Question for those involved in bank training: I need to conduct a high-level needs analysis to address the request our training department has received to provide teller referall training. My main question to answer is whether in-house training (versus manager or teller leader coaching) is the right solution, and what industry best practices are. I'm new ot the industry & would love to know of what resources & best practices are. We have about 600-700 tellers bankwide & average turnover, with limited trainers or classrooms available.

Lindy...respectfully, your main question ought to first be to asses the request itself. Trying to determine whether it should be in-house or not is the least of your concerns. That's not even an issue until you've identified specifically what the perceived gap is, what people should be doing, and most importantly -- what is causing the gap. When you know what's causing the gap, you can identify possible solutions. IF one of the pieces is skill/knowledge, then you're going to want to identify an appropriate desired outcome (aka objective). Once you know that you'll want to identify what the learner needs to do to reach that learning outcome. Then and only then are you in a place to identify in-house or not.(You wanted best practices...)

Just curious how are you progressing with your teller referral program?

Aside from the snide comments, there is a good response to your question of: Manager training vs. HR training.

First off, Manager Training or Head Teller training is nothing more than OJT that is disorganized and usually poor quality. While many feel this is a good and inexpensive method for training, it does little to promote employee satisifaction and little to improve bank customer relationships.

Having worked in a Bank for many years, I understand their ever-increasing desire to: shorten lines, improve customer interaction and to keep draw losses close to ZERO.

Most OTJ training programs fail to teach ALL that is required to perform a job. They also do not provide a measurable system to determine a base-line skill set. It is at best a jumble of feelings and irrational judgements.

The questions you should get an answer to is: Who are the Stakeholders for the training? What measurements are they applying toward the value of training? What is the cost, to hire a new teller when one quits? What would be the cost to have a training program? What measurements are they applying towards customer satisifaction? Line times, and draw accuracy?

Based on my expriences, a UNIFORM TRAINING PROGRAM improves:

1)the time it takes to train a teller,
2)the customer satisifaction with the tellers,
3)better trained tellers results in shorter bank lines,
4)training lowers cash draw issues, and,
5)lower turn-over in tellers thus BOTTOM LINE SAVINGS to the bank.

Since you are asking this question, I can presume that the bank realizes it has a problem, is seeking for a solution, but is hesitant on commiting money to a resolution. I would focus on a 'base-line' measurement and have them commit money for a pilot-program wherein you could quickly compare a test group to the baseline and then justify a larger more expanded training program.

Best of luck in your situation.

Bryant,

You are quite misinformed about OJT. There are two kinds of OJT: 1) the buddy system, and 2) structured OJT. The kind your remards speak to is the buddy system. That is no good - you're right.. BUT, structured OJT is not anything like what you described. It is FORMAL training, with written training materials and procedures, it occurs at a designated time just for training and at just the right time, it is delivered by a TRAINED trainer who follows a planned delivery process, occurs at or near the job site, and follows a SYSTEMS approach to design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

I suggest you might read my book on the subject of team-driven structured OJT - Training On the Job, published by ASTD Press. You'll find it here: http://store.astd.org/Default.aspx?tabid=44&action=INVProductDetails&args=7302

The approach applies perfectly to bank teller training and has been successfully used at several banks throughout the country. The whole premise of the team-driven approach where teams of employees (tellers in this case) design and develop the training system themselves with a trained facilitator, is specifically for the purpose of involving the all employees, improving morale, and enabling more customer satisfaction.
Or perhaps you might read Ronald Jacobs book on Structured On the Job Training, or William Rothwell's Improving On the Job Training.

It is this kind of unfounded garbeledy gook that does harm to the field of trainintg. Many people, unfortunately "learn" how to do their jobs by asking for advise on these boards. We have a responsibility to at least give accurate information.