Utility Players

On a picnic date, you might need a corkscrew for the bottle of wine, a fish scaler to prepare dinner and a toothpick to clean your teeth afterward. Fitting all those tools in the basket, along with the gourmet cheese and olives, could get a bit clunky. That’s where a Swiss Army Knife comes in handy. It can handle all those jobs plus dozens more. 

Along the same lines, some credit unions are training their front-line staff to handle whatever task comes their way, ready and able to perform basic transactions, open accounts, take loan applications, solve problems, and guide members who have questions about remote access. With an assist from new technology, universal staffing may provide the kind of service members expect today and help bring staffing levels in line with declining branch traffic.

Staffed by Generalists

Conversations about a new staffing approach began at Washington State Employees Credit Union in 2011, compelled by analyses showing annual decreases in branch traffic of 3 to 5 percent as members migrated to digital channels. “We knew that over time our model would have to change to ‘right-size’ staffing,” says CUES member Gary Swindler, SVP/chief member officer of the $2.5 billion credit union with 210,000 members.

Washington State ECU had also moved to centralized lending around that time. With loan decisions and underwriting now handled in the back office, branches that had previously been staffed by eight front-line employees could now maintain member service with five, Swindler says.

Branch operations and HR, training, and sales staff worked together to develop the job description for member consultants, “a smaller, more dynamic staff of generalists who can do everything,” he notes. With a new training infrastructure in place for current branch staff, Washington State ECU also instituted new hiring standards to recruit employees who were comfortable with a broader range of sales and service responsibilities.

The CU also adopted a new branch design for new and relocated offices and for retrofitting existing locations by replacing teller lines and member service areas with “pods,” or workstations designed to handle all types of transactions and interactions with members. Each pod is staffed by two member consultants, who share a teller cash recycler between them, and branches are also equipped with Wi-Fi so employees can demonstrate online and mobile services for members. Members can even grab an iPad and start account applications if they’re waiting for a member consultant.

The goal of these new staffing and branch layout approaches is “almost like a Genius Bar,” Swindler says, referring to the Apple store model. “Everything in banking can be digitized at the end of the day, but our branches are still our community billboards. Less and less do people come in for transactions, so effective sales and service support is in helping members with questions like ‘How do I download the mobile app?’ and ‘How do I download my account data to a spreadsheet?’”

The branch retrofitting is about halfway done, but Washington State ECU has forged ahead with its new staffing model. The CU developed and began offering member consultant training in 2012, training its former tellers to open accounts and take loan applications and its member service reps and loan officers to perform account transactions. And because all Washington State ECU locations are in the CUES Supplier member CO-OP Shared Branch network, member consultants are trained to handle basic transactions for other credit unions’ members as well.

In 2013, Washington State ECU further refined its training and created a reporting and utilization model with Bancography to monitor and benchmark optimal staffing levels based on branch volume. The CU’s largest “hub” branches are currently staffed with nine to 17 employees; mid-sized community branches have five to eight member consultants; and the smallest neighborhood branches operate with three or three and a half positions.

 “We take live data from the previous two quarters to right-size staffing at each branch. Then it’s just a matter of tweaking our staffing and scheduling,” Swindler says.

The CU has reduced staffing levels through attrition and relocation, eliminating 16 FTE positions in 2013, 10 in 2014, and an anticipated six additional positions this year. The new model has saved the CU a net $1.1 million annually over its first two years in operation, even with the higher pay rates for all front-line staff, he notes. Tellers were previously paid at a grade below member service officers; now all member consultants earn a pay grade higher than member service officers had received.

Washington State ECU did contend with “internal resistance,” both from some tellers who balked at taking on additional responsibilities and some member service officers who were reluctant to take what they perceived as a step back to perform basic transactions. About 10 percent of front-line employees left the credit union during the transition to the new model either because “they weren’t able to make the jump or didn’t share the new vision,” Swindler says.

Among the employees who stuck with the member consultant training, “some got there in six months, and some took a year or longer,” he notes. “But in hiring new people, we found that they just came in saying, ‘Yeah, this totally makes sense.’”

Even through a sometimes rocky transition, “our service scores went up,” Swindler adds. “Members appreciated not behind handed off.”

