IT'S TIME TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR WORKFORCE FOR THE DIGITAL ERA: CITI'S JOEL FASTENBERG

Organizations Around The Globe Have Scrambled To Adapt And Rebuild Amid The Disruption Brought By Covid-19. Now, They Need To Start Planning For Yet Another Round Of Adaptation To The Post Pandemic World Of Work, Says Joel Fastenberg, The Head Of Human Resources For Singapore And Asean, Citi, In An Interaction With People Matters

- Mastufa Ahmed

Joel Fastenberg is the Head of Human Resources for Singapore and ASEAN. He was appointed to the role in May 2020.

Based in Singapore, Joel is responsible for leading the Human Resources strategy in Citi’s ASEAN markets of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. He also serves as a member of the Citi Management Committee in Singapore, Citi Country Coordinating Committee for Singapore and the ASEAN Management team.

Joel joined Citi in 2011 and was the Head of Human Resources for Citigroup Japan before taking on this role. He brings to Citi over two decades of Human Resources experience across the financial services industry in New York and Tokyo.

Here are the edited excerpts of the interview.

How do you see the impact of COVID-19 on the banking and financial services industry? How are you adapting to the changing times in terms of business continuity, employee well-being, and meeting the evolving needs of customers?

• We are facing a public health crisis with severe economic ramifications. When it comes to the way in which we work and serve our clients, the pandemic has challenged us to re-examine our processes. What we are seeing is that our investments in the digital transformation of our bank is paying off, as our client’s own business models have evolved with technology, resulting in more of them turning to our digital solutions and services.