megavideolinks
Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 86
|
 Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:31 pm Post subject: Teller recruitment |
 |
|
Congruent with GlobalBank’s overall strategy, recruitment for branch jobs is now
centralized and no longer done independently in the different regions. Although managers often
identify their own candidates, frequently through referrals from current employees, branches do
not do their own hiring. Referrals and other applicants, including those responding to newspaper
ads and walk-ins, are always sent to central recruitment. There the applicants are taken through a
series of screens, and branch managers are then given the final say on whether or not to hire.
However, branch managers are actually now much more involved in hiring than they were eight
years ago, when the goal was simply to find dependable and accurate tellers, characterized by one
recruiter as “transaction machines.”22
Teller recruitment has become significantly more selective and also more methodical in
recent years. The screening process consists of several different stages, many of which are new.
First, a pre-employment test is administered, the core of which is a behavioral section with
multiple choice questions. A short video is also shown at this time, to illustrate what the teller
job encompasses and to screen out candidates who would find the work unpleasant. Then a brief
phone interview is administered by an outside vendor. The applicant then comes in for a face-toface interview, often with a branch manager present, thus facilitating discussion about particular
candidates between branches and recruiters. Finally, recruitment is experimenting with a math
test,
17
which would be used to screen for transaction skills.
The screening of tellers has several clear mandates: to find quality workers with selling
and service experience, to reduce turnover, and to ensure that new hires are willing to work in
flexible, part-time schedules. These are roughly of equal importance. Recruiters obviously seek
candidates with banking experience, but proven sales ability in other retail sectors (especially
upscale) is a good proxy. Recruiters also look for experience in cash handling, in telemarketing,
and in professional work environments. Evidence of job-hopping is a strong negative.
Recruiters emphasize schedule flexibility and the willingness to start part-time (even if that
means eliminating some good candidates). Applicants are repeatedly told that they will begin
part-time, and that promotion to full-time depends on their performance.
Although tellers have not yet become salespeople, most recruiters ultimately stress the
need for tellers who can participate in the long-term strategy of relationship banking, so new
candidates are told that they need a “sales orientation.” Soft skills rank high, so that the
applicant’s professionalism (communication skills, friendliness, and appropriate dress) is key.
Finding applicants with good soft skills who are also willing to follow instructions in a23
traditionally low-status job appears to pose the most difficulty. Hence college graduates are
generally considered to be overqualified, but applicants with less education often lack the
communication skills needed for the bank’s new emphasis on service and selling. The result is
that tellers most often have some college experience or a community college degree, but do not
(yet) hold a four-year degree. In the past, a high school degree was the most common credential,
and candidates were selected almost solely on the basis of hard transaction skills.
There can be variation in this process, again by market segment. Branch managers in the
up-scale Manhattan, Westchester and Connecticut markets can be more selective, especially of
service and sales skills. But they also tend to receive applicants with higher expectations for
career development. At branches that are high-volume and focused mainly on transactions,
tellers might be screened more for the traditional aspects of the job.
In the past, the applicant-to-hire ratio was roughly 3:1. Now it is much higher, up to 40:1
if all applicants who simply call about a job listing are counted. If one only counts applicants
who make it to the stage of submitting a resume, the ratio is 10:1. Referrals fare better, as
roughly 35 to 40 percent of hires are referrals, and priority referrals (who have been actively
culled by branch managers) have a 70 percent pass rate.
18
There is growing reliance on informal
network hiring. Thus GlobalBank has no problem finding applicants, but has a difficult time
getting quality recruits who are committed to the company and who are willing to put in the time
at a low-status entry-level job.
_________________
semi seat covers
interactive website design |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
