Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi keeps account of learning

Citation

(2004), "Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi keeps account of learning", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 36 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2004.03736eab.005

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi keeps account of learning

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi keeps account of learning

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi (BTM) has implemented a new system to help to manage learning for the bank's 20,000 worldwide employees.

The Japanese banking industry has faced numerous challenges over the last few years. The reorganization of banks and growth in new areas of business is dramatically changing the market. Japanese banks have a strong interest in developing new financial products, strengthening their sales capabilities and creating new sales-promotion strategies. While many Japanese banks are still undergoing a restructuring process, BTM has completed this transformation and views the implementation of the new tool as a strategic move aimed at improving employee productivity.

BTM provides a suite of employee-training courses through its Web based learning site named “Open”. The Saba Enterprise Learning solution will provide the bank with a unified view of profiles, competencies, content, history and planning data to develop and effectively deploy human capital across the enterprise.

The bank expects significantly to reduce operating costs for employee learning and development, while broadening the scope of training by reducing the traditional reliance on classroom-based learning. By eliminating geographical constraints and giving employees easy access to Web-based learning whenever and wherever they wish, flexibility will be greatly improved.

BTM offers commercial, investment, and trust banking products and services to businesses, governments and individuals. Its domestic network comprises more than 300 branches, sub-branches and agencies. Its overseas operations consist of approximately 400 facilities located in all the major financial and commercial centres of the world.

“The rapidly changing needs of the Japanese financial-services market are driving market-leading companies to introduce new products and services and to ensure that their employees understand and can effectively sell these offerings,” said Bobby Yazdani, Saba chairman and chief executive. “We are pleased to be able to support the training and development needs of market leaders such as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.”

Saba has also won a contract with airport operator BAA, which annually faces a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) audit against strict competency standards for its rescue and fire-fighting personnel. The standards provide a detailed role-map with 12 different competencies that are to be met by all personnel, from fire-fighters to station commanders. The CAA also mandates quarterly assessments throughout the year, which require audits and extensive records for all competencies. If BAA fails to comply, the CAA has the power to close any airport at any time, which could severely disrupt BAA's yearly management of 127 million passengers in the UK.

BAA required a transparent training solution that provided a systematic method of managing the delivery of all training, while at the same time constantly assessing the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills and accredited competencies. BAA chose Enterprise Learning for its scalability, ease of use, speed of reporting and compatibility with existing IT infrastructure.

BAA employees, including fire-fighters, are able to get direct access to the system at any time through airport work stations. As David Whittington, fire-service group training manager, explained: “The fire-fighters typically need to log on to check records, determine when upcoming assessments are due and begin preparing for them”.

Enterprise Learning enables BAA to manage and monitor every aspect of UK-wide training from one desktop. “Meeting data-management and reporting requirements is a challenging task and Enterprise Learning enables BAA to ensure our fire-service teams comply with best practice,” said David Whittington. “Without systems like this, it would be all the more difficult to ensure data-management and reporting requirements are met.”

BAA is the world's leading airport company. It owns and operates seven UK airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton – and has a stake in 12 other airports outside the UK. BAA has 11,000 employees around the world.