Dealing with the financial crisis at ING Wholesale Banking
Building on the foundation of a three-year strategy communication campaign called “Fitter, Focused, Further”, Leanne Carmody explains how the last year has proved to be a significant opportunity to focus managers across the ING Wholesale Banking network on face-to-face engagement, growing the mandate of the internal communication team and keeping momentum high among employees.
by Leanne Carmody, head of internal communication, ING Wholesale Banking
I joined ING at the end of 2007 when the Wholesale Banking Management Team were defining their strategy for 2008-2010. Their vision was to accelerate growth by becoming fitter as an organization, more focused on clients and further growing the business in selected markets and products.
There was a clear understanding among the management team that it was essential that each member of staff fully understood the goals and strategy for Wholesale Banking going forward.
The employee engagement survey carried out in mid-2007 clearly indicated that Wholesale Banking staff wanted more senior management visibility and alignment in messaging.
Consisting largely of ambitious, seasoned, highly educated professionals, Wholesale Banking staff were not particularly receptive to large flashy campaigns with little substance. Challenging in their opinions and comments, they wanted clear, direct and detailed communication.
The internal communication function was charged with devising a solution to this. We needed to develop a program that the international staff across our complex matrixed organization could all understand, identify with and most importantly live up to. It would be the first time an internal campaign of this scale had been launched in Wholesale Banking. We had two months to make this happen.
The “Fitter, Focused, Further” program
Led from the top, our Fitter , Focused, Further program and campaign allowed us to put in place a resilient messaging platform, distinctive branding, channels suite and measurement program for all staff (see Figure One, below). As the target audience was hugely diverse, with various roles to play in the strategy, my team worked in partnership with communication colleagues across the Wholesale Banking network to deliver and tailor the campaign to specific regions and markets. We needed to keep the fundamental messaging consistent across the organization, while at the same time making it relevant enough to everyone.
Fig 1. The Fitter, Focused, Further program
On February 20th 2008, the campaign was kicked off at our Amsterdam headquarters by Eric Boyer, head of ING Wholesale Banking, and over the next two days all-staff events were held in each of Wholesale Banking’s six regions. The management team hosted events held in Brussels, New York, Moscow, Singapore and London, while staff around the world were able to log in to a global webcast from Amsterdam.
These regional events were then followed by individual local events in all 40 countries where we operate. “Toolkit” press packs containing all messaging, Q&As, internal posters and DVD-based marketing materials were distributed to senior managers around the world.
A dedicated “Fitter, Focused, Further” intranet microsite was launched and we also dedicated an entire quarterly issue of our staff magazine Edge to Fitter, Focused, Further. Articles included interviews with ING Group’s CEO, as well as interviews with regional managers on the goals and application of the strategy in their countries. Subsequent issues of Edge have examined “our strategy in action” with ongoing stories explaining in more detail what the strategy means for employees’ everyday work. One feature directly answers questions that staff have posed via the intranet. The Fitter, Focused, Further strategy is repeatedly referred to in intranet messages that relate it to individual business lines.
All-staff updates on the program are given quarterly in every region, to coincide with ING’s company results, which are reported on a quarterly basis. Dedicated town halls address staff questions on the strategy and its implementation. Management team members take turns to host these meetings, so employees see senior managers are acting as one and voicing the same strategic message. Staff surveys immediately following the launch clearly showed the impact: 94 percent of staff surveyed were aware of the main objectives of the Wholesale Banking strategy update. Some 82 percent said the method of communicating the strategy update was effective, and that the main strategic objectives had been communicated in a clear and understandable manner.
Just over three months later we carried out our annual employee engagement survey. A massive 81 percent of Wholesale Banking staff took part. We felt that the response rate, far above the 47 percent tally of 2007, spoke volumes about increased staff engagement. As did the results: 77 percent said they had a good understanding of overall strategy, versus 63 percent in 2007. There was also a very noticeable increase (14 percent) in those who believed it was “clear, exciting and bold”. Overall our engagement scores were much improved.
These results went beyond our expectations, but we wanted more detail. We then decided to host focus groups to get more qualitative feedback on how clear the strategy messages were from both a departmental and team level. We believed that there was still progress to be made in this area.
The focus groups, which were two-hour breakfast or lunch sessions with staff of all levels from across the business, were held in all regions. As we predicted there was a gap between overall clarity of the Wholesale Banking strategy and our staff’s understanding of their department or team’s role in its implementation. In addition, although the visibility of leaders was highly valued, staff wanted to hear more from their direct managers.
My team got to work on developing a cascade system that would close the gap between the global messages and local ownership of these messages. This approach, which closely involved our senior top 100 managers needed to work seamlessly across our matrixed organization. The top 100 would lead the cascade and close the gap between the global message and team level context, the “what does it mean for me and what action do I need to take” angle.
