Skift Take
Raiffeisen Bank International offers a textbook way to go hybrid, travel smarter, and have some fun along the way.
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Be "awesome" — that's the simple mantra of a major European banking group, which has written an unconventional guide to help staff embrace remote work.
Compared to many organizations (in the West, at least) that want to recall employees to offices, especially those in the financial sectors, Raiffeisen Bank International offers a blueprint for inspiration. Its secret weapon is a quirky rulebook, as well as passionate employees who are willing to fight for the cause. If a bank can do this, surely anyone can?
To make remote work a reality, the Austrian-headquartered banking giant entrusted its Croatian branch to pilot the initial transition to hybrid working, which involved training “Remote But Still Awesome” managers — a riff on its RBA branding — with tribes coming next.
The move was spearheaded by its chief security officer, giving some clue as to what’s needed: namely a tight grip on technology. However, Dalibor Kovacevic insisted it’s a team effort.
Everything is Awesome
The team behind the bank's push to work remotely was an interdisciplinary one, with staff across human resources, security, IT, public relations and auditing drafted in.
"When we started working from home, we saw some managers were having trouble in a different environment. It was stressful for them," said Petra Samac, the bank's organizational development expert, and project manager o