ATD Research recently completed a study on talent development in banking, which offers interesting insights about the banking industry. The study found that processes and procedures, mandatory and compliance, and customer service are the top learning content areas for banks.

These findings, gathered from a survey of 54 full-time talent development professionals in U.S. banks and credit unions, are published in the report Talent Development in Banking.

One central difference between banking and other industries lies in the percentage of talent development professionals who describe their primary job responsibility as training delivery (43 percent). Other ATD studies have found that 21 percent of practitioners in all industries list training delivery as a primary responsibility.

Survey respondents identified processes, procedures, and business practices as the most important content area for their banks, followed by mandatory and compliance (for example, safety and security). ATD's 2016 State of the Industry report found that those areas are ranked numbers two and three, respectively, by talent development professionals in all industries.

Another noted difference is that training employees in customer service skills is much more critical for banks. Customer service is the third-highest ranking content area for banks—unsurprisingly, because many employees in this industry work in customer-facing roles.

Conversely, this area is ranked eighth for all industries in the 2016 State of the Industry report. Given the emergence of online-only banks and new financial technologies that are competing with traditional banks, the banking industry's focus on customer service skills is a smart one.

The report is free online at www.td.org/bankreport.