Developing our people
Ensuring we have a talented, engaged and diverse workforce is of the highest priority for BMO Financial Group. To reach this goal, we focus on the strategic development and management of our employees.
Engaging Our Employees
Our Annual Employee Survey continues to demonstrate the success of our human resources strategies – and confirm BMO’s reputation as an employer of choice. In 2008, our employee engagement score remained notably high compared to other large industries surveyed.
We will continue to pursue these human resources strategies in 2009. They directly reflect BMO’s priorities – high performance, excellence in leadership and development of the best talent throughout our company – all of which have, at their core, our customers.
Achieving High Performance
In 2008, we continued to pursue our objectives of improving performance and placing our customers at the centre of everything we do. One of the major human resources strategies we pursued was an assessment of how best to provide the learning opportunities that will enable our 37,000 employees to achieve higher performance as well as their own career goals.
Investing in Our People
Our Institute for Learning is at the centre of all our training, education and development activities. This world-class learning environment stands as a strong and tangible symbol of our commitment to investing in our people, evident in our average of six training days annually per employee – leading against external benchmarks.
After a complete reassessment of our training, we identified four strategic priorities aligned with our change agenda. These are intake and orientation, sales and service, leadership and management development and risk management. Changes are now underway to ensure that the training we provide in these important disciplines is customer-centric, relevant and easily accessible, equipping our employees with the best business knowledge and tools to perform.
Focus on Leadership
With renewed focus on our customers, a high-performance culture and excellence in talent development, the effectiveness of our leaders is paramount to our success. With this in mind, we have launched a new Advanced Leadership Program in partnership with the Rotman School of Management.
The content of this nine-day course, which is structured to help our leaders excel at managing change in these challenging times, is customized and incorporates the latest research. The program applies the best business education and problem-solving techniques to address our specific business issues. It allows our senior management to share their perspectives and analyze, discuss and debate innovative approaches to our customers and our business.
Talent Management
In parallel with our focus on leadership development, we pursue excellence in talent management through the ongoing review and assessment of our employees’ performance at all levels.
We conduct rigorous and disciplined talent reviews and leadership round tables across the enterprise. In 2008, we conducted 30 round tables for executive leaders to assess talent across several dimensions, ensuring that a balanced consideration of each individual’s potential and their demonstrated results is achieved.
Over the past year, we have succeeded in expanding the pool of emerging leaders, identified early in their careers, by 20%, and we strive to better represent diversity across all talent segments.
Our emerging leaders and executives continue to find value in the feedback they receive in our 360-degree feedback process. Our coaching and mentoring activities have also been expanded to accelerate leadership development.
Achieving higher performance is dependent not only on the development of all employees but also on ensuring the best performance management practices are in place. Across our company, we now have a system that aligns employee and team objectives, so that all employees understand their role in achieving individual, team and enterprise goals.
A Leader in Diversity
BMO continues to be a leader in diversity, a key component of our recruitment and employee development strategy. By embracing many diverse experiences and cultures, we reflect the communities where we work and live, and we also create an opening for ideas and insights that can inform our decision-making. Diversity will help us be the bank that defines great customer experience. In 2008, we continued to actively partner with community and government agencies to recruit talented people from our communities, including people from groups that are underrepresented in our workforce.
See also www.bmo.com/employees
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