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| Discussion Paper SP I 2003-107 Abstract | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Katrin Vitols
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The paper focuses on the future skill requirements of front office employees in
the retail operations of German universal and direct banks. Bank employees in
this sector consist of bank clerks who have completed vocational training in
banking, employees servicing wealthy customers, and semi-skilled workers. Each
group of employees is responsible for a specific customer base, and thus has
particular skill requirements for dealing with that base. In the context of lean
banking strategies introduced in retail banking in the 1990s, universal banks
were split up into a segment for “typical customers”, where bank clerks with a
completed banking apprenticeship are working, and a segment of wealthy
customers, whose more complex product needs are dealt with by specially trained
employees. In direct banks semi-skilled workers are responsible for another
group of customers, the so called self-sufficient customers. Self-sufficient
customers have no need for banking advice and do all financial transaction in
self-service using a telephone or a computer. Currently there is a trend for
typical customers to either develop more sophisticated needs or to move into the
base of self-sufficient customers. With respect to the more sophisticated
typical customers, it can be seen that the requirements for soft skills of bank
clerks with vocational training are increasing. Also special skill requirements
for particular products will be more in demand. The trend to self-sufficient
customers does not place any specific skill requirements on bank employees. For
cost-related reasons semi-skilled workers, who have only obtained an average
skill level, will also deal with that customer segment in the future. Employees serving wealthy customers always needed comprehensive social and methodical skills to serve a sophisticated customer base. Since the behavior and the constitution of the wealthy customer segment is stable so far, no tendencies for major changes in the skill requirements for bank employees dealing with this group can be observed. |
>PDF (456
KB) Complete text 39 pages Order number.: SP I 2003-107
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