In many traditional banks, roles are quietly changing under the surface. The title might still read “Branch Manager” or “Loan Officer,” but the job? It’s no longer the same. Transaction volumes have dropped. Digital channels dominate first contact. AI is creeping into underwriting. Risk controls now include data access, not just dual signatures.
What hasn’t caught up yet, in many organisations, is the HR response.
HR isn’t just filling roles anymore. It’s being asked to validate trust, manage capability shifts, and plan a workforce strategy that keeps pace with transformation. And it has to do that while regulatory scrutiny, margin pressure, and customer expectations keep tightening.
Here’s how some teams are doing it well, and how others can avoid missing the signals that matter.
Why the Same Job Title Now Means Something Very Different
Take a closer look at what’s really changed in core banking functions:
- Tellers now manage digital onboarding, not just deposits. They walk customers through biometric logins, e-KYC compliance, and mobile app glitches. Soft skills matter more than speed at the counter.
- Loan Officers don’t evaluate paperwork. They interpret AI-generated credit decisions, explain anomalies, and resolve edge cases the system can’t read. The job is part adjudicator, part relationship handler.
- Branch Managers are customer experience architects. With fewer visitors and more service through screens, they now coordinate both physical and digital service journeys. That includes tracking branch-level app usage and portal drop-offs.
- Compliance staff touch more tech than paper. Risk now includes API permissions, digital fraud patterns, and audit trails from cloud-based systems — not just Know Your Customer (KYC) checklists.
If HR is still hiring into these roles using traditional templates, it’s setting people and the business up to struggle.
What You Can Do Differently: Aligning HR Practice with Role Reality
This isn’t about launching a new transformation program. It’s about tightening the loop between what roles have become and how they’re defined, filled, and supported. Here’s how.
1. Redesign Roles Based on Function, Not Legacy Titles
Before posting a requisition or starting a training cycle, pause to ask:
- What are the 5 core decisions this role makes now?
- What systems and tools do they actually use daily?
- Who do they now collaborate with (that they didn’t before)?
If your job description doesn’t reflect at least two changes in process or accountability in the last 18–24 months, you’re likely missing key expectations the business now has.
This is especially critical in frontline and compliance-heavy roles, where exposure and accountability have both shifted.
2. Don’t Just Reskill. Create Visibility Around New Pathways
Employees often don’t resist change, they resist ambiguity.
If digital roles are emerging but career progression isn’t visible, the best talent will assume there’s no future for them and start looking elsewhere.
Build new role clusters with cross-functional anchors:
- From Tellers to “Digital Service Advisors”
- From Loan Assistants to “Customer Risk Analysts”
- From Ops Staff to “Workflow Automation Coordinators”
These labels aren’t cosmetic, they reflect functional change, and give employees a sense of movement that matches business need.
Support it with bite-sized, outcome-based learning, not generic e-learning libraries.
Where HR Misses Risk in Evolving Roles
Role redesign isn’t just about internal clarity, it’s about hiring risk. Here’s where problems creep in:
1. Old-Scope Background Checks for New-Scope Risk
If someone’s role now includes:
- Accessing customer mobile logs,
- Reviewing behavioural credit data,
- Or handling one-touch digital approvals…
…then their background check needs to account for data integrity, digital misconduct history, and verification in jurisdictions relevant to online activity — not just their last employer and educational background.
When HR doesn’t update the screening scope alongside role redesign, it creates blind spots. And in regulated environments, those can become audit findings, or worse.
2. Hiring for Past Tasks Instead of Future Capacity
Traditional banking recruitment often looks for:
- Years of domain experience
- Tenure at peer institutions
- Familiarity with core banking platforms
None of those guarantees digital fluency, adaptability, or experience with customer-facing tech tools.
Smarter teams now assess:
- Comfort with digital-first workflows
- Ability to resolve hybrid (offline + online) service issues
- Patterns of continuous learning or certification
And they run role-relevant scenarios — not interviews focused on legacy tasks.
Workforce Planning Has to Catch Up Too
Redesigning roles without adjusting headcount strategy leads to pressure points.
- Automation might reduce processing needs but increases exception handling.
- Chatbots may absorb basic queries but escalate complex issues that require deeper judgment.
- Centralised ops mean fewer branches but more support hubs and hybrid service desks.
Workforce design needs to account for “reassigned human touch”, not just reduced headcount.
Start with function mapping, not org charts:
- Which roles still need judgment?
- Where is customer trust most vulnerable?
- Who is now making high-impact exceptions?
This helps prioritise hiring, training, and internal mobility, without defaulting to blanket cuts or redundant layers.
Final Thought: Misalignment as Risk
There’s a lot of noise about AI taking over banking jobs. But what most HR leaders in the sector are actually dealing with is something quieter, and more complicated.
It’s the mismatch between what the role now demands and how it’s still being defined, hired for, and supported.
Fix that alignment, and everything else starts to work better:
- Hiring makes more sense.
- Learning efforts land.
- Attrition goes down.
- And teams stop feeling like they’re operating in legacy mode under a digital façade.
The transformation has already happened. HR’s job now is to ensure the workforce is not stuck in the past while the business moves forward.
