As 2022 draws to a close, I’d like to reflect on Qudos Bank’s achievements. While economic conditions are challenging, being a customer-owned bank means that we put you, our customers, front-of-mind when it comes to every business decision.
With that, we are working towards being a bank that you can rely on, which means providing the functionalities needed to support your financial goals, no matter what they are. Our people have been working hard behind the scenes, updating processes, and introducing new systems to help improve your experience as a customer.
As the festive season and new year approaches, I’m excited to look to the future and see the goals we plan on bringing to life in 2023.
For now, I’d like to talk about the recent projects we’ve achieved as a business in the last few months.
In September, we officially launched the first phase of our new Lending Origination System to our Broker channel, with enhanced automation, application tracking, identity verification and reduced administration leading to speedy conditional approval of loans.
This has been one of the biggest system transformations we have ever undertaken as a bank in terms of the scale and complexity, but I’m pleased that the roll out is already yielding positive benefits.
I would like to send my thanks to all our employees and partners involved in this project – your contributions have been tremendous, and I’m very much looking forward to the next release of the digital online lending application for customers to take advantage of.
We’re currently in the process of refining our brand and vision as a bank, and through that, we’ve been gathering feedback from both our customers and employees to gain perspectives on propositions we could bring to the market in the future.
In September, we ran an employee survey and working groups, to help gather and consolidate this feedback, helping us identify key themes from our people.
In addition to our people survey, we also invited some of you to dedicated focus groups. This gave you the opportunity to share your thoughts and opinions on our products, customer service, and brand.
The customer focus groups helped us gain a deeper understanding on where we can provide greater utility and improve as a business so we can make improvements in the future.
Thank you for dedicating your time in sharing your voice and opinions on what we could do to be the bank that you value most.
I’m pleased to share that the Voice Project has awarded us with their Best Workplace Award for 2022. This prestigious award provides recognition for great workplaces who implement excellent management practices and a highly engaged workforce.
The Voice Project facilitated an engagement survey for our employees and the results revealed that they had exceptional levels of engagement and satisfaction, and we exceeded the criteria of 80% or above staff satisfaction. I’m very pleased to share that Employee Engagement was 85% with overall employee satisfaction of 80.1% which is 6.2% above the industry benchmark. This not only highlights our excellent work culture but it’s an indication that we look after our employees, with great benefits, and provide them with the opportunities to deliver impactful work.
Following the results of our workplace survey, it’s clear that one of our greatest strengths as a business is that we treat everyone with respect. During August and September, our employees went through facilitated training by our internal Learning and Development team on Psychological Safety.
We’re proud that the foundation of our culture is built through an environment where we can learn from each other, encourage collaboration, challenging the status quo, and promoting a good risk culture.
The purpose of the Psychological Safety training is to encourage our employees to speak up respectfully, and how to effectively communicate ideas, concerns, and questions. We’re proud to foster a work environment to encourage our employees to share what they’re thinking in a respectable manner. Since the training, I believe it has helped create an environment where employees feel safe to speak up.
The work we’re doing to shape our brand and vision for the years ahead will start to evolve over the coming year. 2023 will be a year dedicated to transformation, setting us up to offer you the best experience well into the future. We’ll be reviewing our technology and capabilities, systems, and processes in a holistic way.
The banking landscape and consumer needs are changing, and we need to make sure we continue to adapt and flex our offering to stay relevant and competitive. I look forward to share more over the next 12 months. Thank you, our customers, for your support this year, and I wish you and your families a safe and Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we operate and pay our respects to Elders past and present, and to emerging community leaders. We also acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play within the communities in which Qudos Bank operates and where our team members reside.
