Transforming a GSIB's Tech Workforce with DEI and Talent Creation as a Service

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The Client

Our client is a globally significant important bank (GSIB) with over 100,000 employees. They provide a wide range of financial services to consumers and institutions worldwide.

The Problem

The client faced several pressing challenges:

• Tech Talent Shortage: The bank was struggling to find and attract tech talent with expertise in legacy systems and application development, ranging from Mainframe technologies like COBOL and JCL through to Java and Python. 
• Tech Transformation Ambitions: With less than 10% of their workload in the Cloud, manual testing practices and limited internal collaboration tools, the client had a long road ahead with regards to their digital transformation efforts.
• Diversity and Inclusion: The bank lacked representation for underserved and underrepresented groups in its technology workforce. 
• Inclusive Culture: They aspired to build a more inclusive culture and community within their tech teams.

The Solution

To address these challenges, a multi-faceted approach was implemented:

Tech Talent and DEI Roadmap: A strategic talent roadmap was designed with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at its core. This involved creating communities for underrepresented groups in technology, where all people could feel a sense of belonging.

Custom Tech Training Curriculum: A custom-built tech training curriculum was developed to cater to the bank's bespoke business needs, with a focus on legacy systems, cloud technology and software application development.

Talent Creation as a Service: A unique talent strategy was introduced - 'Talent Creation as a Service.' This innovative approach was driven by the realization that the status quo was insufficient. A mere 28.8% representation of women in tech underscored the need for a fresh and diverse pipeline. This approach included creating a talent pipeline from the ground up, involving sourcing, training, and delivering talent. A diagram was created to visualize this process.

Source -> Invest -> Train -> Deliver

Business Outcomes

South Florida Engineering Center: Strategio supported the launch of a new engineering center in South Florida from the ground up. This strategic location was chosen to foster innovation while maintaining a high-level strategic perspective on the business.

Diverse Early Career Technologists: Through the talent creation as a service approach, Strategio trained and deployed more than 80 early career technologists to the client in less than six months. Over 90% of these individuals came from historically underrepresented or underserved groups in technology.

New Mainframe Practice: The bank successfully launched and scaled a new Mainframe Practice, thanks to the early career talent who were custom-trained in a range of Mainframe technologies.

Accelerated Enterprise Transformation: The pace of enterprise transformation was significantly accelerated. Custom trained Strategio Technologists were swiftly integrated into teams working on Cloud & DevOps, QA/Test automation, Site Reliability Engineering, Production Support, and Full-Stack Development, driving modernization and digital transformation. This allowed the bank to improve the speed and quality of their Software Development Life Cycle, meaning they could deploy new applications and application changes for customers in less time.

Summary

In conclusion, by placing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront of their tech talent strategy and adopting our transformative 'Talent Creation as a Service' model, this client was able to not only overcome its tech talent shortage and digital transformation challenges, but also foster a more inclusive culture and community within its technology teams. This approach not only improved their workforce's diversity but also accelerated their enterprise transformation, positioning them for continued success in the digital era.