Where is the time going?
The dream of technology freeing up countless hours of time and allowing us to experience the mythical 40-hour work week still persists to this day as only a dream. With instant access, mobile apps, and 24/7 banking it seems that complaints are heard more often than ever from employees claiming to have no time. Lobby traffic has certainly decreased over the years, fewer bankers are venturing outside the doors of their bank to bring in new business, and outbound reason-to-call programs (not cold-calling) are all but non-existent. So where is all this extra time going?
We left off last week with the Top 10 Time Wasters In Community Banking – Part 1. This week we’re moving to the next 5 time wasters we see on a daily basis in community banks.
6. Not having a calendar
If you don’t utilize a calendar you are wasting your time. If someone is calling your branch to meet with a loan officer, you should be able to glance at the team calendar to see when she is available and should then be able to set the appointment. A calendar eliminates unnecessary phone tag and emails when trying to do something as simple as setting an appointment. Many people are afraid to keep a calendar that is public because it might shine a light on the 3:30pm nap or the two-hour lunch. With smartphones a calendar should be a no-brainer.
7. No daily meetings
One of the most ridiculous objections we get from managers is not wanting to hold daily, one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. Believe it or not, they tell us, with a straight face, they don’t have time! These meetings lay out expectations for the day and keep things from falling through the cracks which ends up costing everyone time. Also, as a manager it gives your employees a specific time each day they can now know they will have to talk to you. This saves a great amount of time from the unnecessary interruptions can bring. Each time you’re interrupted it takes time to get back on track with what you were previously doing. If employees know you’re going to meet with them each day, they will begin to save questions for that meeting.
8. Screening calls
It’s not uncommon to call community banks asking for a loan officer, only to be placed on hold and then told that the officer is on another line, with someone, or not available. When this happens over 50% of the time, statistics will say that something is up. We’ve seen first hand, where a loan officer will let a call go to his voice mail while he’s talking to another employee or doing paper work. All you’re doing by screening calls is setting up telephone tag which is a huge time waster. Why is the lender’s time more important than the customer’s time? If the lender doesn’t have 40 loans in the pipeline, he’s not that busy.
9. A meddling board
This is a board that actually tries to manage around the executive team and even lower level managers in some cases. Not much you can do on this one, but as a leader you need to find a way to work around them. This is mostly a community bank problem. When a CEO has to defend what she says as opposed to what a teller tells a board member, you’re now put in a position that has flushed many CEO’s and executive teams down what seems like an endless time drain.
10. I’m too busy
If you’re too busy, you’re not organized, it’s as simple as that. We’ve yet to find a single community bank without security cameras. When you hear this excuse, pull the video tape and match it to the time when the employee said he was too busy! Keep in mind that every day is not Friday afternoon at 2pm on the first day of the month with three employees out sick. People are not too busy, they just choose to do certain things instead of others.
You’ve got a choice
This isn’t rocket science. Most people can easily spot the time they waste as well what others waste. The difficult part for most is dealing with the time wasters directly. As crazy as it sounds, some people want to cling to these time wasters because they’ve become a comfort zone and a reason they can fall back on to give others the perception they are busy and overworked. Life’s too short for these kinds of games and waste. Take control of the waste, work around what you don’t have control over, and then aggressively guard your new found time. If you have others in your bank that are wasting away in the time drains, then help a fellow banker out and forward this article.
