Why banks tolerate tellers’ cash shortages
Credit to Author: REY ELBO| Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2018 16:12:49 +0000
The banking industry is abuzz and pulsating every yearend. And it’s understandable because of several hundreds of thousands of transactions happening around us during the holiday season. What intrigues me now is the industry’s policy of allowing tellers to commit mistakes, either in the form of shortages or overages.
There’s no such thing as zero defect in tellers’ job. The industry recognizes human frailty in a highly-stressful work of tellers who must process exact amounts of money while at the same time projecting a friendly appearance to customers. All of these must be done in the process of handling over a hundred transactions every day, at times handling as much as P300,000 cash deposits and withdrawals per client.
Adding up to stress is that bank tellers are also required to detect counterfeit bills, discover materially-altered checks, and advise clients on how to fill-up the correct deposit and withdrawal forms under the pain of a disciplinary action that could result in employment termination.
The industry recognizes the difficult job of tellers. That’s why, in one major bank, I was told by a ranking official they pay as much as P30,000 per year or monthly allowance of P2,500 for every teller to cover shortages. They consider it as a non-taxable hazard pay charged against the bank’s operating expenses. Another bank claims it pays only a smaller P5,000 shortage allowance per year per teller because they have a smaller customer base unlike big banks.
Is it worth it? Would you allow your fresh-from-college sons or daughters to work in an entry level post in the banking industry? I mean, how many people would opt to work as tellers in the first place that pay a little over the minimum wage or something like P14,000 a month? One bank official admits there’s a shortage of job applicants who would want to work as tellers. But they attract them by paying as much as 15 to 18 months of guaranteed pay a year, depending on the size of the bank.
The question is — why can’t you do something to eliminate, at least the most common error by tellers? One bank official handling human resources says it’s next to the impossible, while another official with at least 35 years in the industry claims it’s possible as she has done it before with flying colors with a Japanese offshore bank. When she moved to a major local bank owned by a Filipino-Chinese conglomerate, she tried to implement the idea of zero defect, but was rebuffed by management.
Speaking of the Japanese, why can’t we apply the principles of Pokayoke (mistake-proofing) in the industry, so that our banks may not have to pay extra for the tellers’ cash shortages?
That’s the trouble among us. In many situations that I’ve seen happening in organizations (not limited to the banking industry), management appears to act only on the symptoms of the problem and responding to them, rather than attacking the cause or causes of the problem. So, how can you solve a problem believed to be traceable to tellers’ error caused by stress and fatigue, among others?
If the industry agrees that human error can’t be avoided, then there’s no point of going beyond challenging this issue. Besides, the amount of cash shortage allowance given to tellers is not much compared to several millions of earnings they earn in the process.
Also, it’s only a matter of time as the industry is bent on promoting online banking and is constantly improving its automated tellering system that sooner or later, the post of tellers may become obsolete in maybe 15 years. In the meantime, our banks must tolerate the perceived unavoidable tellers’ error.
Now what? Really, I can’t accept the industry’s reason that it’s not worth a try reducing, if not eliminating the most common type of tellers’ errors. Excuses are not solutions. Why not? That’s because management often resort to mathematical calculations. Revenue minus costs is profit. It is as simple as that. Or is it?
In my view, management often forget about the Kaizen principle in pursuit of more revenues. If we’re earning a lot of money, then why worry with loose change? Kaizen and Lean expert Mark Graban asks: “How much time should we worry about distinguishing between the problems we CAN solve, the problems we SHOULD solve, and the problems we MUST solve?
I bet many of you are trying to figure that out in your organizations.”
Graban, who specializes in the application of Kaizen and Lean to the healthcare industry says: “When we teach Kaizen, the focus is on: No problem is too small to solve and focus on solving problems that bother you or the customer.”
Cash shortages (even overages) are a major headache of tellers, who despite their meager pay, must do a lot to fight stress and fatigue as they continue to maintain a friendly façade to customers. The shortage allowance that ranges from a low of P5,000 to a high of P30,000 a year is nothing compared to one single error that could run to several hundreds of thousands.
What bank management must do now is to maximize their tellers’ ingenuity. Empower them. Allow them to discover solutions against this age-old problem. After all, they are proximate to the issue and the tellers know it by heart. You may be surprised that there lies a solution that can’t be implemented because management thinks the problem is too small to consider.
Rey Elbo is a business consultant on human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.consulting
The post Why banks tolerate tellers’ cash shortages appeared first on The Manila Times Online.