NEEDS ASSESSMENT PROCESS: PERSONAL BANKER TRAINING 1

Needs Assessment Process: Personal Banker Training

Alexandria S McLaurin

CUR /528

May 16, 2016

Siddeeqah Johnson
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Needs Assessment Process: Personal Banker Training

The field of sales has many functions throughout business enterprise. Many sales

professionals provide the core foundation for the growth and strength of organizations. Although

people may have a negative view of the sales profession, the role of sales professional is

important to the growth and strength of many global economies. The skills of sales

professionals may vary by industry but there are many commonalities in the approaches and

objectives of sales professionals. A training program that incorporates the various methods of

instruction is the Personal Banking academy delivered by many financial institutions. The

program provides personal bankers with the knowledge of providing a consultative experience to

help clients to choose appropriate banking products to manage their personal and business needs.

The following will provide a needs assessment for this form of training program related to

personal bankers. The review will identify the purpose, level of assessment, stakeholders,

budget, and time allotted for the assessment. In addition, it will determine what information is

needed to measure and identify what resources are available. The completion of the needs

assessment will help support the delivery and implementation of the training program.

Training Program

The program selected for the needs assessment is developed for the role of a personal

banker in a financial institution. The training program consists of several important skill courses

and other business etiquette courses. Bankers must learn federal regulations and guidelines for

assisting customers. These foundational training helps ensure that bankers provide customers

with accurate and ethical service. The next step of the training program is to provide bankers

with the knowledge of the products and services that available to customers. The knowledge of

different types of money management products, loans, and other financial products helps the
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banker to provide complete service to his or her clients. The role of a banker is to sell financial

products to clients; therefore, bankers also must participate in sales training courses that include

asking open-ended questions, completing a financial assessment, and overcoming objections.

The completion of sales training is not the end of the program; bankers will also need to learn

skills like time management, telemarketing, and relationship building skills to become effective

in their roles. The completion of this program does not guarantee that the participants will be

successful in their roles, but it does provide each banker with the foundations needed to be

productive.

Purpose, Level of Assessment, Stakeholders, Budget, and Time Allotted

The purpose of the assessment is to determine the appropriate amount of training that

should be applied to each component of the training program. The bank has found that some

bankers become more successful than others and want to determine the value of spending more

time on sales skills than regulation content without negatively impacting the integrity of the

business operations. The assessment that will apply to this program will focus on behaviors that

are demonstrated by several bankers after completing similar programs with different emphasis

on course content. The stakeholders involved in the assessment include the corporate leaders,

bank managers, personal bankers, customers, and stockholders. The analysis will require an

investment of financial resources and time. The assessment period will require at least six

months to a year to determine the programs influence on personal banker behavior. An

appropriate budget would include salary for a staff of facilitators, evaluators, and field

representatives to observe banker behavior. In addition, the program would require supplies and

materials for 50 to 100 participants. Therefore a budget of $100,000 for salary and an additional
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$10,000 in supplies should provide the assessment team sufficient resources to complete the

needs assessment.

Specific Information for Measurement

The needs assessment will require analysis of specific information to determine the

effectiveness of the program and identify any opportunities. The information that is vital to the

examination of the bankers production and efficiency would involve two key areas the sales

production of the banker along with the compliance management for the banker during the sales

process. The data that will be examined for the sales production would include the bankers

volume of units, mix of financial products, and penetration of different product lines per

household. The other area would include the bankers ability to connect clients with investment

products or lending services. The next criteria will examine the bankers compliance

management in areas such as proper documentation of customer identification, completion of

regulatory courses, and management of technical exceptions. The measurement of these key

areas will provide data on the bankers ability to connect components of the training program

with behaviors that are appropriate for productive and ethical sales professional. The data will

be obtained through observation of the employees ability to connect with clients using the sales

training skills obtained during the program. In addition, bankers will be required to submit each

completed sell to a review board to examine its accurateness and whether it meets regulatory

guidelines.

Information Availability

The process of conducting the needs assessment may utilize a combination of existing

data and data obtained throughout the completion of the needs assessment process. The needs

assessment will include information obtained from current personal bankers completing a
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specialized form of the standard training program to provide specific data related to the different

instructional methods. In addition, data will be available from personal bankers that have taken

previous versions of the course and can provide responses to surveys based on their opinion of

the training program. Some resources that may also be available are similar needs assessment

completed by other financial institutions that may be similar to the company that is being

assessed. The use of both existing data and the new data obtained during the needs assessment

process will help provide a balanced view of the program and determine what specific needs it

serves. Although data could easily be gathered from past versions of the program it is important

to use new data to examine the application of the training program in a new business

environment.

Conclusion

The needs assessment process helps to identify the purpose of a training program.

Understanding the reason why a program is developed helps to support the value of the program

and align the objectives to meet the specific needs of the audience. Another important aspect of

needs assessment is to select and appropriate assessment method. In the example provided the

assessment would include a combination of surveys, direct observation, and data gathering. The

multidimensional approach helps to provide some room for variance, while also maintaining the

integrity of the program. The banker program identified several stakeholders including corporate

leaders and local management. Although it may be assumed that many are involved in the

assessment process, the key contributors often have a large influence on the availability of

resources to achieve the desired outcome. The budget of over $100,000 requires approval from

senior level leaders, which expresses the value of knowing the stakeholders in an assessment.

The assessment will look to examine key performance behaviors of a personal banker including
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volume production and regulatory management. Providing a clear and understandable

measurement requirement also assist with the identification of existing data that may be applied

to the current needs assessment. During the needs assessment it will be easier to find existing

data but it is important to balance existing data with observational data to provide an accurate

interpretation of the needs assessment.