How MCB is redefining workplace standards to drive customer service

There’s a feature on MCB Juice called “Pay bills”. Terribly convenient, it allows you to pay your utility bills – among other things - in a few clicks, wherever you are. Customers love it, as they do other MCB innovations and experiences that make things simple for them and save them time.

According to MCB Group Head of Human Resources, Allan Freed, there is a direct link between these types of innovations or services and employee fulfilment.  Speaking on the latest episode of MCB Talk, entitled “Happy talent, happy client”, Freed argues that customers are looking for effortless service because they want to save time.

“And behind every effortless service, there is an incredibly talented group of professionals who have worked very, very hard to make that feel effortless.” He adds that these are the very reasons certifications like Great Place to Work (recently won by the bank for the second time) matter.

“The only reason the 'Great Place to Work' title is interesting is that it allows us to be, first and foremost, a great place to bank”, he argues, adding that this helps attract the kind of talent that will make a difference to the bank’s customer experience.

 “There is an enormous competition for that type of talent in the marketplace. And being a Great Place To Work certainly allows MCB to attract the talent that can make the customer experience feel effortless”, he explains, admitting however that as a large organisation – with over 5000 employees- “we don’t always get it right, but we do our very best to create an environment that attracts the type of talent that will work towards making our customers happy”. 

The thinking goes that the more fulfilled an employee is, the more he’ll work to bring satisfaction to the customer, whose patronage finances the organisation. And Allan’s mission is to bring this message to the heart of MCB’s Employer brand. That’s HR’s role in an organisation, he says – “shaping a culture that puts the customer at the heart of everything we do. I think it’s very important to send out clear messages to the organisation about what is valued here and what kind of behaviours we’re looking for”, he explains.

Everything leads back to customer experience and service, Freed insists – “Brilliant talent, so that customer experience. Great leadership, so that customer experience. Super culture and organisational health, so that customer experience”, he says.

And because customer experience demands are evolving rapidly, organisations need to ensure that talent leadership and cultural structures keep pace to avoid losing relevance.

The timing of what Allan Freed is saying gives an interesting perspective to his point – it comes six years after Covid, a time when employees the world over, to varying degrees, started questioning the place work should have in their lives and just as the conversation is turning to the extent to which technology will replace people in the workplace.

The tune is also different to what’s been played so far; the employee has seldom occupied centre stage in organisations’ strategies because the assumption was that the talented employee would always be found.

Freed agrees that today there is a sort of wooing back of employees, saying that technology has highlighted how central human interactions and emotional connections are to customer service in countries like Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and Madagascar, contrary to many European countries where technology has already replaced people in retail banking.

This gives added value to the employee, especially in terms of differentiation, “if we’re all using the same AI tools to do strategic work”, he said.

And it goes back to the need for organisations to attract the best talent, which is where other factors, such as ethics, come into play. MCB may well be the first bank in Africa to achieve the Equal Pay certification (which was also recently renewed), but Freed says this has nothing to do with attracting talent, “it’s just a moral imperative for the organisation. Although if it has that side effect, then great!”

This strategic shift in MCB’s internal policies may well help transform the national corporate landscape by reshaping the narrative about employees' role in the success of the organisations that employ them, as all organisations face the same challenge: attracting the right talent to keep customers happy.

Read the MCB Talk transcript here: TH!NK - Happy talent, Happy client

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