Why do most banks have few employees?

Bookwormlux

Valued Contributor
I have observed that most banks in my country seem to have very small number of employees and I do not understand why it is always like this.
Today, I spent over 3 hours in the bank because the workers attending to customers are not much and so the line was not moving at all. This made me to feel bad Because I wasted precious time that would have been channeled to something that is more profitable and helpful.

Now back to my question, why don't banks have many employees like other sectors? If you go to the hospital for instance, you will see many medical personnel attending to their patients, but bank workers are very few?
Is it that there are not much qualified graduates or there is a regulation about how many people banks should employ?
 

Carson20t

Active member
I think for the number of employees be less it could be because of financial contraints but my view is the quees can be reduced if the major challenge of customer service is rectified.

I am giving my general view on this.I think that the number one reason is the customer service that the bank's should provide to the clients and inform them various methods of improving access to the bank services such as depositing cash through automated teller machines as opposed to only depositing inside the bank,secondly is having multiple payment systems such as online banking and swiping using a visa card to pay for products and services.The last one is actually expanding service centres where these services can be found would make them reduce on number of traffic and queing.
 

Ralphjoe

Active member
Most banks have very few employees due to the fact that they wants to cut cost or their expenditures, this is an all too familiar situation right now in my country, going to banks is now a very hard thing to do because processing transactions are now slower because of this issue.

Last week, I went to the bank, you need to see the queue I met inside the banking hall, apparently due to shortage of staffs in the bank.
 

Sotherefore

VIP Contributor
What is the need for them to have more employees when there is nothing really hard for them to do sometimes they do have up to 10 workers in a bank but to me I always think that they should only have 5 because in a bank I don't see too much work there that really requires them to employ a huge number of People
 

Lekhraj19

Verified member
Banks have less employees probably due to the reason of their low customers and low depositors of the company. However, funds are generated by them to do this. But, probably most of the revenue is the result of the depositors who deposit there. And, this decides whether the bank is growing or not.

However, due to the pandemic more employees are told to work from home. So, this can be reason too that may be in different banks employee might have been told to operate from home. So, this may be the transition in some banks and remain of this type. Customer services can be operated though online.
 

Yugocean

Valued Contributor
Present reason could be COVID restriction as most of the employees might be working from home. Corona Pandemic has not ended yet, so most of the institutes are keeping only partial staff in field office and partial staff in Home. Now even most people are doing online banking instead of physically going to bank, so this problem only occur to them when they visit the bank.

However, you should complain to the bank authorities about this incident because you also lose your time, 3 hours is too much time, this should be avoided.
 

Alexandoy

VIP Contributor
There is a methods and procedures department that makes the policy regarding the staffing of bank branches. Here the staffing of a bank's branch can have a minimum of 6 - manager, assistant manager who is also the cashier, signature verifier or admin, 2 tellers and 1 new accounts teller. That staff is aside from the janitorial and security personnel. That is the bank's way of maximizing the labor to save on expenses. But for branches with many customers the branch manager will request for more staff. With hospitals here, it is also the same that we have a lack in personnel. Yesterday I was in the hospital at 9 am and I was attended by a doctor for consultation after 1 hour because there were few nurses who filtered the patients - getting their vital signs and bio data.
 

Teatea

Active member
It depends on the bank you use. My bank does not delay in any way and the customer service is also topnotch. No matter the number of customers in the bank, they will always attend to you on time.
Also, the employees in a bank go way beyond the ones we see in the banking hall, some people are working behind the scenes that we don't even know about. So you can't judge the number of employees based on the number of cashiers you meet or see in the hall.
 

IamDozzy

Active member
I believe this started during the Covid-19 pandemic and most banks were seriously affected that that had to make most of their staffs work remotely. Also, during the Covid-19 pandemic there was rarely any banking activity and so most banks made heavy losses and they had to pay their staff. Most banks downsized their work force so as to cut costs. The remaining staff that aren't needed in the banking hall work remotely. This perfectly explains the reason for the few employees most banks have.
 

eojo2401

Active member
Technology has taken over the work from many people. Since banks are now fully going digital and automation, we should all know that the staff in banking industry will surely reduced. They banks preferred to employ a staff and gives him or her the task of four people, and by fire by force, he or she will meet up with the target before him or her.
 

Kingsley

Valued Contributor
If you look at the structure of the bank it doesnt require alot of people it should not be a crowded place but a place of where professionals are required. The bank doesn't require much work force and more so the bank is also conscious of the cost of employing idle hands and that might lead to leakages and that will not be the best for the bank.
 
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