As one of the leading financial institutions in Lebanon, FNB conducts commercial, retail, financial, and investment banking activities throughout the Middle East, with headquarters in the heart of Beirut’s central district. It is committed to offering the highest quality banking services, thanks to a highly qualified and motivated workforce and advanced banking technology.

With a nationwide network of 25 branches employing more than 400 people with further growth predicted in the near feature, the bank decided several years ago to implement a full-fledged digital learning program for the first time in order to focus on staff development.

Increasing operational performance for all employees

Increasing operational performance for all employees Training had previously taken place on an ad-hoc basis, with select employees sent to outside training sessions as needed. But the decision was made to invest in a bank branded e-training effort, in order to better achieve key objectives, the most important being the development of a culture of continuous learning. The bank’s leadership team also wanted to ensure that all employees were expertly versed in the latest regulatory and compliance issues. It also hoped to harmonize and streamline approaches to customer relations, problem solving, and management training across the bank’s many branches.

With these goals in mind, FNB implemented a customized and dynamic learning model, in partnership with IQUAD Learning Solutions, a CrossKnowledge strategic alliance partner is the Middle East region, in order to offer tailored learning opportunities to all employees. The solution, which utilized CrossKnowledge’s infrastructure and content, offered core training across the bank’s departmental-specific courses that targeted and enhanced specific skills; compliance courses in anti-money laundering, and other regulatory issues. As an added benefit, the courses can be adapted over time to better respond to the bank’s needs.

After just a year, an incredible 70 percent of the bank’s target employees have participated in the program, with 96 percent reporting that their professional knowledge had increased as a result. “E-learning was a new experience for the bank” says Eliane Noufaily, Head of staff development. “IQUAD Learning Solutions did a great job explaining the benefits and how to make it work for us.”

Promoting various learning formats

training department was able to begin to build a culture of learning by organizing core training courses offered to all employees. Online learning courses in management and leadership were also offered to bank employees based on his or her job function, in order to develop departmental skills necessary to their role and motivate them to grow and develop new expertise. Some courses offered a blended learning approach, so that employees could control the time, place, and pace of the training, which, Noufaily says, was important to convincing hesitant employees that e-learning was something they could fit into their schedules. Other courses focused on community learning so that employees could benefit from the discussion and training of a classroom environment. This combination learning approach “was the best solution for us” says Noufaily.

Reaching high engagement levels

FNB was able to achieve particularly high engagement levels by utilizing the CrossKnowledge learners’ engagement best practices and the platform’s ability to send regular reminders to employees registered for learning events. Those reminders encourage participation, and also enable the bank to track the status of learning. As a result, FNB is able to generate reports displaying all the training assigned and which employees are taking advantage of courses and when. “It’s very flexible” says Noufaily, “as well as effective and efficient.”

The platform’s ability to quickly assess employee knowledge on relevant topics, through surveys, quizzes, and other assessments, furthermore generate detailed reports on departmental progress. The recommended next steps were particularly helpful for tailoring the learning components. Having such rich and highly detailed data on employee knowledge and development was revelatory to the bank’s senior leadership, said Noufaily. “The management was amazed” she says, “and very excited about the possibilities of using that data to determine what courses are effective and to ascertain which employees are benefiting the most from training and development”.

The bank also plans to begin expanding its informal learning offerings by giving employees access to a reference library of banking industry videos as a means to increase selflearning and keep building the bank’s culture.

Thanks to the helpful reminders available through CrossKnowledge’s platform and to the convenient structure of the training, the bank achieved extraordinary participation during its first year. “The accomplishment rate is very high” says Noufaily. “70 percent of the target group was involved in the program, and 60 percent fully completed their modules. According to a survey of satisfaction levels and solution effectiveness, to which more than half the population answered, 84 percent confirmed they would consider e-learning the following year. 96 percent said their knowledge increased, and 89 percent said their overall experience was satisfying.”