Why does society make us feel guilty for taking coins to the bank??

mclaren32

But quite clearly we have staff kicking around doing nothing for those occasions where all hell breaks loose. Oh and god forbid that not every person in the branch can't cashier to enable people to pay in their cheque for £12 when an under utilised cash and deposit machine is available.

Rant over!

opinions4u wrote: »

It is a problem that takes some juggling.

From a branch manager perspective I had a headcount budget. For example, I could employ 13.6 staff. If that was 13 full timers and a part timer who works 3 days a week it makes it very difficult to free up "extra" lunch time cover.

Most staff would have a half hour lunch break. Lunch breaks can be spread across a wider period of time, so some will go at 11.00am, others at 11.30am, some at noon and so on to 2.30pm - maximising availability for customers. That said, allowance had to be made for the needs of any staff who have to eat at a certain time on health grounds.

If the branch is open 6 days a week, say 43 hours, and each full time staff member works a 35 hour week (with 5 weeks holidays and training time on top to deduct), then each staff member is entitled to a full day off each week plus an early finish (or late start). One of the problems you get is how to cover the branch at the end of the day when staff have taken shorter lunch breaks are entitled to go home early.

One obvious solution to lunch time demand is to recruit part time staff who cover that 11.00am to 3pm period. In a city centre this is undoubtedly the period with highest demand. It's also the hardest place to recruit people to work part time for shorter days. Who wants to pay five days worth of bus fares or expensive city centre car parking to work for 20 hours a week in a job that pays little more than minimum wage?

Where you can get the part-time working Mum is in the smaller town branches where the main shopping precinct's big store is Wilkinsons or new pound shop. Drop the kids off at school, hoover the house and walk up to work. Serve over lunch and wander off to pick up the kids when school's out. But lunch time demand is often not significantly greater in these branches, so it's not always a perfect solution. It's just as annoying being in a queue at 4.30pm when there are only two cashiers as it is at 12.30pm when there are four.

I do remember once having a full time vacancy and taking the decision to recruit two part timers to work five x three and a half hour shifts each across the week. After three months of having the advert on the bank's web site and in the local job centre with only one application (who wasn't up to scratch when interviewed) I gave up on the masterplan and recruited a full timer who had passed interview for another branch where the vacancy had been filled by somebody else. That three month period where I was trying to improve things for customers meant they were served by a branch short on staff.

Another key issue is predicting when the branch is going to be busy. Yes, Monday, Friday, Market Day and Saturday morning might be busy. But when 100 customers turn up between 12noon and 1pm and only 30 between 1pm and 2pm, when a week earlier was the exact opposite, how are you meant to plan for it?

opinions4u

But quite clearly we have staff kicking around doing nothing for those occasions where all hell breaks loose

Not quite sure where. 13.6 staff x 35 hours / 43 trading hours = 11. Holidays of 5 weeks a year takes you down to 10 (fewer in summer when more people take holidays). A couple on lunch at any one time at "peak" time. So we're down to 8.

4 on the tills. 1 on the reception desk. 3 in private rooms with customers.

And the manager included in those 8 staff.

meer53

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Why do you need to go to the bank every day though? Or even once a week? Internet and telephone banking exist for a reason...

Internet banking is fantastic but i have yet to see a laptop or PC with a slot for accepting cash.

MoneySaverLog

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Why do you need to go to the bank every day though? Or even once a week? Internet and telephone banking exist for a reason...

I don't. It is very rare I do these days. But it never used to be like that.

I do a lot of my banking on the phone or online these days. 90% of it is all automated.

However, there have been times in the past where I've had to get urgent cash payments from an account with no internet banking into my Lloyds account before 4.30pm. So this could only be done during lunchtime with branch visits.

If I had waited until I finished work or used one of those automated machines it would have been too late to avoid fees.

MoneySaverLog

opinions4u wrote: »

Not quite sure where. 13.6 staff x 35 hours / 43 trading hours = 11. Holidays of 5 weeks a year takes you down to 10 (fewer in summer when more people take holidays). A couple on lunch at any one time at "peak" time. So we're down to 8.

4 on the tills. 1 on the reception desk. 3 in private rooms with customers.

And the manager included in those 8 staff.

I used to see staff sitting at a counter with the position closed at lunchtimes and often wondered what they were doing and why it could not wait until they are less busy outside the main 12-2pm period.

opinions4u

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

I used to see staff sitting at a counter with the position closed at lunchtimes and often wondered what they were doing

Probably sorting out a place to store the change the previous customer had just paid in !

and why it could not wait until they are less busy outside the main 12-2pm period.

Because they'd be sacked if they didn't ensure the cash was secure.

Slightly tongue in cheek there, but usually there will be a valid reason - but not something where you'll be communicating it to customers. There will be times where the cashier concerned is incompetent / stupid / lazy as well, but this won't be the norm.

But, for example, sorting out whatever needs sorting when there's three other cashiers avaiable at 12.30pm might be preferable to doing it at 4.30pm when you might be one of only two available cashiers.

jonesMUFCforever

lilmofie84 wrote: »

Since when can you deposit coins via the deposit point envelopes?

Why collect them why not spend them as you go along or change them in shops and pubs for notes?

ses6jwg

The other issue that customers don't understand is that each cashier is assigned their own "bag" or "till" which must be counted in and out, and checked by another member of staff to prevent cash errors/ staff fraud.

Only 1 person can use 1 bag. You cannot simply "hop on" another member of staffs till due to pretty obvious reasons.

If you have 4 till positions (which in itself is quite rare in most bank branches it is usually 2, or 3 at a push), 1 cashier may be on lunch at any one time between 11.30 and 2.30pm, lunch could last an hour, it is simply not feasible to "cash out" and "cash in" every lunch time for every cashier.

A final point is that the primary cause of queues in banks is not actually down to the staff - its customers who are carrying out transactions that could be carried out at an ATM or deposit box.

A good percentage of counter transactions are customers withdrawing less than £300 in cash which could be withdrawn from an ATM however the customer refuses to use them for one reason or another. I've noticed its a similar case the post office, where on my lunch break I often have to wait 15-20 minutes to post eBay goods because half of the customers in the queue are the elderly withdrawing money from their post office ATM cards. These cards could be used in an ATM to reduce queues.

SnowTiger

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Why collect them why not spend them as you go along or change them in shops and pubs for notes?

That would just move the queues from banks to shops, with customers faffing around in their purse for 67p (or whatever).

And as for exchanging coins for notes in shops and pubs, well, perhaps you would name a few that are happy to do this? I suspect Tesco, or at least their staff, would be a little miffed if customers started bringing in bags of coins, expecting to exchange them for notes. Can't see the average pub being too happy about it either.

MoneySaverLog

I would rather draw cash out at the counter, rather than use a ATM for security reasons.

My order of preference for drawing cash is

At the Counter
Inside the branch ATM
Outside ATM - Emergencies only (Higher risk of skimmers being attached to them)

I prefer the counter as I know I am not going to be short changed by some ATM machine.