siliconindia | | AUGUST 20218IN MYOPINIONBy Girish Ganesan, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion and Head of Talent for U.S., TD BankLike many other industries, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation for banks and other financial institutions as changing customer behavior and a remote workforce presented an immediate need to adopt new tools and technologies. The unprecedented situation forced companies to reevaluate their processes and establish new ways of doing business, and digital technologies allowed many of us to avoid a complete standstill, as billions of people were asked to work or study from home.Post-Covid, the world is going to be fundamentally different from how we have operated in the past.The Push Towards Digital LiteracyPre-Covid, organizations moved towards digital transformation at a slow pace, but the pandemic forced them to quickly implement new digital tools and online platforms to serve customers and engage their employees. This continued rapid pace of technology innovation and COVID-19 disruption will continue to force reinvention and drive advancement.Similarly, the nature of organizing conferences and meetings also has changed. The `seminar' has transformed HOW THE PANDEMIC TRANSFORMED DIGITAL LITERACY AND INCLUSIONto `webinar.' The rise of video conferencing apps such as Webex, Zoom and Microsoft Teams will be the future of business engagement activities. The challenge this evolution presents in the workplace is that we all were not born in the technological era, and not everyone knows how to operate digital devices at the same level. As business becomes increasingly digital, companies need to ensure their employees have access to the training and resources necessary to feel educated and confident in their ability to use the new technologies in their workplace interaction. Like many companies, TD has a diverse, multi-generational workforce, and we also serve customers ranging from Gen Z to Baby Boomers. Digital literacy was a priority for us well before the pandemic began, but our journey certainly was expedited as a result of it. As we rolled out new technologies to support our customers through virtual platforms and digital banking tools, we also quickly pivoted towards virtual learning, virtual D&I events, and other engagement activities for our colleagues. We realized that with ever-changing customer technologies, we needed to ensure we were offering the support required for our colleagues to feel comfortable with the technologies themselves too. Investing in how to adapt to new technology can go a long way.Our digital literacy program offers accessible learning experiences to increase our employees' digital literacy and ensure that they have the technical knowledge required to thrive in that rapidly changing environment. We started offering our digital literacy program to our executives, managers, and then to all 90,000 employees worldwide.Bank Digitalization, The Way AheadDuring the pandemic, TD developed and launched over 100 new capabilities to inform and educate customers as well as provide new services. One service is a Virtual Assistant that within its first week logged 75,000 customer sessions and more than 135,000 customer interactions; another is SimpleApps, a platform developed in days that has been used over half a million times to facilitate relief service applications to programs like Paycheck Protection
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