Curdin Duschletta of UBS explains the bank’s training framework and structure, and reveals how it develops its content.

Date: Mar 2011

Tags: Training, Talent development, Education, Regulation

•  When it comes to delivering training content, UBS has defined learning pathways – which are essentially roadmaps for critical roles within the business
• The culture is to involve the leadership at various levels, as well as the bank’s best practitioners in the development and delivery of the content
• In the last couple of years, there is a need to keep a more thorough record of attendance and completion in a more stringent way
• The driver of the training is because it is a business necessity to have well-trained staff

Within UBS, there are various aspects to how the training and development function is structured, said Curdin Duschletta in an interview.

One aspect is the content, and which areas to cover when delivering training, he explained. On the one hand, there is leadership and management training, and on the other there is a strong emphasis on client advisory. There is also a wide range of finance and risk topics, which are more technical and geared towards asset classes and products.

Duschletta said there are then topics related to onboarding, such as getting to know the bank and its strategy, values and vision.

Plus, he added, there is an important focus on professional development – covering more generic skills and capabilities like time management and communication.

When it comes to delivering all this content, the bank has defined learning pathways – which are essentially roadmaps for critical roles within the business. So Duschletta said there is a one-pager which shows the various programmes and learning objectives to benefit individuals in given roles, including the timelines, and the order for doing such training.

Creating engaging content

According to Duschletta, the culture at UBS is to involve the leadership at various levels, as well as the bank’s best practitioners, in the development and delivery of the content. This helps make the training relevant, job-critical and up-to-date.

A key part of this is clearly regular interaction and dialogue with the various business units, he explained, as well as involving subject-matter experts.

For example, the legal or risk specialists would provide guidance on which content should be built into the training to make it relevant to client advisers.

Innovations and changes

Duschletta said the bank has added a range of e-learning courses to its offering – including more than 400 programmes available for everyone at UBS to access.

These range from general topics like time management or providing feedback to others geared towards management and leadership capabilities, as well as topics related to the financial markets.

In terms of the impact of the regulatory environment, Duschletta said it has always influenced the type of content that the bank’s training covers. In particular, in the last couple of years, the firm is required to keep a more thorough record of attendance and completion in a more stringent way.

At the same time, changing regulations have led to a new emphasis on training in these areas.

Helping people develop their potential

When defining training content and programmes, Duschletta said the bank starts by looking at the business needs. It then takes into account the skill and knowledge levels of staff to develop the right training.

Essentially, therefore, the training helps the employees to do their jobs. So while this enables people to develop themselves in terms of becoming more efficient and productive – which they can leverage beyond only their job function – the driver of the training is because it is a business necessity to have well-trained staff, especially in a peoples’ business where relationships clients and the quality of service is the key differentiator in the market.