WIXLIB

Career Building ata Great CompanyThe Academy atBank of America

Career Building at a GreatCompany: The Academy atBank of AmericaHow does Bank of America pull this off? As most of you know,Bank of America is a pretty amazing company. It employssupport people to maintain great service. I’ve visited manyapproximately 212,000 employees, has 2.8 trillion inbanks over my years as a consultant, and these businesses areassets and rates as one of the most engaged and diversecomplex, rapidly changing and burdened with regulation.workplaces in the world. In what has been one of the mostAs I’ve gotten to know Bank of America better, I’ve becomechallenging periods in modern history, the bank’s CEO,familiar with the ways the company approaches learning andBrian Moynihan, has prioritized teammates’ health anddevelopment. Josh Bronstein, head of L&LD, explains that thewellbeing – publicly acknowledging that employees are thefocus on career growth and mobility across the company isbank’s most valuable resource – through a focus on whatgrounded in foundational, horizontal skills that can be appliedthe company calls “responsible growth.” One of the ways theto many roles. These include customer service, sales andbank drives responsible growth is by being a great place tocredit. For many of its client-facing employees, much of thework. Investments include supporting employees’ financial,bank’s role-specific onboarding and coaching goes through Thephysical and emotional wellness, being a diverse and inclusiveAcademy, a key element of the bank’s focus on L&LD – and it’sworkplace and, as we’ll review, attracting, developing andpretty impressive.retaining exceptional talent through the bank’s leading humanAs many of you know, I’ve become a big fan of what I callresources and learning and leadership development (L&LD)“capability academies,” L&LD teams that partner with theprograms.business to focus on specific operational needs. This approachIn 2020, as the world faced the pandemic and around 85moves you well beyond delivering courses and lets you focuspercent of Bank of America’s employees moved to workingon a company’s overall business needs, partnering with linefrom home, its employee engagement score skyrocketedleaders. This is precisely what John Jordan, head of Theto 91% satisfaction and turnover dropped to 7%. All thisAcademy, has done in his partnership with Josh Bronstein andhappened while the bank exceeded its goal to hire moreother HR leaders.banks offer a lot of products and services and your experiencein a local branch or with an online agent can vary. And withPPP loans, high unemployment and many other financial issueschanging all the time, a bank must continue to hire, train andthan 10,000 employees from low- and moderate-incomecommunities. In 2020, the bank also pivoted its strong summerinternship program to a fully virtual, eight-week experiencefor more than 2,000 global interns, 47 percent of whom wereThe Academy is the onboarding, training and developmentwomen, and 54 percent of the U.S. class were people of color.organization that focuses on the success of employees inI’ve worked with Bank of America since the 1980s whenthe company was headquartered in San Francisco and hada reputation as an execution-oriented, hard-charging place.Since then, the company has merged with NationsBank, movedits corporate headquarters to Charlotte, acquired MBNA,2The Academy FocusConsumer & Small Business, Merrill and the Private Bank. Itserves the needs of approximately 80,000 employees in morethan 120 roles, helping to develop the skills their workforceneeds to be more productive and grow their careers, all whilemeeting the diverse needs of the bank’s clients.Fleet Boston, US Trust, Countrywide Financial and MerrillThe Academy offers instruction — through 97 programsLynch. And despite all these acquisitions and the complexity ofand growing — from subject matter experts, protectedintegration and change, the company remains a growth stock,training time, peer mentors, immersion programs, hands-onwith a 1.8% dividend and price to earnings ratio over 20. Bankexperiential and high-tech learning that is more high-touch andof America’s Glassdoor ratings of 4.0 and CEO approval of 93%personal. All of this is designed to illuminate career pathwaysare astoundingly high, well above the bank’s #1 competitor,for employees and encourages participants to take personalJPMorgan Chase.ownership of their careers.C A R E E R B U I L D I N G AT A G R E AT C O M PA N Y: T H E A C A D E M Y AT B A N K O F A M E R I C A

