89
Raiffeisen Bank International | Sustainability Report 2017
GRI content index / Assurance statement Engaged citizen Fair partner Responsible banker Sustainability management Overview Foreword
The learning and development options at RBI AG and our fundamental commitment to permanent development
with the supporting processes are defined in the company guideline, the “RBI Learning & Development Policy.”
Some of the central elements are the existence of an annual training budget, which is the responsibility of the line
managers, as well as a central budget, which is used by HR for specific development measures. Furthermore, the
annual development meeting and personal development plan of each employee form the structured basis of the
individual development measures.
The training budget was primarily used for strategic goals and initiatives at RBI AG in 2017. In addition to ensuring
regulatory training requirements, the focus was increasingly shifted to business-critical topics such as retail banking,
sales, affluent retail customer business, procurement and IT. A lot of attention was also paid to compliance topics
as well as necessary development measures in order to satisfy regulatory requirements and to ensure the
qualification of our key function employees (“fit & proper”).
To overcome the new challenges of the digital business world, a series of measures to increase the “digital
literacy” of different groups of employees has been launched. An eLearning platform is currently being developed
with the title “Virtual Academy for Digital Literacy,” which will be made available to all employees at the Vienna
sites in the first half of 2018. Basic concepts of the digital world are to be communicated nationwide using this
platform. Special training programs on leadership in the digital age and on evaluating digital business models
were designed for the top executives of RBI. Furthermore, training measures were mainly offered for HR managers
and experts with the title “Leadership in the Digital Age.” They are designed to help HR managers get a firm
grasp on leadership in the digital age. Training programs in design thinking, flexible leadership and related
topics accompany this initiative.
The development of management staff once again focused primarily on strengthening their competences in
change management as well as leadership of employees, motivation and communication. Reflective learning
methods, such as 360-degree feedback, coaching, mentoring and experienced-based methods such as job
rotation, were also used.
All training and development offers at RBI AG and the Austrian subsidiaries were combined two years ago in
our group-wide “RBI Group Training Catalog” and can be taken advantage of on an alternating basis. Seminars
at the Raiffeisen Campus and a host of eLearning courses about a wide range of functional topics supplement
the comprehensive offering. All employees at the Vienna sites can consult the complete training programs in our
HR Management System and – once they have obtained permission from their manager – can register directly
via the system. Seminars offered internally are centrally organized in the HR division of RBI. This makes it possible
to take advantage of synergies in their execution as well as to standardize the processes.
In order to increase the user-friendliness of the HR management system for all employees and to take another
step towards “modern learning,” a project to implement a new learning management system was launched in
2017. This new system will be introduced at RBI AG and several pilot network banks in 2018 and will be expanded
further in the years to come. Therefore, we expect there to be strong momentum towards autonomous learning
and an increase in digital learning channels (e.g. educational videos, webinars, collaborative learning) compared
to conventional classroom training courses.