionary
measures as well as exercise and relaxation programmes
are offered at reasonable prices, thereby helping to
promote healthy lifestyles. Strict cost-benefit analyses show
that these investments have significantly reduced employee
absences. The services of Bank Austria Creditanstalt’s Health
Center are also available to employees of Group companies,
which also substantially improved the Health Center’s operating
efficiency in 2005.
Human Resources 103
Mentoring as
a successful
diversity initiative