The Man Group is a $144 billion investment firm that has come up with a unique and successful program to help their non-tech workers become more proficient in coding and data science skills. Many non-tech workers from different backgrounds, from the executive committee to interns, have thus far joined the program and have made incredible use of these new skills. They have been able to reduce errors, save time and costs, and complete processes faster due to the automation of manual tasks.
Lara Carty, Man Group’s Chief People Officer and a member of the firm’s executive committee, provides some insight into the success of the program. She believes that it is essential to have access to data and processes that can be enhanced with the skillset of software engineering. This is especially true in 2023, when it will become difficult to think of a job that technology can’t improve.
The results of the program are already being seen, as 492 employees (or 30% of Man’s 1,682-person global workforce) have graduated from the program. It is expected that the success of the program will be even greater for those that have recently completed the course.
So far the program has covered coding, data science, project management and quantitative statistics for finance. There have been some remarkable results from the program, such as a trader who built a tool to analyze execution data, which has enabled Man Group to better understand the performance of their brokers and also save costs. Plus, one of Man’s social-media managers used Python for natural language processing to better measure the qualitative impact of the firm’s social-media platforms.
Carty has a background in adult learning and psychology, and is aware of the risks posed by AI technology such as ChatGPT. She hopes that people will be able to see the value of the program and be challenged in a different way, instead of worrying that their jobs will be upended by AI.
The program has also seen encouraging results such as graduates receiving an average of nine hours of manual work per month thanks to the program. In addition, surveys have shown that 77% of program participants have improved accuracy and reduced the risk of error, while 80% are already using Python skills in their daily roles.
Man Group is giving hundreds of non-tech employees an opportunity to stay up-to-date and employ the power of technology to improve their work. By democratizing this skill across the organization, it promises to unleash numerous possibilities and increase innovation in the way data is analyzed.
