Achieving Branch Workforce Optimization through Ongoing Coaching and Training

A Teller Management System^TM Case Study

The classic fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, has a timeless valuable lesson that teaches us most good things come though persistence and hard work (aka “slow and steady wins the race”). Bristol County Savings Bank (BCSB), a $1.3 billion, mutual savings bank, headquartered in Taunton, MA, has been able to epitomize this lesson by consistently utilizing FMSI’s Teller Management System^TM (TMS) to achieve branch workforce optimization (WFO) over the past three and a half years. As a result, they regularly perform at a high level with a productivity group average more than 10% greater than their peer group (Monthly FMSI Peer-to-Peer Ranking Report).

Most banks have experienced the “hare approach” that consultants often promise. It is so compelling to fall in love with the idea of something this simple. Consultant comes in, they analyze the situation and then they fix the problem. Sounds great right? Unfortunately, this scenario rarely happens anything like this in the branch environment—especially as it relates to WFO.

As BCSB and many other financial institutions have learned through experience, the biggest road block for quick fixes in the branch environment is the bank employee culture. Successful day-to-day adoption by employees of solutions like TMS takes ongoing coaching and training.

“In some cases we are completely changing how our tellers are operating on the teller line, states JR Pimentel the AVP - Training and Development Manager / SPHR at BCSB. “It has been our experience when consistent TMS coaching is done over time, desired month-over-month results follow.”

While the changes brought on by the implementation of TMS benefited BCSB from day one, even after three and a half years they are still working towards fine tuning their tellers’ behavior towards adopting the principles of a fully optimized teller-line.

“Out of sight, out of mind sums up how important it is to keep the focus on important initiatives like TMS,” says JR. “The more you can get each of your team members to understand their role and the importance of the program, the more successful it is going to be.” Additionally, according to JR the branches in BCSB’s network that always rank the highest in FMSI’s teller productivity reports also have tellers exhibiting the most ideal TMS behaviors.

Innovative TMS Training

In an effort to increase the number of branches that adopt the TMS mentality, BCSB recently beta tested a new training session that involved bringing in the entire staff of a particular branch to complete a mini-workshop with the goal of helping them understand what TMS is and what it measures.

Basically, the workshop was designed around timing each person getting a certain number of pennies from the middle of the room and then measuring and reviewing times for different staffing scenarios. For example, for one scenario they would remove two people from the group and the remaining members would collect the pennies. They would then compare the difference in the amount of time it took a full group to collect the pennies verses the smaller group. This showed them in simple terms the impact of an overstaffed teller line, which really helped many embrace the TMS mentality.

Wait Times on the Teller Line

An ongoing coaching topic around the TMS mentality for BCSB is the discussion around acceptable wait times on their teller lines. It has been very difficult for many of the Massachusetts bank’s tellers to accept customers waiting in their line, because for years they were taught that customers waiting in-line was poor customer service.

“The irony in the situation is often-times poor customer service is the result of tellers rushing through transactions in an effort to reduce wait times for the next customer,” says JR. “We coach our tellers to spend the proper amount of time with each customer in a calm and collected manner.”

Best Practice

• Use mystery shoppers to help measure teller-line wait times. Since rolling out TMS, none of their 11 branches ever recorded a mystery shopper wait-time longer than three minutes.
• Centralize your branch scheduling with the TMS scheduling engine. This has led to greater accountability and the ability to schedule by the forecasted branch transaction need, not the employee need.
• Promote the benefits to tellers of remaining busy on the teller line. It leads to much less boredom and subsequent errors caused by complacency.

Much like the tortoise from the classic fable, Bristol County Savings Bank has adopted the right strategy, “slow and steady wins the race.” With ongoing management discussions coupled with elaborate coaching and training, they have been able to consistently achieve a productivity average that is more than 10% greater than their peer group (Monthly FMSI Peer-to-Peer Ranking Report).