Conde tells the story of one employee who enjoyed the program so much that he wanted to take it again. "I never heard of such a thing in anti-money-laundering [training]," says Conde. "When people are having fun, they learn a lot more."
Latest accolade highlights the value of gamification to create higher compliance standards for financial institutions
Gamification of compliance and regulatory training could save banks millions of pounds in fines, according to finance software start-up True Office.
Financial services firms to benefit from business-critical regulation and compliance training
[Steve Sparkes of Morgan Stanley] especially likes solutions, like True Office, that meet needs across the industry. Good training is an industry-wide need, not a competitive edge for any single firm. "We would rather not spend money in a duplicative way if it can be developed by a third party. That's cheaper than doing it ourselves." Morgan Stanley is engaging with True Office, he added.
Underlining the growing importance of enterprise gamification and its application in business-critical areas, True Office secures $3 million Series A funding.
The financial services sector is now taking gamification seriously and with the help of True Office, employee compliance training has never been more engaging.
Instead of reading boring documents or watching corporate videos, “training” can now be completed in 15 minutes of gameplay. Employers can measure the progress of players, and the app is compatible with both iOS and Android apps and can be played on any computer hooked up to the web. Training games can also be customized based on a corporation's needs.
By turning training into a game, you can reinforce what constitutes a model corporate citizen. Gamification is a Trojan horse. It starts out about compliance, but it can do much more than just the minimum compliance that most companies do now.
"As a CEO, I was frustrated by the courses we would have to put employees through. I saw [compliance training] as a missed opportunity. As a CEO of a firm you want to reaffirm core values, and encourage good corporate citizenship."
- Cristóbal Conde
In sum, [True Office] is corporate training transformed into a whodunit. “A lot of people thought it was great,” Gary Cormier, director of HR consulting at Harvard University, told SNL Kagan. “Contrast that with two hours of training that might be dreary and boring.” By interacting with the game, the company knows that the employee is active and engaged. In traditional training sessions, employees might not be paying attention. “You have no idea if they’re daydreaming,” Cormier said.
"True Office, a start-up technology company that gamifies regulatory compliance training, has appointed Cristóbal Conde as executive chairman, effective immediately. FinTech Innovation Lab provided a unique opportunity for True Office to test its innovative approach to compliance training with senior leadership at a number of leading financial services firms,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the New York City Investment Fund.
Recently, FinTech mentor Cristóbal Conde, formerly CEO of SunGard, a provider of diverse software platforms and services to financial firms, joined the executive ranks of True Office-a move that exemplifies the benefits of the FinTech program.
"The goal should be that everyone instinctively knows how a model business citizen behaves in a global environment," Conde said. ...he has discussed these ideas with other global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Most of the attendees were frustrated by spending so much time and money on compliance training that just emphasizes minimum standards rather than aspirational goals. But Conde said he was frustrated by the attitude of some CEOs who don't get the message, saying "they consider compliance training a tax rather than an opportunity".
Former President and CEO of SunGard Lends Talent to Innovative Gamification Company for Risk and Regulatory Compliance Training
"The banks have not only participated in our development process, they have driven it," said Adam Sodowick, chief executive officer of True Office, a 1-year-old company that makes mobile games intended to complement compliance training.
"Another advantage that True Office offers, Sodowick says, is the ability to measure how well employees are remembering what they're learning. In four pilot tests the company ran last year, it found that 95 percent of employees better understood their companies' policies after completing the game".
"Through its series of data-rich mobile games for the iPad which contain advanced analytics, the start-up hopes to help companies reduce risk and save money while grabbing the ever-shortening attention span of Millennials and other office workers".
"The True Office app could become a saving grace for anyone who is sick of being stuck in arduous compliance training sessions".
"That’s not Jamie Dimon," joked Adam Sodowick, founder and CEO of True Office, as an avatar in his game walked onto the screen. However, Mr. Dimon’s employer, J.P. Morgan, was one of the 12 banks that mentored the FinTech Innovation Lab participants…"
"The competitive three-month program—the six participants were chosen out of 70 applicants—offers a crash course for early and growth-stage tech companies targeting the financial services industry. The companies get to work with banks and mentors to test out and refine their products, and they get entrée to the major financial institutions that are their potential customers".
They are the graduates of the 2012 FinTech Innovation Lab, created by the New York City Investment Fund and Accenture; and, nurtured by Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Citigroup, UBS, State Street, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase and a host of venture funds.
We're going against PowerPoint and three-ring binders here, he notes. The data and tools True Office provides are sure to set a few hearts in compliance racing.
"Two things underpin our approach. The first is that playing games engages people in solving problems and motivates them to do it. Alongside that is the story-telling aspect, which improves people’s recall of what they learn. So we can take something dry about insider trading or Sarbanes-Oxley [American accounting regulations] and slip that into a game, a story, and we know that people are much more likely to remember it than with other forms of training."
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