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Teller productivity is declining at credit unions—and banks.
Credit Union Management’s online-only “HR Answers” column runs the first Tuesday of the month. This is also web-only bonus coverage from “Strategic Staffing” in the February 2014 issue of CU Management.
Credit union managers have several ways to determine if they are staffing correctly. Looking at peer data offers a good way to compare the number of full-time equivalents at your credit union to other, similar institutions.
Another way to examine your staffing strategy is to compare your employee productivity with other credit unions.
In 2013, on average, credit union lobby tellers processed 1,275.8 transactions each month, according to data from the CUES Interactive Staffing Guide. That is a lot lower than the 2008 average of 2,644 that was reported in the CUES 2009 Staffing Manual for Credit Unions, the last time CUES collected staffing data. In 2013, tellers at the smallest CUs (under $250 million in assets) processed 1,044 transactions per month. Tellers at CUs with more than $1 billion in assets processed 2,587.5 transactions per month.
Overall, CU lobby tellers have become less productive since 2008. This follows an industry trend, according to FMSI, Alpharetta, Ga., which provides financial institutions with business intelligence and performance management systems for efficient branch staff scheduling and lobby management. In its 2013 Annual Teller Line Study, FMSI reports a 45.3 percent decline in teller transaction volume (at banks and CUs) since 1992 and a 17 percent decline in productivity.
If your credit union has not changed the way it staffs branches in many years, it might be time to take a look. Have your transactions decreased over time? As tellers turn over, might you get by without hiring someone new?
“If your tellers are doing half the transactions of everybody else, you may be overstaffed,” says Michael Becher, CPA, senior project director at Industry Insights, Inc., Dublin, Ohio, which manages the CUES Interactive Staffing Guide. On the other hand, “maybe it’s a situation where you are expanding and growing and you want to be ready for that.”
Knowing—and using—the data can help make sure your staffing processes and models are in line with the CU’s overall strategy.
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
