Universal Banker: Selecting the Right Employee for this Role

As a child and into my youth, I loved tennis and spent many hours on the court playing the game. Hour after hour I would work on skill-drills with a tennis pro working on my footwork, serves, backhand and forehand swings and continuously improved. I had real potential! After a series of broken bones and shoulder surgery I was prevented from playing tennis for many years. I finally picked up my tennis racquet this weekend at a charity event. Within about 20 minutes of practice, those tennis skills that had been so finely tuned in my youth were returning to me. Why after all this time was I able to get right back into the game? I attribute this to having been passionate about tennis in the past, combined with years of proper skill training and coaching.

Recognizing the importance of enjoying what you do, wanting to do it, and having achieved the skills to do it successfully, brings me to the question of Tellers and/or Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) being the right talent pool for the selection of Universal Bankers. As I continue to work with Financial Institutions on enhancing the customer experience while improving efficiency ratios, it's become very clear that selecting the right employee for the role of Universal Banker is essential for the consumer line of business.

One of the first questions asked by my clients is usually centered on up-skilling Tellers/CSRs so they can advance to the Universal Banker role. My clients find this can be daunting because these employees will need to develop a skill set that enables them to adapt to highly complex generational needs, ongoing regulatory changes and the digital revolution. Because Universal Bankers are no longer just processing transactional business as they did in the past, they now need to navigate these challenges by building a multi-faceted set of knowledge and skills to conduct successful customer conversations. So my first question is: “How will you train the Tellers/CSRs to move them from a transactional focus to asking questions about future goals, building relationships around generational needs, and following up with telephone calls that require a very different skill set than a face-to-face conversation?”

Changing this role to relationship selling is not an easy task and represents a significant training investment in order for the individuals to be equipped with the necessary skill-set to be successful. Selecting individuals who are believed to be the right employees for this role is vitally important. Psychometric assessments when used to augment existing hiring practices, provide a predictive indicator in determining which Tellers/CSRs will have the highest likelihood of success in moving to a relationship building sales role. When used to supplement verbal, observational and written exchange of information with candidates, these scientifically designed online assessments help organizations make the right choice.

The hiring organization contributes to the design of the criteria to determine the exact footprint of the candidate they’re looking for, and then the data-driven system does the rest. An assessment will help identify if a person CAN do the job, if they WILL do it, and if they WILL BE HAPPY doing so. Furthermore, assessments also help:

1. assist with the on-boarding process

2. determine the appropriate training

3. gain coaching insights, and

4. incorporate future succession planning information.

If you imagine an iceberg, the tip of the iceberg is above the water and is all you can see. This is similar to the information and insights you gather through typical screening and interviewing activities. Using an online psychometric assessment allows you to see a person at the deepest levels. This includes how they think, natural tendencies, behaviors and preferences, and attitudes towards work place issues. You see the real size and depth of the iceberg, the part which is under water and the part that you can see.

Organizations can expect that Universal Bankers selected through more robust hiring practices, which include assessments as an additional data point along with the proper training, will be FAR more likely to fit well into their new role and meet or exceed performance expectations.

During a time of “doing more with less”, having a Universal Banker with cross-functional capabilities will help organizations deliver a greater customer experience, with better results. Assessments and training brings the financial organization closer to a multi-functional financial center, which fits well with the change occurring within banks now and in the future.

Nancy Findlay is the Founder and President of Performance Edge Plus.