Standard Chartered (Lon: Stan)

Nicola Wood

Through this article, Nicola Wood, Managing Director - Global Head of HR, Corporate & Investment Banking at Standard Chartered, explores the evolving role of HR in shaping the future of work. She discusses how organizations shift towards a skills-first mindset, leveraging AI and digital transformation to enhance talent mobility, drive workforce innovation, and align people strategies with business objectives. She highlights how Standard Chartered’s Internal Talent Marketplace (TMP) and AI-powered performance tools are unlocking productivity and creating a more agile, purpose-driven workforce.

Wood also examines the importance of cultural intelligence, leadership effectiveness, and organizational flexibility in fostering an inclusive and high-performing workplace. She emphasizes that AI should serve as a tool for empowerment, supporting human-AI collaboration rather than replacing human expertise. She encourages HR leaders to stay curious, adaptable, and deeply connected to the people they serve, ensuring that HR remains a strategic force for innovation, inclusion, and business impact in an ever-evolving landscape.

Shaping The Future Of Work: Building Inclusive Cultures And Driving Business Value

I joined Standard Chartered in 2010 and have built my career across business and functional roles in the US, UK and Asia. In my current role, I lead the people agenda across our global corporate and investment banking business, which covers around 50 markets and has over 6,000 colleagues. Before this, I held business partnering and Centre of Expertise leadership roles within HR, having moved into the function from transformation roles across the company in 2016.

My purpose is grounded in building inclusive cultures that allow people to unleash their unique skills and reset how work gets done, driving elevated and sustained business value whilst experiencing joy at work.

At Standard Chartered, we believe all colleagues have a role in delivering our purpose – “Driving commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity.” Our role in the HR function - deconstructing traditional views of ‘work’ and ‘talent’ through a digitally enabled, human experience for all colleagues - has never been more critical. I feel incredibly excited about what’s possible for colleague experience, business value and clients through the work we all get to do.

Leading With Awareness: Balancing Organizational Consistency With Local Realities

Honestly, in my view, the key piece here is to be attuned to the realities on the ground across all dimensions of the organization. Lived experience is different across all organizations, and as leaders, we have to take the time to listen, understand, co-create priorities and principles for execution, and be willing to iterate when needed. Maintaining a consistent dialogue with colleagues is at the heart of shaping, refining and landing a people agenda that impacts individuals, teams, the business and our customers. Consistent principles are pivotal – and – they cannot be a straight-jacket. There has to be freedom with the framework for local nuances, needs and opportunities to be met. Leveraging cultural intelligence is a massive part of navigating this, ensuring a cohesive organizational culture that celebrates diversity whilst being rooted in a consistent set of valued behaviors.

Innovating HR: Transforming Employee Experience With AI And Digital Solutions

Standard Chartered has been on a transformation journey for a few years. We have implemented some of the most innovative HR technologies to enhance the employee experience and streamline operations.

“Stay Curious And Adaptable. The HR Landscape Constantly Evolves, And Leaders Must Anticipate Trends While Staying Connected To The People They Serve”

Let me start with the most recent and most exciting one: toward the end of last year, and in less than four months, we have successfully mobilized a cross-functional program team, navigated complex AI considerations, and launched AI Assisted Writing & Goals Generator, the first generative AI use case to be launched across the Bank. AI-Assisted Writing & Goals Generator centers on generative AI capability in SuccessFactors to make it easier to set and update goals, provide feedback, and provide robust performance commentary at year-end. Our new generative AI features include suggestions for enhanced phrasing, length, and tonality of performance commentary and goals. In addition, our colleagues will be provided with an option to ‘make feedback more actionable,’ which ultimately aids the development of our people.

Another example of how we apply innovative technology is the internal talent marketplace (TMP). We have always believed getting talent across to the correct value opportunities is one of our core strengths. Our internal TMP helps us unlock this latent potential by leveraging AI. We use AI-powered algorithms to connect our employees with opportunities based on their skills passports. These multi-faceted opportunities could be projects, roles or short-term assignments. Employees can also find mentors through TMP who are aligned with their skills and the career path they want to explore. We see this come to life in our business by skills-powered assignments with productivity unlocked.

A Skills-First Approach: Leveraging Analytics To Drive Talent And Leadership Excellence

We have taken a skills-first approach to talent management, leveraging analytics to understand the capabilities of our workforce and align them with future business needs. Metrics like skills adjacency, reskilling success rates, and project-based talent deployment provide us with actionable insights to accelerate talent mobility and ensure we deploy our people to areas of most significant value.

Beyond skills, we have developed advanced insights into culture and leadership to unlock productivity. We have identified the drivers of high-performing teams by assessing metrics such as leadership effectiveness scores, collaboration indices, and cultural alignment surveys. This work is central to building a culture of strong leadership that fosters innovation, inclusivity, and trust across the organization.

These insights enable us to shape our people strategies and enhance employee engagement, productivity, and alignment with our organizational goals.

The Future Of Work: Skills, AI, And Purposedriven Cultures

Skills over roles – Organizations will shift from traditional, fixed “roles” and vertical career paths to a skills-first mindset. This automatically unlocks greater flexibility – for the firm and our colleagues - and drives widespread innovation as we introduce previously untapped talent into existing teams (or create new ones). We have started to embed a skills-first approach into our workforce strategy by introducing TMP to help our colleagues upskill and reskill as the world of work changes. People can connect their skills, experience, and aspirations with project-based opportunities such as short-term project "gigs" carried out alongside a full-time role, assignments, and/or mentoring partnerships. I’m pleased that almost two-thirds of the Commercial & Investment Banking population are already on TMP, and we are starting to see real productivity gains as they hone their skills through opportunities on this platform.

AI and automation – I see many opportunities for AI to transform how we operate and help us be a force for good – for our clients, colleagues and communities. As AI reshapes work, human-AI collaboration could follow a transformational work pattern, and the ability to work with AI is a key skill for every worker, along with the human skills that AI cannot emulate. In 2024, we launched an AI tool in our performance review process to support year-end performance commentary and improve decision-making.

Purpose-driven workforces—Employees increasingly seek organizations that align with their values and foster societal impact. The Bank’s purpose to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity grounds us every day in how we deliver for our clients and communities. We are strengthening our purpose-led culture through initiatives like sustainable banking and inclusion programs.

Thriving In HR Leadership: Staying Ahead Of Trends While Championing People

Stay curious and adaptable. The HR landscape constantly evolves, and leaders must anticipate trends while staying connected to the people they serve. Build strong relationships across the business to ensure HR remains a strategic partner. Lastly, invest in personal growth—deepening expertise in analytics, digital transformation, and leadership development—while championing inclusion and authenticity as the foundation of impactful HR leadership.