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A dream comes true
Bruno is 52 and did his apprenticeship in the retail trade. When, in the 1980s, banks also gave career changers the opportunity to gain a foothold in the well-paid sector, he seized his chance. Basically, he liked his job at the time, but as a young man he was attracted to banking sector with the well-dressed people who looked after wealthy clients from all over the world. It was an industry that characterized Switzerland and whose employees were highly valued.
The conversation with the fifty-year-old head of the department where Bruno was to work in the future went well. But he felt a little insecure. The building of the big bank was impressive in itself, then all the people bustling around, all in dark suits and nice ties of course - it was simply an experience. This culminated in the wage discussion. He would never have dreamed of earning more than 85,000 francs. Suddenly, doors were opened in his mind and family opportunities became tangible that he had never dared to think about before. It was a step into a new industry, a new life, and one that would last forever.
Part of something big for the first time
Initially, Bruno found the work demanding. He started punctually at eight o'clock, sometimes a little earlier. He and his colleagues worked calmly, concentrated and conscientiously on the repetitive steps. The supervisor was only involved in difficult cases or special questions. The breaks were then a little more relaxed; many of his colleagues came from other sectors, just like himself. However, some had also completed a banking apprenticeship. What they all had in common was that they appreciated the structure of the work. The individual activity did not look like a great responsibility, but together they ensured that payments were processed, step by step, form by form, with the precision of a Swiss watch. He was part of something big, he was part of the team and the team stuck together.
Over the years, there were more and more changes in the processes, and technological developments in particular meant that Bruno also had to learn how to use computers and various systems. Looking back, he is almost a little proud of everything he learned. He smiles when he thinks back to the young man sitting in the interview. Today, it is still exciting to enter the large buildings, to find his way through the beehive of working bank employees to the workplace and open up a technical universe that he learned from scratch. He knows his processes, every move is perfect, he is a processing specialist and he is proud of that.
No one puts on any weight here
Bruno is one of the experts who can be summarized under the term "Banking Operations". Some also refer to them as back-office units or simply as processing. They are barely visible from the outside and are often very different in appearance from the beaming customer advisors in the various front offices of a bank. When you enter a room of back-office units, everything is quiet, but not silent. Individuals are standing together in front of the screens discussing a problem that has arisen, others are working intently while all you can hear is the click of the keyboard. If you shout "good morning", you see a few puzzled looks and the odd mischievous smile, perhaps a murmur and then the busy clicking again. Loudness, self-promotion and grandstanding are not part of the mentality of these units. Instead, they stand for precision, diligence and concentration. Many are not academic high-flyers, nor can they imagine placing themselves at the center of attention or launching major initiatives. As a group, however, they have an enormous impact. The interplay of many small actions and many small processes creates great performance, without which there would be no bank. They are proud of what they do and, if necessary, defend the quality of their processes. It is almost as if the only thing that drives them to white heat is their carelessness with validated processes. Mistakes are corrected immediately, but ideally not made in the first place. This means that innovations are not the enemy, but are viewed with a critical eye, because even if the individual process step seems insignificant to an outsider, they know every nook and cranny of these processes, so nothing can go wrong.
The symbol of quality and a sense of duty
Like Bruno, they have all had to adapt to the new technological developments. As part of their process responsibility, they are familiar with the IT landscape and can navigate it with ease. Of course, they are not IT specialists, but they are process specialists with well-developed technical skills. Above all, however, they are the symbol of a bank when it comes to quality, commitment and tirelessness. The customer advisors at Front give the customer their full attention and take their orders. The processing units then quietly ensure that the customer order reaches its destination or, in other words, that it is processed.
The change keeps Bruno busy
Bruno has worked for his bank for 35 years. A lot has changed, but he wouldn't know where else he would want to work. This bank is part of his life and he does his job well. The boss says so too. He has friends in other departments, some of them are doing training or courses. Should he do that too? Why should he do presentation courses? He never wanted to go to leadership either. Others are better at that. He doesn't like learning English, but he now knows the most important phrases, which he pulls out when someone from another region writes to him. It's not that he doesn't want to learn anything, but is there any point in attending fancy courses? Isn't it enough to simply make sure that he keeps up to date within his area of responsibility? The boss used to say that it was important to be familiar with the new applications. Bruno does that too, and he regularly takes part in courses. It's interesting and helps him in his day-to-day work.
"I do think that we are innovative at Banking Operations . I mean all the new tools we use, that's good. We're also involved in the projects, always. It's stressful, always alongside the actual work, but it works, we do it as long as it makes the process better. I think it's unnecessary to make the process so complicated. Then you say everything will be better now and then you have to constantly play firefighter to get the mistakes out again. Well, but as I said, we're doing it ," reports Bruno.
Even eternity does not last forever
When the line manager calls the team together one morning, there is tension in the air. It quickly becomes clear that it's not about the usual changes, no new tool, no new organizational structure, no, now it's about everything. For Bruno, digitisation has always been an empty concept. "It's not as if we work with carrier pigeons today. What does digitisation mean? I mean, we're still needed today. Who finds the errors and the solution at the same time? We've always had these new tools, now there are just a few more, but I just don't see how it could work without us," he says.
Bruno came to the bank to stay. He has worked here for 35 years. In 15 months, it will be over. Not so many people are needed anymore, the new tools will take over the work. Now he has to show what he has done in recent years. Further education, training, certifications. He doesn't understand why everything he can do is suddenly no longer enough. Perhaps he has suppressed the warnings, or perhaps they were not clearly stated. The 52-year-old is a process specialist. He is an operational expert for precisely these processes in precisely this business, in precisely this bank. He can do that. In 18 months, these processes will be finally digitized and his work will be automated from now on.
