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Branch transformation

Ways banks are finding, and retaining, talent

Banks are rethinking branch strategies in light of consumers wanting financial advice at branches instead of traditional banking services. However, a challenge remains: how to find the right employees to meet this need?

Ways banks are finding, and retaining, talentImage via Istock.com


| by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace

This is part one of a series looking at hiring and training processes in the banking industry.

It's no secret every industry struggles with finding and keeping good talent. From the "Great Resignation" to a historically tight labor market, banks have also felt the squeeze, especially with changing consumer expectations.

In particular, banks are rethinking branch strategies in light of consumers no longer coming to branches for regular banking needs but rather for financial advice. As a result, banks are now looking for employees who can serve in a more universal roles than the traditional employees that mainly focus on selling bank services.

But this can be quite a challenge for banks, particularly due to their size, and lead to stagnation both for current employees and hiring practices for new ones.

"Banks are large organizations that are often in need of organizational change. It's very common for processes and systems to be layered on top of old ones, or for programs that should be retired to hang around, and for cultural assumptions to stick even when they are irrelevant," Melinda Deines, brand and marketing strategist at Shikatoni Lacroix Design, a design agency with a focus on retail and banking, said in an email interview. "Over time this can create a lot of friction for employees and can lead to a sense of stagnancy."

So how can banks fix this issue and find good employees? For Bristol County Savings Bank in Massachusetts, it was all about casting a wider net.

James Ferrara, EVP and chief human resources officer at Bristol, said his bank utilized methods such as:

  • Posting to social media about jobs.
  • Increasing employee referral bonuses to $1000.
  • Utilizing Boolean search strings to identify potential employees on LinkedIn.
  • Manager/employee networking.
  • Internship programs.
  • Working with vendor recruiting firms.

"Given the complexities we are dealing with ('Great Resignation,' 'quiet quitting' and rapid wage inflation) the best thing we can do is create as wide a funnel as we can to develop constructive candidate pools," Ferrara said in an email interview. "Once the candidate flow is developed we have not relinquished our interest to identify candidates that meet the culture and competency. We leverage Predictive Index to create a second level screening."

Another way Bristol has expanded its talent pool is by reaching diverse audiences and staying involved in the community.

"Several of our posting locations and other niche sites allow us to reach candidates in alternative ways. Disabled, Military, LGBTQ etc," Ferrara said.

When it comes to community engagement, Ferrara said the bank is involved with multiple nonprofit organizations, which helps build brand recognition for future employees.

However, with banks or any business, hiring is only the first step. Banks must work to keep employees engaged with the organization. Bristol developed 'Stay Interviews' to address this issue to encourage active communication between management and employees.

"We recently completed Stay Interviews and had managers complete a line of questions with employees to gauge level of engagement in defense of the complexities previously mentioned. The heart and soul of the Stay Interview was to formalize the discussions between manager and employee to ensure they were more connected given the complexities," Ferrara said. "All of these actions help us to keep up with ongoing growth and the demands of our customers. With engaged and educated staff we can support our customers to the highest degree possible."

On a deeper level, banks are looking into methods to influence the behavior of both customers and employees. In particular, some are looking at behavioral science, Deines said.

"Over the past two years with labor shortages, we are seeing a huge interest in using behavioral science to hire, engage and retain employees, and we have been working on several such initiatives."

In part two, we will take a look at some of these initiatives in deeper detail.


Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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Branch transformation


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