HSBC ONE Team Manager Review

I am an acting Team Manager for a team of 5 HSBC ONE agents. These agents will service the day to day banking needs of our customers. For example, moving money, assisting with lost & stolen cards and any other general banking needs. My role is to supervise and manage them to optimise their performance so that our customers receive the best quality service possible from HSBC.

Prior to this role, I had very little practical management experience or skills. Over the course of this role, I have picked up performance management, capability management, absence management and service management skills. I have also developed my people relationship skills as good management relies on strong relationships between the team and their manager.

The HSBC Programme has helped me significantly with my future career and introduced me to so many fantastic people. Whilst it hasn't always been plain sailing, I've had a fantastic support network of managers and colleagues to offer advice and help me through all the issues that come along the way. It has proved a fantastic learning experience to date.

The programme has often relied on a lot of self-learning and self-management which has been fine for myself as I prefer that type of structure. In general however, this often raises issues and this case has proven no exception. On several occasions, there have been instances where problems that should have been foreseen well in advance were not which then caused significant confusion and irritation amongst the wider cohort.

HSBC in general has been very supportive. All line managers to date have been more than happy to let me take time off work to attend training courses and development workshops when needed. They have also kept up to date with the key learnings I have been developing and have taken an active interest in them.

The training provider has provided a talent coach who checks-in on our progress at frequent intervals and they also host development days every few months. Whilst they have proved engaging, they were not always needed to complete the various milestones of the qualification due to the qualification's requirements being very simple in their own right. Perhaps with a more challenging type of qualification, the resources Kaplan had made available would have been of more use.

To date, the key learnings we have received from our training provider (Kaplan) have come after we have received them on the job. This has meant that we had already come up with/found our own ways of dealing with problems and issues far in advance of any help coming from either the qualification or Kaplan. Due to this, it's use within my working environment has been negligible.

There are often informal activities run by other employees in their own time and with their own resources such as 5-a-side football, etc. This also applies to social activities which are mostly at our own prerogative. It would be nice for the company to get behind some activities to build a more inclusive team environment, even if they fall on weekends.

Yes

HSBC is internationally well-regarded employer which provides fantastic development opportunities which will form a solid foundation for any future career within financial services. Personally, I owe the firm a lot and the opportunities they have given me straight out of university have been more than I ever anticipated. I will always be grateful for the faith that the company has shown in me.

HSBC is very much a people business at heart and it shows during the interview stages where I came across the best HR and Emerging Talent teams across the 30 or so financial companies I had applied to. There is such a wide array of roles available across the world with HSBC so the first real challenge is figuring out what to apply for. Do your research early on and it will pay off long-term.