Operational productivity at financial services institutions has steadily improved since the pandemic, according to a new quarterly report from ActiveOps. However, OpsTracker: The Performance Tracker for Operations in financial services Q1 report, highlights the need for Australian and New Zealand-based organisations in the sector to urgently address capacity issues to build on productivity gains and fulfil their true potential. 

With a shortage of talent and employment rates high, improving use of existing staff capacity will be a clear differentiator for organisations as they seek to juggle cost cutting and staff retention without negatively impacting customer experience.

The OpsTracker report analyses insights from over 30,000 employees to identify the trends that are impacting back-office operations at financial institutions across Australia and New Zealand, UK and Ireland, and North America. This first edition of the OpsTracker report compares the current performance of teams against pre-pandemic and pandemic performance and based on the data, predicts the trends operations managers need to be aware of over the coming 12 months. 

A key finding of the report was that operational performance was optimised across all regions during the pandemic as organisations allocated significant resources to overcome the challenges involved in setting up remote practices. Contrary to recent claims made by many senior executives, the findings reject the view that remote working is impacting productivity. 

Moreover, new data from the study shows that Australian and New Zealand-based organisations increased their levels of efficiency and effectiveness since the start of the pandemic despite experiencing some of the world’s toughest lockdowns, proving the remote model is not an inhibitor to productivity.

Critically, the OpsIndex seeks to assess how well operations are being run across a range of metrics that matter most including: agility, control, effectiveness, efficiency, and focus. The relationship between how well organisations are faring across these metrics can give leaders unique insight, regardless of the types of applications or processes they implement - into which metrics they need to improve on or adapt in order to better run their operations

In Australia and New Zealand, organisations have seen a steady improvement in their operational performance since the start of the pandemic going from 57.6% pre-pandemic to 60.6% today. Having started out at a similar level to the UK and Ireland before the pandemic struck, they are now ahead by more than 13 percentage points. Operations teams in the region are well placed to maximise their pandemic-era gains and continue to post improvements over the next 12 months.

Indeed, the OpsTracker report highlighted the need for financial services companies in the region to turn their attention to unleashing capacity and getting the best from their staff. Specifically, work out per paid hour and focus have declined since the pandemic highlighting how attention is needed to boost efficiency and staff utilisation. Another recent study by ActiveOps showed that more than half (62%) in the region are uncertain how to access the spare capacity they have in their organisations, therefore further gains may be gradual.

“Operations leaders in financial services have made significant progress in boosting efficiency over the last years despite the stringent lockdown measures imposed on them," says Jane Lambert, Managing Director APAC at ActiveOps. 

"They now face new challenges in the form of a global economic downturn and the reality that both customers and staff are potentially transient. Leaders now need to juggle cost cutting with boosting employee engagement and retention while ensuring customer experience is maintained," she says.

“To maximise the progress seen in productivity since the start of the pandemic, it is critical that leaders use data to understand exactly what their capacity looks like," Lambert says. 

"They need to act now to gain visibility of where they lack resources or skills and take an enterprise approach to release staff capacity from across the organisation and invest in cross-skilling. 

"Only by truly understanding where capacity issues lie can leaders take meaningful action that will boost operational performance and inspire a more fulfilling working environment”.