Under pressure: The secret lives of bank staff

It was revealed this week that ANZ sacked staff who deleted customer email addresses from files, fearing they would give bad feedback about their service.

Bank staff said the regulatory push to remove sales-based incentives had been replaced by a regime that was just as tough, but instead focused on customer experiences.

Amid extra scrutiny on banks, Stuff asked for your experiences of working at them. Here are some of the responses.

Avoiding surveys

Staff at banks other than ANZ were also putting major effort into avoiding customer satisfaction surveys, one bank worker said.

‘‘Some branch managers are encouraging staff to be wary of searching or logging customer information in [the] branch when they inquire – this is due to this flagging as an ‘interaction’, which gives the potential for these surveys to be sent. The outcome is that people are encouraged to have the call centre or online inquiries deal with ‘maintenance’, or non-sales, queries . . .

‘‘There are ‘cold calling’ lists provided to the personal bankers who must make a minimum appointment measure per week . . . These appointments are often made for people they know will come into the branch, due to dwindling foot traffic in branches – with old people, and even in some instances disabled people, arriving for a ‘bank meeting’ without even really knowing why they are there.

‘‘I often would cringe when I saw the rural addresses and noted the effort some customers would make to get into a branch for a sales appointment conducted by someone half their age, who has been in a retail banking culture since they left school with no real deep financial training.

‘‘I really think the royal commission [of inquiry] in Australia did nothing more but lump more process and regulation on the frontline, deeply affecting working conditions.’’

High expectations

Another former bank employee had worked for two of the main four in the past and said all had unrealistic expectations of staff.

‘‘There is a serious problem with banks and how they treat their staff with workloads, expectations and a generally archaic, hierarchical management structure. Senior managers are, more often than not, out of touch with the day-to-day operations of what they do as a business unit.

‘‘There are some fantastic people who work in the banking industry, [but] the culture of all four Aussie-owned banks needs to change from board level down to senior management.’’

Less face-to-face

Another said that while banks claimed there would be opportunities to access in-person service, that did not always happen.

‘‘Staff were told when smart ATMs were introduced that customers will always have a choice if they wanted to use them or go to a teller. Sadly I have seen interesting tactics by branches to force the use of the ATMs.’’

Some good news

One bank worker said the negative attention was unfair.

‘‘I could tell you 15 stories of how management have cared for staff; that my branch manager spent their own money to fly another staff member to the [Pacific] Islands for a funeral as they couldn’t afford it; that my manager escorted a customer out of the branch immediately for calling my gay colleague a ‘f .... t’; that our regional manager continuously visits all staff, speaks with them, provides feedback, is there to listen; that 90 per cent of staff in my region attended a sports day for disadvantaged youth, in their own time, with no pressure at all from the bank.

‘‘Interesting comment today that I overheard a staff member say: ‘The stories in the media are having a far more negative effect on me and has genuinely affected my mental health than any alleged performance pressure.’ ’’

Regulator eyes incentives

Financial Markets Authority spokesman Andrew Park said issues raised about performance tracking at banks highlighted concerns raised in its conduct and culture review of bank incentives.

‘‘Our statement on bank incentives last week acknowledged that banks had committed to removing sales-based incentives for frontline staff, and that the real test of the success of these commitments will be the type of behaviour that is rewarded in the future,’’ he said.