A Canadian bank wanted to understand opportunities for improvement in its branch operations. Opportunities included core banking processes, customer interactions, employee communication, and workforce planning.
They partnered with Burnie Group for support with:
Conducting day-in-the-life time studies to understand the activities of branch employees
Calculating time standards for branch processes and transactions
Establishing a comprehensive dataset of key branch activities and their volumes
Understanding roles and responsibilities of branch positions and how they varied across the network
Understanding performance variations across branches
Identifying pain points in current operations and highlighting opportunities for improvement
Sizing the impact of implementing best practices across the organization
The Approach & Solution
Burnie Group’s team visited thirty branches in six weeks to observe how branch staff completed activities, interacted with customers, and handled transactions of varying degrees of complexity. The team measured timing for all activities and identified best practices and approaches to completing work.
Based on these observations, the team developed a comprehensive database with over 15,000 data points. They consolidated and analyzed the data to draw key insights into workforce planning, process standards, standard times, and variation across different branch segments.
Burnie Group held collaborative workshops with key client stakeholders to gain alignment and share recommendations. The stakeholders agreed to address operational pain points, including process inefficiencies, challenges in staffing during peak hours, underutilized technology, and the inconsistent application of process best practices across branches. Based on the data collected from the branch visits, Burnie Group established new standard times and an enhanced approach to scheduling to improve workforce management practices and annual branch resource planning.
The Result
Burnie Group’s support provided the bank with critical data and actionable insights to optimize workforce planning and streamline branch operations. The bank gained a better understanding of daily operations and identified inefficiencies in transactions and standard operating procedures. The new standard times and work schedules were critical inputs into the annual branch planning process and budgeting, ensuring accurate workforce projections and enabling the client to realize cost savings.
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