Learning and development

Our approach

We develop our employees for success in their role; for an enduring sense of service to our customers; and for skills that will enhance their ability, including leadership skills, to relate to others inside and outside the work environment.

Our human capital development strategy ensures we attract, nurture and retain the very best people, creating an environment where they can perform effectively and contribute to our super regional strategy.

Learning and development opportunities

Our learning and development opportunities include:

  • on-the-job experiences
  • peer coaching
  • coaching and development discussions with managers
  • secondment and project opportunities
  • formal learning, including online and face-to-face.

We examine individual learning needs and consider options to achieve a balance between the needs of the learner, the time frames in which skills are needed, the geographic spread of our people, and the depth of skill transfer or change management.

Each year there are a number of key initiatives we seek to develop and implement to meet the learning needs of our people. These fall into four key areas:

  • Learning for leadership and talent: helping leaders develop leadership skills, and to inspire and motivate others.
  • Core banking skills: developing technical skills needed to meet customers' needs.
  • Organisational culture and values: the values underpinning our interactions, the culture we seek to grow, and the benefits of diversity.
  • Learning infrastructure: ensuring that we have systems in place so that the right learning reaches the right people at the right time, for the right cost.

We work with a wide range of partners to ensure the learning we offer is international in scope, incorporates leading-edge thinking about learning and its effective transfer, and is made available to staff wherever they are located.

ANZ Competency Framework

The ANZ competency framework supports ANZ’s core values and helps clarify for our staff what it means to be effective in their roles and support our super regional strategy. 

The eight competencies are grouped into three clusters – Insight, Engagement and Action – focusing on our customers at the centre.

ANZ Competencies

Generalist Bankers Program

The Generalist Bankers Program provides employees with an opportunity to develop their career as a senior generalist banker. Participants are placed on a two-year rotational program across multiple banking disciplines and in seven cities across the Asia Pacific. Generalist bankers are provided with a senior mentor, an executive sponsor and access to Management Board members. They participate in technical training (both e-learning and facilitated) as well as a series of development forums to ensure they are building their leadership skills.

Development through education

Our approach to developing our people recognises the role of higher education in contributing to an individual’s growth and since 1993, we have been partnering with universities and educational facilities to enable employees access to tertiary and postgraduate studies.

In previous years, we have launched partnerships with Columbia University and the London Business School to provide senior executive leadership programs. More recently, we commenced a partnership with Duke Corporate Education (the not-for-profit corporate support of Duke University) to design and deliver our in-house, top-level executive education programs.

We also provide consortium programs for employees through the Australian Graduate School of Management.

2011 results

In 2011, we invested over $50 million in learning and development, which equated to an average of 25 hours of learning per employee.

Learning investment included the provision of over 637,000 online course enrolments (19.8% increase on 2010).

58,316 facilitated courses and 12,849 self study courses were also undertaken over the past 12 months.

Currently 25 employees are undertaking rotations across multiple banking disciplines in 5 countries across our region as part of the Generalist Bankers Program. Fourteen of the participants are based in cities in the Asia Pacific region, including Fiji, Singapore and Hong Kong.

ANZ trainng and development measures

  2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
Active learners 61,972 57,319 51,750 48,832 30,377
Number of courses completed 708,108 531,817 477,911 589,925 325,766

The future

In 2012, we will offer employees new development opportunities through skilled volunteering activities, which will give participants cross-sector experience and exposure to different perspectives through work with community organisations.

2010 results

In 2010, we invested around $50 million in learning and development, which equated to an average of 25 hours of learning per employee.

Learning investment included the provision of over 530,000 online course enrolments (11.3% increase on 2009). There was an increase in learning hours from 20 hours in 2009 to 25 hours in 2010.

Fourteen employees commenced the Generalist Bankers Program in 2010.

ANZ training and development measures

  2010 2009 2008 2007
Active learners 57,319 51,750 48,832 30,377
Number of courses completed 531,817 477,911 589,925 325,766

The future

In 2011, we will offer employees the opportunity to take part in skilled volunteering, which will give participants cross-sector experience and exposure to different perspectives through community organisations.

2009 results

ANZ invested more than $43 million in learning and development in the past year, which equated to an average of 28 hours of learning per full-time equivalent employee. Our learning investment included around 531,700 courses completed through etrain, our online learning platform.

ANZ training and development measurements

eTrain online course participation
  2009 2008 2007
Active learners 51,750 48,835 30,377
Number of courses completed 477,911 589,925 325,766
Development investment
  2009 2008 2007 2006
Lean and Six Sigma methodology $1.8m $2m $2m -
Cost savings $42m $68.8m $26m -
Learning spend $43m $59.8m $62.6m $48.9m

A key learning and development investment in 2009 was the rollout of training to support our Group Code of Conduct and Ethics. We recorded 42,396 completions of the Code training course for this year, which represents around 99% of ANZ staff.

One hundred and forty-one ANZ Senior Executives participated in a full day workshop on organisational values and ethics designed and delivered by an internationally recognised expert in business ethics. A similar program is being delivered by senior leaders across the organisation in 2010.

2008 results

ANZ invested almost $60 million in learning and development in the past year, which equated to an average of 16 hours of learning per full-time equivalent employee. Our learning investment included around 590,000 courses completed through etrain, our online learning platform.

ANZ training and development measurements

eTrain online course participation
  2008 2007 2006
Active learners 48,835 30,377 28,700
Number of courses completed 589,925 325,766 306,000
Development investment
  2008 2007 2006
Lean and Six Sigma methodology $2m $2m -
Cost savings $68.8m $26m -
Learning spend $59.8m $62.6m $48.9m

The future

Our focus over the next year will be to ensure that our employees are fully trained in our new Group Wide Code of Conduct and Ethics. We are also aiming to introduce a separate Group-wide ethics program and ensure that it is completed by 100% of our senior executives globally during 2009.