Training: A How-ToEssential and Important

There are many types of training that financial institutions are required to do. Some training is mandated by regulations, some by marketing, and some by good, old common sense. The banking industry is unique in that it is customer service based. Many times new hires do not understand that precept, especially in operations. Most of our products are the same or very similar. The only thing, therefore, that sets you apart from the competition is your customer service - the way you meet, greet and treat your members and customers.

The position of training officer is often relegated to human relations, or the branch manager, or the compliance or security officer, or to no one in particular - just "on-the-job" training. To be truly successful, training should be interesting, memorable, and professionally done. It's a skill that can be learned and developed.

During the next couple of training pages, we'll take a good look at requirements and methods of training, and do what we can to make your job as a trainer easier.

Requirements
First, determine what kind of training must be done. Do your homework. Don't rely on what you used to do, or what training is being done by the "other" financial institutions in town. Go to the regulations and find out exactly what you are supposed to be teaching. Check with your regulators. Research by going to banking and financial institution web pages. Check with your compliance officer, your marketing officer, your lending officer, your security officer - make sure you've covered all necessary areas. Be sure YOU know what has to be taught, to whom, when, and how often.

As a start, your list may include (alphabetically - not necessarily in order of importance!)

1. Bank Secrecy - including CTRs, SARs, and Exemptions
2. Bomb Threat and Hostage Procedures
3. CRA Training
4. Ethics
5. Evacuation and Emergency Procedures
6. Fair Lending
7. Identification Verification, including Fraudulent Identification Procedures
8. Marketing
9. New Account Opening
10. OFAC
11. Privacy
12. Regulation CC
13. Robbery Response
14. Telephone Response, including Pretext Calling Procedures

As you check with your officers, you may find even more areas that need to be addressed - not even including your own policies and procedures.

If you are responsible for ALL financial institution training, you're going to want to call in some expertise for those fields you yourself are not comfortable teaching. Enlist their help early on, because training is not the most popular chore for bank officers. And the more you can get in writing from your fellow employee instructors, the better chance you have of successful training by staff other than yourself.

Most Important Ingredients
The three most important ingredients of your training sessions are:

1. Preparation
2. Content
3. Documentation.

Preparation: Keep in mind your training sessions will be no better than your preparation. You cannot over-prepare! Your outline, your goals, your facts should all be obvious to you, and the way you're going to achieve them just as obvious.

Content: Just because you've put the session together, and it's working, don't ignore the fact that as regulations change, your training must change to meet it. Constantly update and correct your information.

Documentation: You must document all the training you do so the examiners have proof of the content and the subject covered. This documentation can also be invaluable in the case of lawsuit - for instance in a negligence charge of lack of training because of injury during a robbery. Keep good records on all your training programs.

Invitations
The memo you send out to announce and "invite" attendees should indicate the importance of the training involved. You'll want to include the time involved (start and stop), the subject, and the fact that the training is required and that the person named at the top is expected to attend. If he or she cannot attend, note that the memo must be returned to you with the reason, their signature, and their request for rescheduling. That memo indicating that you "invited" the employee to attend, but for some reason they did not attend, needs to go into your file. If something should happen at a later date involving this person's non-compliance, you'll have a record that the training was offered, but refused. Did I mention?...It's important to keep good records!

Methods
Choose the method(s) you're going to use by developing your programs around what YOU are comfortable doing. For many subjects, group training is the most efficient and successful. But if you are totally terrified at the thought of standing in front of a group of people to give a lecture, choose some other method of teaching. Realize, though, that you can almost always overcome that fear with the proper preparation and mind-set.

Don't be afraid to use more than one way of teaching, even during the same session. Combine lecture with video, overheads and role-playing. Or make up a game of Jeopardy using questions about your subject, pitting one part of the class against the other with candy bars for the prizes. Do what you have to do to make it fun and as interesting as possible.

The ten most commonly used training methods in the financial industry are:

1. Video
2. Lecture/Classroom
3. Overhead transparencies/Powerpoint
4. Branch/Round table
5. Quiz
6. Outside sources
7. Role Playing
8. Newsletters
9. Internet/Computer
10. OTJ (On The Job)

We'll discuss the best ways to do each of these in coming training pages.

Copyright © 2001 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 11, No. 6, 7/01