How NAB is getting ready for the NEXTTECH Revolution post COVID-19

To survive and thrive in the NEXTTECH Revolution NAB recognises that to create its future they will need to continually reskill and upskill its leaders, managers and employees.


Susan Ferrier – Group Executve – People and Culture at NAB shares her insights on the importance of Lifelong Learning at NAB.


Its all about providing an outstanding Customer Experience (specifically “the digital customer experience”) with Bankers having the skills to interrogate data to create insights for the customer and then communicate those insights with the customer effetively.


To do this, we need a highly skilled team with the desire, skills, capabilities and confidence, to best serve our Customers.

We recognise that to recruit and retain the brightest and best, we need to invest in continuous learning and provide our teams with a unique level of education and accreditation,  equiping them with the skillsets to work in a post-virus NEXTTECH economy. 


Since COVID-19, with the help of  our digital learning platform, there has been  a 20 per cent increase in the use of digital learning  and a more than 40 per cent increase in hours spent learning. , Our employees can learn what they need to, when it suits them.


During the past few months, 600 bankers from across NAB have been able to move to the frontline and support on customer calls.

What skills will be in demand at NAB and in the banking sector?

There will be a demand for tech skills, data analysis and data science, machine learning and AI, and cyber security as we increasingly invest in the digital customer experience, and with the advent of Open Banking. 


We will need people with the skills to interrogate data to create insights for the customer, and build strong realtionships with them.”

Key areas of focus has been 

• soft-skills of EQ, connection and collaboration
• customer service  
• strategic thinking, 
• cloud computing, 
• coding, 
• machine learning and 
• data science

There has been a focus on “cross-skilling” teams, so workplaces can move resources seamlessly and quickly to where they are most needed. ‘AGILITY is key. 

So what type of employees are NAB looking to hire?

The successful bankers of tomorrow will need to be adaptable, resilient, empathetic and emotionally intelligent. They will need to be able to work on projects and solve problems collaboratively.They will also need strong digital skills, including knowledge of data and analytics.

NAB is looking for people who have a thirst for learning, with  the motivation, ability and desire to acquire new skills and apply them quickly so they can continue to serve customers well.

In this  digital and data-driven world,  a great relationship with the client is all important. The Banker will need to use the data to good effect data skills and work collaboratively with data analytics specialists to provide a more personalised experience for the customer.

It’s all about Learning

At NAB we are committed to lifelong learning – increasing digital learning and opportunities to learn from each other, working with the best learning partners and being continuously agile and passionately collaborative about the form and process of learning. 

Posted on July 15, 2020