Case Study
Upskill rather than hire: UST’s Step IT Up program helped a regional bank avoid costly talent acquisition costs by delivering a custom RPA training program
OUR CLIENT
Apprenticely, formerly known as the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences (ACDS), is a nonprofit organization focused on building and retaining technology talent through registered apprenticeships, internships, and work-based learning. With a small team of about 15 employees, it serves more than 225 employer partners and has generated more than 2,250 apprenticeships in Arkansas and the surrounding states.
THE CHALLENGE
Needed a technical training partner to upskill employees and eliminate manual processes with RPA
The mortgage department of a regional U.S. bank relied heavily on manual workflows to process mortgage loan applications. Employees had to retrieve customer information from many different websites and data sources. These repetitive tasks created operational bottlenecks, delayed processing cycles, increased error risks, and negatively impacted customer satisfaction.
The bank’s leadership wanted to accelerate the mortgage application process by implementing RPA. Rather than terminating its existing credit analysts and hiring a team of RPA experts, the bank trained its employees to design and implement the RPA code in-house. By taking this upskilling approach, the bank avoided the time and expense of terminating and recruiting employees, implemented the RPA solution more quickly, and resolved its operational issues.
The bank turned to Apprenticely and UST to provide the technical training curriculum, instructors, and career mentors the employees needed to successfully gain the RPA skills.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Delivered a tailored RPA training program for non-technical employees
Apprenticely partnered with UST to deliver RPA training for the regional bank’s credit analysts. UST’s Step IT Up apprenticeship program provided:
- A custom 12-16-week RPA training curriculum—UST collaborated with the regional bank and Apprenticely to design the course content to meet the bank’s specific RPA development needs, including training goals, progress milestones, and real-world process automation examples from the bank’s existing workflows.
- Specialized “IT 101” content—The course also included basic IT content to ensure the non-technical employees had the foundation to successfully master RPA coding and development.
- Expert instructors—The seasoned trainers and career development specialists ensured each student understood the course content, grasped the technical content with ease, and gained the skills necessary to implement the RPA solution.
- Post-training mentorship—Once the classroom training was completed, UST provided a team of mentors for the employees to shadow, ask questions, and seek career and technical advice in a supportive environment. This approach provided the employees with additional scaffolding to ensure their new RPA development skills seamlessly transferred to the bank’s IT infrastructure and workflows.
THE IMPACT
Retained skilled employees, reduced recruiting costs, boosted morale, and accelerated loan processing cycles
The successful UST Step IT Up engagement delivered these business benefits for the regional bank:
- 100% workforce retention—Every credit analyst who participated in the RPA training program has stayed with the bank and gained marketable skills to enhance their long-term career growth. The bank also retained the institutional knowledge inherent in the existing workforce.
- Cost savings—This workforce reskilling approach was much more cost-effective than terminating, recruiting, and onboarding new employees with the technical knowledge the bank needed.
- Increased operational efficiency—The RPAs have helped the bank accelerate its mortgage loan application process by eliminating time-consuming, error-prone processes.
- Improved productivity—Now that the credit analysts can replace labor-intensive manual processes with RPAs without depending on the IT team, their productivity has increased significantly.
- Better data accuracy—Automated processes have helped reduce human errors in manual processes. This means there’s less rework to correct erroneous information, which also adds to the efficiency gains and cost savings.
- Boosted employee morale—The bank’s employees understand they are valued, and company leaders are willing to invest in their future, which enhances employee satisfaction, reduces attrition, and improves recruiting.
If you’re interested in upskilling your workforce, click here to learn more about the UST Step IT Up programs.
RESOURCES
https://www.ust.com/en/guide-to-hidden-talent
https://www.ust.com/en/insights/what-is-intelligent-process-automation