Characteristics Of An Ideal Worker In The Banking Industry

Defining Occupation and Job

Human resources at the time of job interview often asks question such as “how would you define an ideal person for the job”, by asking such question human resources aim to understand the perception and understanding of the ideal worker from the candidate (Acker, 2006). This further helps the human resources to identify if the person will be the ideal worker for the particular job or not, it basically helps them in evaluating the candidate. In order to identify the ideal worker one has to focus on the skills sets, job knowledge, abilities of the person, motivation and his personal attributes. Ideal worker depends from occupation to occupation, as some industries follows workforce diversity and inclusion at work, while others do not (Acker, 2006).

The purpose of the assignment here is to understand the concept of Ideal working in the occupation of banking advisor. The assignment will focus on three important aspects which are brief understanding of the occupation, identifying the key characteristics of an ideal worker in the Banking field and discussion around the concept of ideology, power and identity. The research report will detail the characteristics of an ideal worker In the Banking industry.

Occupation should not be confused with job; an occupation can be seen as a type of work, whereas job is a particular cluster of tasks in particular business organization.

I am working in ANZ bank, which is one of the largest banks in terms of market capitalization in Australia. ANZ bank is the largest in New Zealand and employees over 50,000 people working across different locations. Since last year I have been working with ANZ in the capacity of banking advisor, and I am really happy with my employer. However, I have seen that in the banking sector, not a lot of women get the chance to climb the ladder up and work in senior most position. There are only a handful of women working in the top management or other senior positions (ANZ Australia, 2017). Some of the key highlights which define the occupation more clearly are:

It is required to have a relevant qualification in the banking field, or the minimum graduation including Maths and English as important or main subjects. One has to clear a series of selection tests in order to qualify for the role. There is an option to get into the Bank by Apprenticeship Program (Handy & Rowlands, 2017).

Occupation of Banking Advisor

Person should have an excellent personality and communication skills with fluency in Maths. He should provide accuracy in his work and should pay attention to detail. The confidence, faith and the belief to share hard selling financial products to the customers (Fukuyama, 2017). And lastly, an overview of the banking products and services would add to his present competencies.

Processing payments, advances and Setting up and maintenance of customer accounts. Ensuring Short and long term investment planning. Assisting customers with mortgage and loan application. He also has to actively participate in the General administration Activities (McDowell, 2017). Handling customer complaints and enquiries.

The standard opening hours for the ANZ bank starts from 9:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the evening, and on Fridays, 9:30 till 5: 00 PM in the evening. Certain bank branches are open until late hours during special occasion. The work of banking advisor is so much detailed that never occurs a possibility that I have reached my home on time. We always have to extend our working hours to finish up the work. The working environment is collaborative and every person is working towards shared goals. There is most definitely a lack of women colleagues in the banking sector. According to the statistics there are only 9% of the working female population which is working in the banking sector, this figure is quite low and has to be increased in the coming years (Nolan, 2018).

Banking Professionals have to do multiple tasks at one time along with plethora of responsibility. The work responsibilities revolve around people’s money, thus a person who does not have good organizational skills or does not have an organized mind will be a liability for the Bank. Thus, it is very much needed for the worker to become ideal worker (Runciman, Merry & Walton, 2017). Banking professionals have to deal with hundreds of customers every day; they are meeting up directly with the end customers. Thus, it becomes extremely important for the ideal worker to possess good communication skills, so that he can effectively communicate with the customers(Blackman, 2017).

Accuracy and efficiency are self- explanatory characteristics which are must and should in the Banking Occupation. The professional here have to deal with customer’s money, thus they have to be really accurate and efficient in whatever task they are doing at the job (Brien, Thomas & Brown, 2017). In Banks, professionals have to engage in predicting market and customer trends, event based fluctuation and other such functions which require the worker to use his mathematical and analytical ability and justice to his job (Demby, 2015).

Key Characteristics of an Ideal Worker in the Banking Industry

In a customer facing job, it is very much important that the Banking professional has a charming personality, is friendly, cooperative and is willing to go to the extra miles to assist the customer. This characteristic has the ability to transform a worker into an ideal worker (Enticott, 2018). Banking sector has transformed in the recent past due to the incessant use of internet technology and the inherent need to serve the customers with high level of satisfaction. Thus, the Banking professional have to be on their feet every time, learn new things and assist the customers.

