Eva van Solkema & Gabriela Ciuca

The department ‘lends’ its 50 people to teams around the world to work with them on assignments related to process improvement or process management. “We only tackle challenges for which there is not yet a solution,” says Gabriela. “Our strength lies in considering the whole issue: from analysis to implementation, plus subsequent evaluation.”

Complete approach

“That complete approach is one of the things that makes our work extra interesting,” says Eva. “In ‘traditional’ consultancy roles, the project stops with an end report containing recommendations. We go a step further, working together with the teams on how to implement our recommendations. A few months later, we go back to determine the actual impact of the improvements. It’s very motivating to be able to see the results of our work, plus it gives us the possibility to evaluate each project and identify lessons learned for future projects. This enables us to continuously improve our own approach too.”

The upsides of the work

The projects could not be more different from one another. “That’s another upside of our work,” says Gabriela. “I don’t think any of our colleagues would enjoy routine jobs.” Both Gabriela and Eva recently worked on a project for ING in Luxembourg, where they reviewed all the processes of the COO organisation. Eva: “That was a project with a broad scope, where we included multiple teams and processes in our analysis simultaneously. But we also have pressure cooker-like approaches that specifically target a single end-to-end process.”

Versatile and resilient

With so many different topics, teams and countries as well as the bank’s ever-evolving strategy, a process expert needs to be versatile and resilient. “Other key competencies include an analytical mind, excellent communication skills and the ability to get the right people together,” says Gabriela. “Another thing we have in common is our result-driven behaviour. We really want to make sustainable impact,” Eva adds.

“The type of person you are is much more important than which subject you studied,” they both agree. “Our team has 16 different nationalities. They are all smart people with their own opinions, which means a lot of different points of view and sometimes lively discussions. But they are all aimed at achieving the best solutions for our stakeholders.” Gabriela: “One of our goals is to learn from each other and to continuously improve our capabilities. This is partly facilitated by team events and training sessions, and partly by learning from each other on the job.”

Energy

“The energy and commitment of my colleagues is what motivates me, plus I love the more informal and non-hierarchical work climate we have at ING compared to other banks or large corporates,” says Eva. Gabriela totally agrees, adding: “Another big plus for me is the good work-life balance. As a mother of two young children, I want to be productive at work but also have my own life, with full attention for my kids. ING supports this all the way.”