It’s a win-win situation as bank staff get the entrepreneurial bug
THE active support that RBS is giving to fledgling entrepreneurs has sparked a surge of enthusiasm throughout the bank itself.
“We are learning a lot from the Entrepreneurship Accelerator and the partnerships we have forged with Dell EMC and lawyers Pinsent Masons who offer our entrepreneurs their expertise and advice,” says Gordon Merrylees.
To further that, RBS set up the Entrepreneurial Development Academy (EDA) to share the same tools as the Entrepreneurship Accelerator, helping staff to build confidence, capability, productivity and to better understand the challenges faced by entrepreneurs.
For Merrylees, it’s a win-win scenario. “We have a lot of specialised staff in areas such as HR, security, fraud and resilience and can pass a lot of these skills to entrepreneurs. In turn, that helps our staff to have a better conversation with them, to think more creatively and develop new skills.”
Membership of the academy is, he stresses, voluntary and is proving to be highly popular. “As of this week we have 11,300 of our staff engaged and we aim to have 13,000 by the end of the year. That’s phenomenal – we have been asked to take the proposition to India and we are delighted that already 20% of the bank’s global staff are on this programme.”
Recently, the EDA received independent accreditation through the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. Almost 2,000 RBS staff are currently accredited. “The institute’s conclusion was that the programme was uniquely delivering transformational change,” says Merrylees, who adds that staff also receive credits towards an MBA or other post-graduate qualification.
Staff benefit from an entrepreneurial-style experience which include online learning modules and opportunities to network with entrepreneurs and colleagues and Merrylees believes that in additional to the important personal development facilitated by the EDA, it has very positive results for the bank as staff are able to deploy new skills to deal with customers, win business and use more effective techniques at work.
He’s very happy with the ready uptake. “It’s a great help to us to understand as a bank what our social purpose is within Scotland and its local communities. Knowing more about the traits displayed by an entrepreneur is very valuable and definitely encourages our staff to be more innovative and creative.”
It helps our staff to have a better conversation with entrepreneurs, to think more creatively and develop new skills