The new training day ‘New Ways of Working’ has focused on customer centricity and leadership in the financial and insurance sectors
Telework, flexitime and intraentrepreneurship are terms increasingly common in business. The rise of their implementation in companies shows that the way in which employees work is evolving parallel to society. To analyze this transformation, Opinno and Google organized the conference ‘New Ways of Working’, a series of breakfasts to discuss today's business world’s needs for transformation. The last meeting has focused its debate on financial and insurance companies.
The event, held this week in the Spain’s Google offices, has relied on expert testimonies in both industries. Through its vision, the breakfast extracted the keys to remaining competitive in this changing ecosystem.
One of the conclusions of the event was the need for the industry to commit to focusing on customers and offer a differential experience. This requires that companies strive in the satisfaction of their employees. Opinno Think Vice President, Tommaso Cannonici says: "Happy employees make happy clients."
But how do you get a template to be happy? According to experts, this process requires, first, attracting more talent through rescreening and, second, improving the experience of the employees. This objective is achieved by applying the same methodologies that has already worked for clients. Likewise, by promoting intraentrepreneurship, Opinno helps drive innovation from the base of the pyramid and from the positions that are closest to the customers. Experts say that giving the team the appropriate tools to interact with them is key so they are able to provide better solutions to problems.
Active listening
Indeed, one of the foundations of successful innovation processes is the interaction and listening to better meet customer needs and promote the creativity of workers. An example of this is the dashboard implemented by BBVA. The platform allows all employees to have access to the same information about the company and be in contact with each other.
Thus, they can work collaboratively from anywhere in the world and on any device they choose, whether it be a computer, a mobile or a tablet. During the breakfast, the director of Corporate Transformation entity, Beatriz Lara, described the initiative as "a strategic issue focused on enriching the experience of employees". Although only 12.7% of its workforce is currently using this system, the goal of the organization is that by 2016 this figure exceeds 50%.
In addition to streamlining internal collaboration, listening is essential in providing the appropriate solutions to customer needs. "Innovation starts with listening," says CEO and founder of Opinno, Pedro Moneo. Thus, it is possible to detect problems before and attack to reduce risk, applying lean start-up methodology, underpinning the philosophy of the company.
Verti insurance company that belongs to the Mapfre group also follows this methodology to avoid making a large investment in new products before knowing whether they will succeed. During his presentation at the conference, its president, Enrique Flores-Calderon, said: "If the idea works, we deploy all the sales strategies; if not, we will celebrate the failure because it did not cost us money."
This methodology is also one of the foundations on which the mobility company LeasePlan sits. The director of Strategy, José Hurtado, talked about how the company spends 20% of its time generating new services through lean start-up.
Opportunities like this should be used by companies who want to maintain its leadership in the sector. Success will depend in many cases on employees detecting these trends and decide to innovate. So, have happy employees that are open to innovation, besides it being an ethical choice, it’s a strategy.