Not all managers are leaders; however leadership is extremely important in the most challenging work environment. Thus, if a worker has leadership qualities and traits it not only helps him personally, but also helps the entire organization and the customers to work effectively towards the goals of the Bank. Honesty, Integrity and Ethics define the essence of a person, and is most sought after characteristic in the Ideal worker. All these characteristics are valued in every job; however while dealing with client’s money and their data, honesty, integrity and ethics play a very important role (Nuthall & Old, 2017). As a starting point achieving gender equity in NZ will bring out significant gains for the country, as women can be seen as the guarantors of the growth and this strong force cannot be ignored. For the first time in the history, since quite some time, women have been working alongside men and competing for their jobs. Ageing workforce, declining birth rates, skill shortage and increased participation of women makes it inevitable to include women in the banking profession. According to one of the research conducted by Canadian think tank Catalyst, it was found that women is leadership or board position have the capability of providing 26-60% higher return on the investment(Kim, Lee & Jang, 2017). The New Zealand Census of Women’s participation can be seen as:

Increase in participation of women in Professional life by 2-3% is a harbinger of workforce diversity in New Zealand. Many senior level positions have been filled by Women representation and this will take the count to 24%. It has been mandated since 2012 to create a listing of gender breakdown of senior management and directors in the annual reports. The representation of women on the boards of prominent trading banks has gone up and now it stands at 22.92%, which is comparable to the European Banks (Obi, Leggett & Harris, 2017).

Importance of Gender Diversity in the Banking Industry

Holistically, in comparison to other OECD countries, New Zealand has a relatively higher representation of women workers in occupation dominated by females. Research suggests that almost 50% of the New Zealand works in occupation which has over 80% female representation. These kinds of jobs are lower paid, and the need of the hour is to increase the representation of women in senior leadership and decision making positions(AM Bank, 2018).

Every job has its own aspect which differs from every other job. In banking profession the three major aspects can be seen as:

Ideology: Neoliberalism as a term got picked up in the early 20^th century and has been used for different economic and social ideas.  In the present day the term neoliberalism has been used by people who are extremely critical to the ideas of globalization and also with those of trade unionists. In banking profession the ideal workers have the ideology which is related to neoliberalism and they tend to favour the development happing in and around the Banking industry. Additionally, this ideology helps in smoothening relationship with the customers and creating an environment of sustained growth (Chai & Dibbs, 2018).

Power: An ideal Banking Professional supports socialism, by virtue of his work and concern towards the customers, the banking professional works to help the customers and organization holistically. They give highest priority to the customers, as they are handling the prized asset of customers, Money (McEwan et. al., 2017).

Identity: There are no two doubts that there is a less representation of women in leadership, senior management in New Zealand banking sector. The ideal workers here work hard to remove this problem in society which is based on different social stratification. A lot of Banking Professional believe and pursue the concept of intersectionality, which is dividing the society into various sectional groups (Lacey et. al., 2017).

The reasoning for the existence of ideal characteristics exists to excel in the banking profession, or any other profession as matter of fact. For instance, Banking professional have a front end job and they have to interact with the customers, thus good communication skills, presentable personality, friendliness are some of the ideal characteristics for the banking profession. Similarly, Bankers have to deal with customer data and their money and suggest them where to park their money, hence high level of ethics, integrity and honesty are the characteristics of an ideal worker. It is the persuasion and the helping characteristic of the ideal worker in banking profession which makes them serve the customers effectively.

A lot of people have been included based on the three aspects of ideology, power and identity. In terms of representation of women as identity in the Banking occupation, their representation was low in the start of the industry. But, due to various reforms, inclusion at work, increasing education, women building their skills in leadership, mathematical and analytical ability, and their representation is definitely on a rising spree. The business environment in NZ is changing rapidly, and the efforts of the government and the regulatory bodies will add more diversity element in the workforce, thus increasing the representation of women in banking occupation.

The direct implication for the individuals here is that it most definitely empowers the women, coming into the banking occupation. They will be encouraged and motivated by their leaders which will certainly push them to go beyond their job role and contribute with enhanced productivity. The gain of the organization is clear, the organization will benefit due to the enhanced productivity of the workers, a new culture promoting women in the Banking sector thus gaining a lot of support from the internal and external stakeholders. The society will most definitely be the biggest beneficiary of gender equality in the Banking sector, as it will not only bring out the women from low paid jobs, but will also result in equal division and participation of genders in the business organization. Additionally, inclusion at work which implies equal right and opportunity to grow to all without any biasedness will further give motivation to the employees.

One of the biggest reasons for lack of Women participation in the Banking occupation is attributed to lack of skills in the female workforce. Thus, the banks in order to increase the representation of women in banking occupation and utilize their present competency, has to provide them with sufficient training hours. They have to create training programs especially to increase the participation of women in banking occupation.

Conclusion

The above report can be concluded by saying that Ideal characteristic of workers in Banking domain are linked with Mathematical and analytical ability, leadership skills, honesty and integrity, handling of customer data, client servicing and many more. In the early days of banking domain, women were supressed and had a very little representation, the need of the hour is to change this thinking and utilize the characteristic of an ideal worker to perform at optimum level in the banking domain. The concept of Neoliberalism, Intersectionabilty and capitalism are applied here which will help in improving the number of women working in the Banking occupation.

References 

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