He credits the success to the combination of clear support from senior leaders and to ownership by front-line staff in the form of a “member consultant think tank,” a group of 10 branch representatives who made many of the decisions about how the new approach should be structured. Think tank members gathered input from their peers through an intranet link and worked through the specifics of operationalizing the staffing model—rewriting policies and procedures on cash handling, basic transactions, and other member service interactions—with only minimal guidance.

“They took ownership. Looking back, that was the biggest win—not dictating this model from the top down,” he says. “They set realistic goals to do it right, not fast. Their goal was to get 80 percent there over two years.”

That distributed management model remains in place, Swindler adds. “The leaders at each branch make the call on when their staff is proficient and when they need help getting certified with additional support and training. In any financial institution, you have the core culture, policies and procedures, but we let every one of our branches run it like it’s their own business. Soup to nuts, it’s theirs in terms of the execution.”

Phasing it In

This alternative staffing model is not an all or nothing proposition. Numerica Credit Union, Spokane, Wash., has had some form of universal staffing for more than a decade, currently in place in eight of its 18 branches, including five “new builds” equipped with cash recyclers, advanced ATMs, and tech bars featuring iPads for members’ use.

“Branches that use a universal model are physically different to reduce barriers with members and offer a more open flow,” says CUES member Erynne Hallock, VP/branch administration and sales for the $1.4 billion credit union with more than 105,000 members.

Numerica CU hopes to incorporate universal staffing in all its branches by the end of this year. But to ease the transition from traditional front-line service roles, the CU developed a “hybrid model” with two paths for branch staff—service representatives (I, II, and III) and financial service representatives (I, II, III)—which reduces the number of retail staff job descriptions from 13 to six. Service representatives focus primarily on basic transactions and developing the know-how to open new accounts, while financial service representatives open new accounts and take loan applications but are also “held to the concept of ‘no skill left behind,’ meaning they are a master of all trades and can fill in where needed,” Hallock explains.

These positions are designed around employees’ knowledge levels and functions in the branch, with the aim of aligning compensation with performance expectations. “With the hybrid model, staff members are paid for their current level of training. As they gain more experience and training, pay increases,” she notes.

Training for all Numerica CU branch staff starts with teller skills and then builds on these fundamentals with training and experiences in member service, lending and other financial services, depending on the goal for the position.

“Universal banking requires team work, and that is what Numerica is about. We believe in taking the time to help our employees grow to their best selves,” Hallock says. “The expectation for staff is to be the trusted advisor for our members, assisting with basic transactions as well as helping members with products and services that can help them in their daily lives.”

Toward that end, Numerica CU has developed a staffing model supported with the assignment of gradual responsibility and training. Front-line staff have goals that align to their knowledge level and function.

Universal staffing simplifies many scheduling issues, allowing managers “to schedule for the branch’s overall needs and not just specific functions,” she notes, “but it doesn’t necessarily mean fewer employees.” Numerica CU branches have different staffing requirements. Larger locations assign staff to handle the high demand for transactions and new accounts efficiently, with financial service representatives on hand to provide concierge care when special needs arise.

“This flexibility allows Numerica to dynamically offer support as members’ needs evolve,” Hallock adds. “By applying a universal model at smaller branches, staff members are cross-trained and capable of handling a vast variety of member needs.” 

This hybrid approach offers advantages and a few challenges, Hallock acknowledges. “Different models in place often leave staff comparing what they are asked to do with what the expectations are of other staff using a different model. When the expectation is moved to be equal for all, with the explanation of how it assists in the overall efficiency of the branch and the level of service to our members, creating buy-in is easier.”

Communication and transparency with staff will be crucial as Numerica CU transitions to universal staffing at all its branches to allay “growing pains” and resistance from service representatives facing additional responsibilities and loan officers who will now be assisting members at service pods, she notes.

‘One-Stop Shopping’

The staffing model at $7.3 billion/93,000-member Star One Credit Union, Sunnyvale, Calif., has evolved in step with changes in its branch and lending operations. When its corporate office and main branch were located on the campus of its original sponsor, Lockheed-Martin, members had ready access to all departments, including consumer and mortgage lending, says Sandra Moix, VP/branch services.

After Lockheed sold the building housing its office, Star One CU expanded in the community and has since opened five branches throughout Santa Clara County. It also moved to centralized underwriting and, by extension, to a form of universal staffing so that all member service representatives can take consumer and mortgage loan applications (though most members complete the latter online).

