Leadership and Change Management: Barclays Bank of Australia Case

This case study examines Barclays Bank of Australia's implementation of an online banking platform and the associated change management strategies. The bank faced challenges in employee acceptance of the new platform, particularly concerning customer care. To address this, Barclays created a dedicated customer care department, provided comprehensive staff training, and planned to hire additional personnel. A detailed timeline and budget are provided, outlining the phased implementation over four months. The bank also planned to conduct market surveys to gauge customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. Key deliverables include increased customer acquisition and revenue growth. Risk management strategies are also addressed, including ensuring a user-friendly online interface, seamless integration with the bank's website and mobile app, and robust security measures. The case concludes with an assertion that this change will solidify Barclays' position in the market and set a precedent for innovation in the banking sector. The document includes references to support the analysis.

Lead and Manage Organizational Change: Case of Barclays Bank of Australia

Executive Summary
A change is a s good as a rest. In today’s dynamic business environments organizations must
embrace change in order to remain afloat and also wade off competition from their rivals. This is
not always the case as some employees are hesitant towards embracing change. This case study
will show how the Barclays Bank of Australia handles such a situation.

Introduction
The bank recently introduced online banking platform that has revolutionized the banking sector.
The advantage of such a platform is that it has an virtual platform that customers can log into and
communicate their issues to the bank without necessarily having to go to the bank to do so.
However not all bank staff have embraced such a move and the bank has seen it wise to address
such an issue before it escalates further and harms the customer relations that they have with
their customers (Farrell, 2019).
Areas That Need Improvement
The project manager has identified that the main areas that require improvement are customer
care especially on the online virtual software of the bank, where the customers can issue their
queries and concerns and the bank staff on the other end handles such without the customers
having had to go to the bank physically.
Change Management Plan
In order to cumb the situation the bank has come up with measures to address the issue and prove
to the employees that there is no cause of worrying or panicking and that they need to embrace
change.
Create a customer care department
The bank has decided to create a department known as customer care rather than the current
norm of administration staff carrying out such roles on their own. The department will have its
own departmental head who will work hand in hand with the project manager to ensure that all
customer issues, concerns and grievances are addressed promptly. All the customers need to do

is to log in to their online banking platform and lodge a complaint, the system automatically
issues them with a reference number and issues a ticket and assigns it to the next available
customer care representative. The staff will work on the issue until completion when he or she
will close the ticket and the customer will be notified via an email and also an email that the
issue has been resolved.
Training
The bank has decided to train all the staff on how to use this new platform. They have scheduled
a two day training course that will be done at the head office and will be attended by all branch
managers. The branch managers on the other hand will train their respective branch staff after
they are trained.
Hire More Staff
The bank since has created a new department will hire more staff to handle such tasks and they
will also be trained first hand on how to work in a customer care environment. Issues such as
phone etiquette and customer relationship management will be addressed during such training.
Carry out Research
After three months the bank will hire an external firm to carry out a survey for them regarding
the customer’s satisfaction and also to be able to know if the new change is effective in enabling
them to attract more customers.

Time Line
The bank has decided that this new change management strategy will take approximately four
months as shown in the below timeline.
Activity January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020
Training of all
the bank staff
Creating the
customer care
department
Hiring new staff
for the
department
Carrying out the
market survey
Budget

Activity Budget (Australia Dollars)
Training of all the bank staff on how to handle
the new software that the bank is introducing
to handle customer grievances, issues and
complaints.
200,000
Creating the customer care department that
will be headed by a head and will be solely
responsible for customer relations for the bank
customers
400,000
Hiring new staff for the department to work in
the newly created customer care department
working under a departmental head
100,000
Carrying out the market survey by the
research firm to find out if the customers are
happy using the online banking platform to air
their grievances, issues and complaints.
300,000
Total 1,000,000
Communication Channels
The customer care department will be reporting weekly to the project manager on the project
progress. The project manager on the other will be issuing a monthly report to the management
so that they know of the progress. After the three months the management will table a report to
the board of director’s quarterly meeting on the progress of the new ventures. The board of

directors will incorporate this reports as well as the market survey report when announcing the
half year results to the shareholders next year.
Key Deliverables
 Increasing the bank customers by 10 percent.
 Increasing the bank revenue by twenty percent.
Benefits
This initiative will save the bank customers time as they are not necessarily have to go to the
bank to have their issues addressed rather than from the convenience of their own homes they
can lodge a complaint and also track the progress of the solution. This will go a long way in
ensuring that they are always happy with the bank services (Nassios et al, 2019).
Risk Management
This project comes with risks due to its unique characteristics as addressed by (Fernandez, 2019).
However the bank has come up with mitigation strategies to ensure that the risks do not harm the
project.
Online Banking Interface Will Be User Friendly
The platform will be developed by an external software development company from Germany
who will ensure that the interface is user friendly and also easy to use.
Linking Online Banking to the Bank Website and Mobile App

The online banking portal will be linked or incorporated in the bank website and also their
mobile app in order to be easily accessed by the bank customers.
Online Banking is Secure
The software developer will ensure that the platform is not prone to hacks and that customer
information is always secure.
Conclusion

By implementing this new change the bank will solidify its place as one of the top banks in
Australia. It will also be an ice breaker in the banking sector in that it has not been done before.
The bank therefore will boost as being the pioneer in such a venture and therefore expects to
attracts more customers as well as increase their revenue.
References

Farrell, S. (2019). OPEN FOR BETTER-APPLYING OPEN BANKING TO SMALL
BUSINESS BANKING. AJAF, (2), 18-23.
Fernández, J. A. F. (2019). The Banking System in Australia and New Zealand: A Vision
together. Journal of Applied Finance and Banking, 9(2), 1-22.
Nassios, J., Giesecke, J. A., Dixon, P. B., & Rimmer, M. T. (2019). Mandated superannuation
contributions and the structure of the financial sector in Australia. Journal of Policy Modeling.