Sustainability Academy inspires and brings people together

For years, sustainability has been at the very heart of ABN AMRO’s strategy. After all, the bank’s purpose – “Banking for better, for generations to come” – is deliberately focused on the long term. ABN AMRO is accelerating the transition with an emphasis on three key areas: climate change, the circular economy and social impact.

“The bank’s strategy is all about transformation,” says Myrthe Wessels, a sustainability HR learning consultant at ABN AMRO, “a transformation that affects both our work with clients and the work the bank’s 20,000 employees do. It makes sense that our colleagues want to know what this strategy means in terms of their job.”

Learning is key

Helping clients – both private individuals and businesses – become more sustainable starts with the bank itself, adds Myrthe’s co-worker Jazz Rampen, also a sustainability HR learning consultant: “The transition requires that the bank’s employees advise, inspire and motivate clients. And for that to happen, it’s important to win not just our colleagues’ hearts, but also their minds.”

Myrthe and Jazz are convinced that learning is the key to success here. Both are involved in the Sustainability Academy, an internal learning platform for bank employees.

Four objectives

The ABN AMRO Sustainability Academy is tasked with supporting employees as they make their own transition, by sharing knowledge and teaching skills related to sustainability. All its activities are guided by four objectives: learning, inspiring, motivating and connecting. The Academy’s learning resources take various forms including training modules, team sessions, videos, games and events.

“We offer a wide range of tools to ensure we have the one we need to meet each objective,” explains Jazz. “Inspiring people requires different tools from those needed for sharing knowledge or teaching skills, for example.”

So far, some 10,000 ABN AMRO employees have completed an online Sustainability Academy module, a sure sign that the Academy’s profile is growing within the organisation.

Myrthe says, “The Academy focuses on the three aforementioned main themes at the bank, and increasingly on the laws and regulations these involve. The bank is aware of how important the learning aspect is in transformation programmes. That’s why we’re also working on learning in connection with our recently published climate plan.”

Recommended by experts

“What’s new,” Jazz continues, “is that twelve sustainability experts at the bank are now sharing the most important, interesting and inspiring news in their field each month and contextualising that information for the rest of us. We try to make learning as accessible as possible for everyone. Our internal experts play an important role here, too. Most of our colleagues find a five-minute video or article recommended by a sustainability expert more appealing than content presented in other formats. Plus it’s nice that they no longer have to ferret out all the most relevant information for themselves.”

The strategy comes to life

The effectiveness of the learning resources on offer is monitored by the bank’s HR department. Jazz says, “One of the most promising results of our training courses so far is that the bank’s employees are having more conversations with clients about sustainability. That’s a big win, since it’s how you get people and businesses to take action.”

He continues, “It’s well known that most of us spend less time on training and development than we’d like. People just don’t have the time or don’t know where to start. That’s why we at the Academy see it as our job to make knowledge accessible. And since sustainability is never ‘over’, it’s important that we continue to offer knowledge on an ongoing, accessible basis.”

The Academy is not a magic bullet, though, Myrthe emphasises. Learning is always hard work. “At the end of the day,” she says, “our aim is for sustainability to be an integral part of all our jobs. That’s why we’re continuing to innovate with new ways of learning and are measuring the impact of our learning resources. That’s how our strategy, which was once only words on paper, is truly coming to life.”