In the transition, consumer loan processors were cross-trained to open deposit accounts, and member service reps learned to take loan applications and coordinate with underwriting all applications not immediately processed through the loan decision engine. Star One CU’s branches still have teller lines for basic transactions, but since 2008, member service reps provide “one-stop shopping” for all other services.

Though members increasingly conduct routine transactions through online and mobile channels, “we still open 80 percent of accounts through a branch,” Moix says. “We have an online account acquisition tool, but most members still prefer to open accounts face to face. And if they have a problem, they believe it will be resolved more quickly in person.”

Training is the foundation for effective implementation of universal staffing, she suggests—and not just for the nuts and bolts of taking loan applications and opening accounts, but to internalize the CU’s commitment to service and sales. At Star One CU, all 180 employees, including the executive team, participated in a service training program offered by CUNA, which the CU adapted, or as Moix puts it, “Star One-ized.” As part of the transition to universal staffing, front-line employees also participated in a CUNA sales training.

“They need sufficient training, and they need to buy in on the concept that it’s a one-stop shop,” she says. “We made it very clear to employees that we don’t want to sell just for the sake of selling. Our approach is to pose high-impact questions to identify needs. We present it as service at the next level.”

The move to universal staffing has also upped the ante for training new staff. “We’re very up-front with telling new employees that they’re going to be doing a lot,” Moix notes. Member service reps receive four months of classroom and on-the-job training that spans opening new accounts, processing IRAs, originating consumer loans, and taking mortgage loan applications—on top of sales and service training.

Front-line recruitment is also based on candidates’ affinity for sales and service, she adds. “We used to hire people by saying, ‘No quotas,’ and we got the former staff of other financial institutions with sales goals. We don’t have quotas, but we do have goals.”

The combination of declining branch traffic for routine transactions and the move to universal staffing has allowed Star One CU to reduce branch positions through attrition and to more efficiently allocate staffing among branches by analyzing transaction data through an FMSI model with three levels (ideal, sufficient and critical) to determine day-to-day needs and forecast future demand. Three “floater” employees move from branch to branch based on anticipated traffic, but even employees assigned to a branch understand they may need to shift from time to time, Moix says.

The credit union may install interactive teller machines with the goal of extending hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., not to replace personal service during regular business hours. “At this point, we have no intention to replace live tellers,” she notes. “Change occurs slowly and by design.

“It’s important to communicate to employees and members about your intent when you make these kinds of changes,” Moix adds. “Our employees are our greatest asset, so there needs to be communication about what’s happening and why to get their buy-in.”

Not Universally Applicable

Universal staffing may not be the right approach for every organization. Amplify Credit Union introduced this model as it rolled out a new more open design for its branches in Austin, Texas, in 2006. But over time, the $700 million credit union serving 51,000 members found the challenges of training all front-line employees in the complexities of mortgage lending and other financial products to be daunting and even counterproductive to providing the best possible member service, says President/CEO Paul Trylko, a CUES member.

These days, Amplify CU’s eight branches are staffed by account management professionals (or AMPs, a play on the credit union’s name), who open accounts and handle more in-depth member interactions, and member service representatives, who deal with routine transactions. “And when members come in to apply for a mortgage, they receive a ‘warm hand-off’ to a mortgage loan specialist who is well-versed in all the regulations involved in real estate lending,” Trylko says.

“Conceptually, we understand the value of having a lot of different people being able to assist members. But in trying to create the best member experience, we want to make sure we get them to the right people to get them the right answers,” he says. “We’re not against universal staffing. This hybrid approach just works better for us.”

Another aspect that made universal staffing challenging for Amplify CU is its training-intensive nature. Recruitment is tough in a region with unemployment at 3.4 percent, and committing to months of training new employees stretched out the hiring and learning curve even further, Trylko notes.

Amplify CU’s branches maintain an open, tech-enabled design with AMPs moving freely around the member service area with Wi-Fi-enabled laptops. That approach suits the CU’s “heritage members”—IBM employees—and other Austinites just fine, as does the opportunity to connect directly with mortgage and investment specialists when they visit a branch.

“There’s no right or wrong in branch staffing models—it comes down to what works best for your membership,” Trylko says.

Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Stoughton, Wis.