Banks should spend as much time on their people as on data, tech: HSBC’s Tancy Tan

TANCY Tan has spent her entire career working with technology to drive transformation. Banks spend a lot of time on data, but she thinks they also need to put an equal amount of time into their people.

The chief operating officer at HSBC Singapore said that one of her main focuses at work is to build a workforce that is skilled, adaptable and mentally resilient to changes. This is because technology comes and goes, but in an industry ultimately run by people, the workforce needs to be able to adapt and continuously learn, and keep up with the constant changes in technology.

“All of us went through at least 20 years of structured curriculum before we were workforce-ready, so it’s very hard for our workforce to suddenly pivot themselves overnight,” Tan explained.

Describing herself as a “non-conformist”, she said that it is important that she can be herself and express her views, so as to retain her sense of curiosity and critical thinking.

Tan noted that when people drive changes together, they have to realise that cookie-cutter solutions will not work, and that there is no right and wrong.

“But more importantly, it is to challenge the things that we have traditionally done, to not conform to a belief that (a given solution) is the best in the market,” she added.

Here are some excerpts from her conversation with The Business Times:

How did you end up in your role?

I’m a technology graduate – one of the early pioneers of the School of Computing at NUS (National University of Singapore). When I graduated, it was during the Sars period, after the dotcom bubble burst. Instead of travelling the world, I became an analyst in a global professional financial services company.

After a few years, I joined a financial institution. I was with that organisation for almost 18 years. During the pandemic, there was a chance for me to rethink how I was going to spend the next years of my career.

The next focus for me was around Asia’s growth; I wanted to spend my time with a company that invests in the future of Asean. Then came the HSBC opportunity. The essence of what I do has not changed – it’s always about leveraging technology to drive transformation.

What is a key trend that you see in your area?

No 1, continue to accelerate (the pace of) our digital journey. We want to move towards a digital-first approach, so I spend time with industry players and ecosystem partners to build up infrastructure and integrate very advanced data analytics.

It’s important that as we build up the digital infrastructure, we create a financial institution that is stable and reliable. It is also not so much about leveraging the technology, but how we leverage the technology in a safe and adequate manner.

The last trend is building a skilled, adaptable and resilient workforce. The pace of changes for our workforce is humongous. I’ll be honest: what I learned in school may not be as relevant anymore, so it’s really about lifelong learning, and to equip our workforce with the skills of the future.

How does this affect your role?

I attend a lot of industry meetings; that’s when I get a voice at the table.

When it comes to innovation, I spend a lot of time understanding the technology, demystifying and translating it, otherwise it is of little value to the guys in financial services. A large part of my role is to make technology real to them, and putting in proof of concepts.

I spend a lot of time understanding the threats and risks associated with emerging technology, and how we can leverage them safely for our customers and our internal organisation.

A highly-connected and digital workforce also means that we may not know boundaries, thus causing stress and burnout. So I am also trying to introduce mental-wellness initiatives for our workforce.

Technology comes and goes – so how much can our workforce really adapt? So that’s why I spent a lot of time with my team, designing skill-based training and helping them to move towards the lifelong journey roadmap.