Handelsbanken

New Business Opportunities Through Pictures and Graphs

When you meet Ulla Reuterskiöld, the faith in the bank will be obvious. Without much effort, she convinces her audience that banks in general, and Handelsbanken in particular, are the right thing in life. Enthusiasm, job satisfaction, wisdom and a sincere interest in other neighbors are some of the success factors. Thus, success has come to Ulla Reuterskiöld without being a career focused person.

 

Today, Ulla Reuterskiöld, Office Manager at Handelsbanken in Enköping, is doing well at her office and has a growth rate that is higher than the bank's average. For those not familiar with this venerable bank's hierarchy, the position of Office Manager is in effect a CEO's service.

 

"I ended up in the right place immediately after I had finished the Key to Business Finance Program", says Reuterskiöld. "It was mostly a coincidence, but that is just Handelsbanken.  I've never really had the desire to change."

 

Substantial Change

In connection with that, Jan Wallander, former head of Sundsvallsbanken, became CEO of Handelsbanken in 1971 when the bank went through a huge organizational change.

"Within Handelsbanken, we usually talk about the time before and after Wallander," says Reuterskiöld. "He decided to take the whole structure of the bank and break it up into smaller units with no discretion for the most part, except wages. The reorganization appeared to bear fruit."

 

"The local perspective is very important," says Reuterskiöld, "especially when granting credit. Anything can look good on paper, but at a personal meeting, it might not feel good at all.

Although the opposite can occur, nothing is as it should be in the paperwork, but a personal meeting creates a strong and positive confidence."

 

"The relationship among humans is extremely important," stresses Ulla, "especially when dealing with financial matters. We must dare to trust the internal compass."

 

Reuterskiöld's changes eventually worked in Enköping v Handelsbanken at Sergel Square. After working in Kungsängen and Jakobsberg, she reached the management group ten years ago when she was offered the post of Office Manager in Enköping.

 

Decentralized Responsibility for Personnel

When decentralization within the Bank also achieved wage issues in 2001, Ulla felt that at times she was out in deep water.  She participated in managerial and leadership training, but felt it was not effective. The near term was not included.

 

"It was a difficult human resource issue, particularly as we ourselves would decide on wages.

Handelsbanken centrally set up either minimum or maximum limits on salaries. It became the office manager and management team that had to do assessments of the various employees' efforts."  It was difficult to gain new customers without all employees engaged in the process and there was not a good method to bring about this change. 

 

"We did not have any instruments to see what each had done during the year. Who had really done what? It was the most subjective evaluations and it did not feel good," says Ulla.  With the help and suggestion of a co-worker, they started the Program Manager program to better equip managers through more focused training.

 

"It was Peter Soderholm and the Bonanza approach that came to light," says Ulla, a little jokingly.  But behind the words are sincere earnest.

 

''When I started to head the program and came into contact with Bonanza, I realized that Peter was right. He said that effective and clear analysis with graphs and images would quickly provide new business opportunities. "

 

The Goal - To Understand

"I began to implement various programs in Handelsbanken fourteen years ago. Pretty soon they became interested in all regions to train their office staff with the Bonanza Programs and approach," says Peter Soderholm. The aim of the programs was to teach financial context and the Bank's key figures and ratios, which were used for the analysis of client companies. "It's a big difference in the 'able' and 'understanding'," says Peter. "With simplicity and clarity, you can get the most complicated financial relationships to become obvious. As the approach of the PC-tool Bonanzagraf were already in the bank, it cost nothing to make the new analysis. Working with BonanzaGraf is as easy as opening a new document in Word," he says.

 

Personal Visits

After the first two-day training programs were completed, Peter Soderholm met with all heads of offices in their respective offices.

"I picked up their own figures, we discussed the objectives, impacts and expectations of the goals, skills situation in the office and possible activities to achieve them. The work was also included in the follow-up period, per employee and for the whole office," says Peter.

 

"It was almost like a revelation," says Ulla. "It became so clear how we could move forward. With the training I received through Bonanza to make the business plan. Now linked directly to activity plans and each co-worker's personal action plan. It was unbelievably good and the new thinking was implemented in 2004," says Ulla.

 

"All of the bank knew what to do, when it would be and how much was expected of them so that they could achieve their goals. It also became clear was the training and skills development to be deployed on the objectives could be reached."

 

"Best of all was that everyone felt comfortable with the system and their job. We were also very good at following up on this year's work," continues Ulla. "It is very important to have control over what has been done."

 

Tools for Performace Reviews

When the business plan targets had been achieved, both Ulla and her co-workers had the best possible tools for the evaluations, before the individual reviews.

 

"It was the end of the subjective process," says Ulla. "If the employee reached their goal, he or she received a pay raise. The system is simply brilliant."

 

 

"It's fast and very easy to evaluate the results," says Ulla. "We have also replaced the previous performance reports with what we call the office comparison. There are both balance sheet and income statements and also a comparison with other offices - all with clear BonanzaGrafs."

 

 

Better than Other Banks

Profitability is the ultimate goal and Handelsbanken will be more profitable than the average of other banks. If the bank is better than the average for Swedish banks, it gives employees a share of the proceeds or profit sharing, which was established in connection with the major reorganization in 1971.

 

 

Constantly Improving

Much of the daily work is to constantly improve, increase profitability and reduce costs. Sound familiar?  "We are no different than other companies," continues Ulla, "but the whole system of Handelsbanken is based on benchmarking and we may complete performance reports and statistics each month.  All the offices would be above average, so it becomes a positive momentum for of us all."

The base for the entire operation is the customers and they regularly take CSI measurements.

"Our office is above the cut there too," says Ulla. "The top grades are the bank account managers with 89% customer satisfaction.  The office staff and telephone management are not far behind at 85% and 83%."  But Ulla is not completely satisfied.  She constantly strives for increased personal contact with customers, existing as well as new.

 

Peter Soderholm at Bonanza remains involved in the next stage of its training and consultancy work.  "Bonanza continues to work with us. Our office is a little too dependent on net interest income, so now we are looking at whether we should broaden the business of insurance, stocks and commission income," says Ulla. "Bonanza has also been with us at the office for a kick-off for the fall of 2004 and the entire staff participated with great commitment," she continues. "Hopefully, it becomes clear to us how important it is that we also help clients with issues relating to insurance, generational shifts, etc., where we can initiate a discussion."

Other lessons learned during the kick-off was the staff to find new business opportunities for existing customers and how they should approach the new customers.

"It's so inspiring and exciting with new perspectives!" says Ulla.

 

The first training program with twelve managers has proved very productive - now the next group is in line. The additional fifteen branch managers from the Swedish banking region trained in the art of making better deals.  "You can always get better," as Ulla puts it, succinctly.

"Beware Handelsbanken's competitors!"