Having already asked the management team for so much of their time and now aspiring to introduce a further fundamental change in the communication approach, I was acutely aware that I needed to present this additional program in a timely fashion with a clear business case. The results of the focus groups gave me the business case. The only thing I needed now was a sense of urgency.
The worst financial crisis since the 1930s
Many cite 15 September 2008 as the defining moment in the worst financial crisis for decades. Lehman Brothers – for so long one of the elite brokerage firms – filed for bankruptcy.
The impact was felt from Wall Street to London to Hong Kong and beyond as there followed a period of unprecedented financial turmoil as stock markets crashed and share prices plummeted.
The fall of Lehmans threatened to have a domino effect on the rest of the financial sector and in the days and weeks that followed; further high-profile bankruptcies were only avoided through national governments stepping in to save institutions in crisis. The sector experienced an accelerated chain of events including bail outs for many well-known financial instituations.
ING Group, was, of course, not immune. Shortly after the collapse of Lehmans ING accepted a capital injection plan by the Dutch Government. The plan was to supply EUR10 billion in exchange for securities and veto rights on major operations and investments.
This sense of urgency to change the way in which management communicate with staff was further confirmed by the news that almost 10 percent of staff would lose their jobs.
Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos told the media that the deal was done as a means of fortifying ING, which was in “a sound financial state”, to weather the financial crisis.
Changing the way we communicate
With ING attempting to come to terms with the rapidly changing competitive landscape and a very challenging commercial environment, the management team agreed that an effective cascade approach to communication was going to be vital to ensuring that staff could be updated about changes as quickly and effectively as possible.
This sense of urgency to change the way in which management communicated with staff was further confirmed by the news that major redundancy and cost containment effort needed to be communicated rapidly. ING was to announce redundancies of 7,000 roles, of which 1,400 would come from Wholesale Banking. This meant that almost 10 percent of our staff would lose their jobs.
Now more than ever it was clear to management that we needed a robust cascade system that would allow them to relate messages and updates to staff effectively and quickly, while at the same time giving staff the opportunity to get their own concerns and questions addressed directly and properly by their managers. It was the time to introduce our previously designed cascade system and we now had total support from the management team.
Our next step was to mobilize the top 100 managers across Wholesale Banking in little or no time. They would have to deliver very tough and demotivating messages to staff and were key in ensuring that all staff were updated at the same time, that there were absolutely no inconsistencies in message and approach and that everyone had an opportunity to ask questions and understand next steps.
We made these announcements in February 2009. The evening before this information was released, a global conference call was hosted by the management team to inform management of the news and help them rehearse and prepare for briefing these messages onwards. My team provided them with a comprehensive toolkit to equip them with messages, background information and guidelines.
It was one of the hardest times for Wholesale Banking and not the easiest trigger to start a cascade program, but both staff feedback and debriefs with our top 100 managers showed that this new means of communicating was perceived positively by all.
Our top 100 felt involved and empowered while at the same time staff felt that they were kept informed as much as possible and able to raise questions and issues openly.
The top 100 now understood that they were at the center of an ongoing process to change the way we communicate, establishing dialogue and checking for understanding rather than focusing on broadcasting news. The value of this face-to-face communication was clearly spelt out by managers, with comments including how “in these turbulent times, face-to-face meetings are crucial, by communicating in a clear and honest way”, emphasizing the importance of “allowing for questions and feedback in small groups” and how this “establishes a stronger connection with the team”.
A key part of the cascade was that it built on the Fitter, Focused, Further identity and momentum, providing continuity although with increased urgency. We now run and measure a cascade process every quarter, as part of the overall Fitter, Focused, Further program. Management now provides an update on progress against our strategic goals every quarter in their region and department, thereby creating context around a consistent global message rather than simply increasing the reach of this message.
Our world today
Over 6 months since the launch of our cascade and 18 months since the global launch of Fitter, Focused, Further, we see a continued improvement in communication, middle management ownership of message and most importantly clarity of direction for staff. Our most recent staff survey held after our second quarter results in August indicated that 85 percent of respondents feel they understand the meaning of the strategy and their role in achieving our Fitter, Focused, Further goals (see Figure Two, below).
Figure Two: Fitter, Focused, Further: Q2 2009 staff survey results
My own team are as committed today as they have ever been. They too found the last 6 months challenging but they’ve seen the immense impact we can have. We’ve received much praise from our management who are hugely supportive and rely on us more than ever for advice. We also won the CiB Best Global Campaign Award for Excellence in 2009 for Fitter, Focused, Further. Which was a great boost for us as a team.
Not ones to sit back, we’re now tasked with developing a culture program, which will further increase our organization’s sense of shared direction. The financial crisis has been tough for us all but we believe that there are great opportunities ahead, most of all by taking on these challenges and using them as a springboard to improve, rather than waiting for the storm to pass.
Have your say
What kind of challenges did the financial crisis pose for the internal communciation department within your company? Perhaps you're working in the financial sector, what lessons have you learned a year on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers?
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