ING Direct

Company Description

ING DIRECT is Canada's leading DIRECT bank with over 1.6 million Clients and more than $27 billion in total assets.

ING DIRECT gives the power of saving to all Canadians by offering high-value, simple products such as high interest savings accounts with no fees or service charges and low rates on mortgages. Low cost, index-based mutual funds are sold through ING DIRECT Funds Limited. ING DIRECT Canada has been operating since 1997, and has paid more than $4 billion in interest to Clients. ING DIRECT is open for banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at www.ingdirect.ca or by calling 1(800) ING DIRECT (1(800) 464-3473).

Contact Center Description

Our Sales and Service department is comprised of two contact centers located in Toronto and Ottawa. We are responsible for fulfilling our clients banking needs. Our goal is to consistently provide an outstanding client experience and build customer loyalty through the delivery of best in class customer service and sales. The Department is responsible for driving the business forward, in creating stronger relationships, converting prospects to clients, improving process, and increasing sales.

ING Direct Canada Sales and Service contact centre operation has achieved the prestigious GOLD level Contact Center Employer of Choice^® (CCEOC) designation. Both sites – Toronto and Ottawa - participated in the joint certification assessment.

ING Direct belongs to an elite group of contact centers recognized by this unique designation. Through the Contact Center Employer of Choice^® certification program, ING Direct will be able to promote a superior work environment and address key areas for improvement that will have sustained impact on culture and morale. Being recognized as a Contact Center Employer of Choice^® creates positive brand recognition and heightened awareness of their people focused status.

Specific areas of focus include:

• Improve ability to attract and retain top talent
• Boost employee morale and engagement
• Improve customer interactions
• Gain industry-wide recognition as a great place to work

Key Performance Measures

Associates are measured on performance and culture. For the performance metric, quality, sales and productivity are measured on a monthly basis.

Cultural fit is determined through measures such as displaying our Leadership Competencies of:

• Development of self and others
• Results oriented
• Delivery of a great Client Experience
• Convey an Inspirational Vision
• Entrepreneurship
• Building great performing teams

Associates receive continuous support, mentoring and coaching from their leaders to help them achieve and exceed goals and objectives. They also received continuous encouragement and motivation through the many contests made available by our Recognition and Incentives Team.

Training and Development

Our associates have a development path that is clearly mapped out for them during our new hire training. As well thereafter we offer continuous training and job enrichment. We are committed to helping our staff thrive in our organization. We do this through a combination of traditional classroom training, Podcasts and online learning. We view learning and development as a partnership, a combined effort that benefits employees and our organization. Our Learning and Development staff presents numerous internal classes throughout the year, offering both personal and professional development.

Growth Prospects

A large percentage of our leadership team within the contact centre has been promoted through the ranks internally. This is made possible through the many development opportunities available to our associates. After fulfilling a year in the role they were hired for, associates are eligible to apply for other opportunities within Sales and Service and the various departments of the bank.

Contact Center Culture and Social Environment

We offer a dynamic and upbeat work environment. If you walk through our hallways or pull up a chair in our contact centre, you see it. You feel it when you drop in to a town hall session or a listen to one of our leaders or Associates address the team.

We call it Orange Spirit and it looks like this:

• Diverse
  Our organization has naturally evolved into a multi-cultural, multi-faceted, and multi-demographic group. Passion and smart thinking know no boundaries: neither do our employees. ING DIRECT is committed to achieving employment equity and promoting a diverse workforce. Our goal is to follow employment equity principles to eliminate barriers in the workplace.
• Challenging
  Our people are attracted to challenging goals and eager for responsibility. We offer both, and early on in their career, too. In the contact center we participate in a Global Associate Recognition which aims to identify the most successful call center staff around the world. Top performing call center associates and Team Managers are recognized and requested to share their expertise and best practices internationally.
• Unpretentious
  Transparency is key around here. We don't have an executive floor. Our leaders are where they should be: right alongside our associates.
• Connected
  Our teams are connected because we attract like-minded people. We are connected to the global ING world through interaction with our global colleagues and exposure to international career and training opportunities. We are also connected to the world around us through our many community and global initiatives.
• Spirited
  ING DIRECT has been giving back to local communities across Canada since its inception in 1996, through a variety of philanthropic and sponsorship support. In 2009, we extended this community support with the creation of "Orange in the Community", to support hands-on employee-driven community involvement. For our first community project, on September 17, 500 ING DIRECT employees volunteered, on company time, to build the first natural playground for children in Toronto. We were able to allow staff from our contact centre to volunteer, while our colleagues in Ottawa and others who stayed behind worked to ensuzre there was minimal negative impact to client experience. This level of teamwork is a prime example of what we like to call 'Orange Spirit'.

We strike a strong balance between focus and fun. We offer a lively and dynamic work environment, year-round planned social activities and a whole lot of spontaneous fun in between.

Above and Beyond Factors

In addition to a Flexible Benefits package that allows employees to customize our health and dental coverage, we also offer a:

• Prescription drug card
• $500 annual Wellness Subsidy
• Employee referral program
• Attractive employee mortgage rate
• 100% RRSP matching program
• Succession planning
• "Summer hours" and Personal Days
• Confidential Employee Assistance Program (for staff and their family)
• Social activities
• Paid 6 week Sabbatical after 10 years of service
• E-Learning and development programs