Performance Management Success Strategies for Retail Banks

Retail Banking by definition is to open services of banking to consumers directly instead of dealing with corporates OR in short it is all about dealing with small accounts directly!

This involves being proactive with the consumer needs and being able to HELP them in understanding the universe of Banking! Customer Service is such a delicate area of operation that if you as a banker do not understand that even YOU are a consumer of some such Bank or the same back by default, you will have to be proactive in anticipating the emotions of the consumers. Its all about being there when they need you! If people are taught the skills of being consumer oriented half the worries are over as the consumer - banker relationship will always bear fruit and improve the overall performance of the institution!

The era of PSU banking though ended by Private banking, its autmost important that establishing oneself and retaining consistency will remain the key.  Hence, the Performance Management for retail banking should ideally have focussed goals.  It should focus on Consistent customer servicing, Increase in Customer database, Maintaining Brand for Retailing (short and long term), Innovations and expansions.  The PMS of retail banking should focus on these aspects mandetorily.  In addition, they should earmark some amount of CSR for every banking personnel, may it be small or big contribution.  The PMS is organisational driven activity and hence while strategising, the top guns of such banks must appreciate these aspects and provide relevant directions to overall organisations.

I believe that to hire the right people banks should leverage on both technical and behavioral competencies of an employee.I think that for front office employees, behavioral competencies should weigh higher than functional competencies and the banks should list the key competencies along both dimensions, soft and technical skills, for all customer-facing positions which will make it easier for them to allocate right persons at the right place.

To not let your employees getting bored by doing the same work again & again, employ Job Rotation programs to allow staff to experience different roles and a means to keep them engaged and retained so that they will always be charged enough and looking forward to come to office to do the work which will increase their productivity and will result into customer satisfaction.

One best practice can be to Employ motivational approaches with customer-facing employees to inspire world-class customer service.This can be done by using the “huddle” approach at the beginning of each day.A daily five to ten minute kickoff meeting is held to start the day. During that time, managers recognize outstanding efforts of their employees from the previous day. The primary focus of these meetings is delivering a positive message to try to get everyone in the right frame of mind to start the day.