Bank of Guam: Driving Business Through People

Banks are closely linked to our daily lives and activities. Whether you’re paying bills, taking out loans, or building up savings, the bank plays an important role to deliver financial services.

However, banks have always aroused distrust. Poor customer service, lack of transparency, or unreasonable charges are often common complaints of banks. However, the Bank of Guam has stayed true to the original mandate of being a trusted partner in their community for 50 years. How did they do it?

Being The People’s Bank  

For close to half a century, the Bank of Guam holds a strong vision of being “The People’s Bank” and the driving force to enable their community to prosper. Jeremy Copple, AVP of Learning andDevelopment at Bank of Guam explains how the bank translates its core values into a great mission serving the people of Guam.

“It all starts with being authentic, compassionate, and having the perseverance to keep us going.We are the People’s Bank; our motto is “People Comes First”. When we talk about people, it’s not only about our employees, but the community we serve as well.”

The management team of the Bank ofGuam recognises the importance of being “people-first” with a strong emphasis and culture on nurturing people. The bank has a comprehensive talent management strategy to ensure it has a deep pool of talents ready to serve the community for many years to come.

How did Bank of Guam partner with TalearnX?

When Bank of Guam first approached TalearnX, they knew exactly what they want to achieve for their future. They want to be more than just a bank — they want to build better, closer relationships with the people of Guam.

Before reaching out, the bank had received buy-in from the senior management team to kickstart their HR transformation initiative. We helped implement and execute a scalable talent management solution that aligns with their management goal of being“people-first”.

Bank of Guam’s vision of embracingHR as a focus in the business sets a perfect example of how HR can impact the people. They believe that the people are their greatest asset in the organisation. By focusing on people’s development, they are directly impacting the growth of the bank.

What were the main challenges Bank of Guam facing?

During the discovery process withBank of Guam, TalearnX uncovered three key challenges with their previous HR processes:

• Too much manual work. The team spent too much time on administrative work and had no time for other strategic HR priorities
• Senior management did not have enough visibility on HR processes and outcomes
• The previous system was underutilised, leading to the poor end-user experience

In other words, the previous HR system lacks efficiency and visibility. The senior management always had a clear direction for HR. All they need is a solution that could help streamline their processes and provide a more holistic picture of their people to measure progress.

How did our solution help Bank of Guam?

We designed their talent management system to improve their current processes into a simpler, more effective workflow. Hence, HR does not have to waste time on administrative tasks. They can effectively utilise the time on value-adding efforts such as HR planning and talent development.

Speeding up the manual processes.

There were a lot of HR practices and processes that require manual work. The HR department had spent at least 4hours a day importing users into their system, and many more hours on administrative tasks like sending HR reminders and company updates.

With the implementation of the new system, TalearnX automated these processes and efficiently reduced admin in minutes that used to take hours to accomplish. The team no longer has to deal with excel logs or constant email reminders.

“Automation is definitely the biggest achievement we’ve done for the HR practices here.”

More time for strategic HR planning.

The Bank of Guam understands HR strategy can affect business outcome to drive revenue and profits. With less time spent on administrative tasks, the HR team can build a more comprehensive framework for learning, performance, development, and succession initiatives.  

Thus, HR can become a better partner in supporting organisational operations and the overall business goals.

“We have a lot more time to create anything now.”

Boost adoption rate and employee engagement.

The adoption rate of their previous system was low. The user interface and experience were poor, and the employees barely engage themselves with the system.

After migrating to CornerstoneOnDemand, Jeremy received overwhelming feedback from his colleagues on how easy it is to use the new system. The employees no longer view the system as a chore but feel that it adds value to their professional and personal goals.

What is the overall impact?

Many companies have a misconception that technology is the ultimate solution to all their organisational problem. However, the Bank of Guam understands that technology is only part of the solution. They place stronger importance on building culture and creating processes supported by technology.

“And if we don’t help our people and employees, how do we expect to achieve results in the future?”

It is the people behind the technology.

To the Bank of Guam, the people who are behind the technology matter the most in driving and executing the vision and mission of The People’s Bank. As the saying goes, “take care of your employees, and your employees will take care of your business”.

At TalearnX, we share the same belief as to the Bank of Guam. Technology is only as good as the people behind it. For HR to play a more prominent role in every organisation, HR needs to solve business problems by empowering and developing people.

“I love working with the team. Those weekly updates from the team are just what we need to push forward. The manner of professionalism they brought on the table is second to none. We wouldn’t have done it without their help.”

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