Figure 1: TitleAs with other capability academies, John partners withAcademy’s mission is not just to train people – it helps connect,GHR and the senior leaders of Consumer & Small Business,enable and support people so they thrive and grow theirMerrill and the Private Bank. As John describes this work, hecareers at the company.reinforces the point that Bank of America, at its core, is really apeople business. Every new product, service center operationor financial goal is entirely dependent on people. And as John’sresearch shows, the main drivers of productivity are tenure,During the pandemic the bank reskilled and realigned moreretention and ongoing development. So, The Academy holdsthan 33,000 teammates across the company to help meet itsitself accountable for engagement, retention, growth andclients’ needs. These job changes enabled people to learn newtalent mobility. Before The Academy existed, many disparateresponsibilities and systems, and to work with new teams.training groups worked throughout the consumer business.To address these changes, The Academy leveraged many ofTurnover was high (as high as 30% in some roles), creatingits learning programs, practice environments, conversationenormous cost, reducing overall productivity and impactingsimulators powered by artificial intelligence and coaching fromcustomer service.more than 225 Academy managers, as well as content andNow that The Academy has been in place for almost five years,3Focus on the Employee Experiencefacilitation from the company’s L&LD function.John understands how tenure and retention are the flywheelTransparency of Career Opportunities: Bank of Americaof success. Bank of America, like every other major company,offers learning and development programs with robustis filled with complex systems. It can take time for people toresources to ensure all teammates can advance their careersbecome completely settled in their jobs, learn the systemsthrough a variety of tools including their Learning Hub and aand products, and develop a network of supportive peers. Thetuition assistance program. These include customer service,C A R E E R B U I L D I N G AT A G R E AT C O M PA N Y: T H E A C A D E M Y AT B A N K O F A M E R I C A

sales and credit which are key foundational skills that drivesupporting metrics in the bank’s Human Capital Managementinternal mobility across the company. For many of its client-Report. One of the bank’s key diversity-focused programsfacing teammates, The Academy utilizes these resources andis Pathways. The 2018 goal of Pathways was to hire 10,000leverages the company’s L&LD career planning system calledindividuals from low- and moderate-income communitiesthe Career Path Tool. This tool shows employees the careerover five years. The program, which is delivered in partnershipopportunities available to them, helps them plan for futurebetween HR, L&LD and the businesses, has been a greatroles and builds a specific plan around that.success. Pathways fuels the talent pipeline across the companyHiring and training in cohorts: With retention and tenureby providing professional skills training and career pathwaysas a primary goal, John realized early in the first year thatthrough partnerships with community colleges and localThe Academy was up and running that turnover was a majororganizations like Year Up, UnidosUS and the National Urbanproblem. People would join the bank, go through complexLeague. 27% of Pathways hires have already transitioned totraining and onboarding, and then for various reasons,other business lines at the bank, and 15% have been promoted.find it hard to succeed. To address this, The Academy teamFurthermore, the company met its 2018 goal two years aheadworked with L&LD, HR and the businesses to stop hiring on aof schedule.continuous basis, and to slow down individual hiring and haveLeveraging Technology: Bank of America has always investedthem join in cohorts. A cohort of hires all join at the same timein technologies but prior to the introduction of The Academy,and go through onboarding together, creating relationshipsseveral of the learning systems were old and difficult to use.and knowledge-sharing that dramatically improve retention.John and the L&LD team worked in tandem to refresh the(Many other companies such as SAP and Epic do this as well.)technology experience, leveraging a new learning experienceEmpathy for Life Stages: Bank of America knows that to bestplatform, career-customized learning portals, simulations andserve its clients, its employees need to understand their uniquevirtual reality for practice, and comprehensive assessmentneeds. So, it developed a program that focuses on six life stagesand skills-based learning. The company also uses closed-across separate courses that encourage employees to focus onloop surveys and feedback, so employees can get immediateeach topic individually.feedback on any learning activity and learning managers canEarly adulthood – new career joiners Parenting – need for parenting time and support Caregiving – need to support parents and other familyMeasuring SuccessmembersAcross the bank, metrics measurement is key to success, andRetirement – preparing people for retirement or part-timeJohn’s team is no different in holding itself accountable. TheretirementAcademy, in partnership with HR, has seen retention increase Widowhood – supporting people during a family lossby approximately 50% and the average tenure by nearly 10 End of life or legacy – helping people with end of life issuesmonths since 2016. The Academy has been instrumental 4see when an individual has fallen behind. Embracing Diversity: Bank of America has had a long-standingin driving the company’s best ever client experience scoresfocus on diversity and inclusion. This includes transparencyand contributing to the bank’s tremendous improvement inin the progress it continues to make in creating an inclusiveretention and its high employee engagement scores.environment that allows all employees to bring their wholeIn addition, The Academy has a very sophisticated approach toselves to work. This focus starts at the top of the house withmeasuring growth and supporting learners. As each employeeCEO Brian Moynihan serving as leader of the bank’s globalmakes progress on their onboarding or ongoing development,diversity and inclusion council and includes the company’sthe bank surveys them and provides their responses to theboard of directors as well as accountability at all leadershipappropriate program manager to understand each individual’slevels. The progress is highlighted each year along withongoing development needs. We call this “shortening theC A R E E R B U I L D I N G AT A G R E AT C O M PA N Y: T H E A C A D E M Y AT B A N K O F A M E R I C A