A retail personal banker is the first point of contact for a customer in a bank branch. They meet and interact with existing and potential customers and constitute the face and selling point for the bank.
The Job Role and Responsibilities
Retail personal bankers have varied responsibilities which include servicing as well as sales responsibilities. They handle transactions, solve queries, refer customers to specialists, cross-sell and promote bank products. The job responsibilities include:
- Customer Service
- Maintaining and updating customer database.
- Query resolution and complaint management of customers.
- Providing customer information after due verification of identity
- Sales
- Cross selling and promoting bank products, services and direct banking channels.
- Generating leads and referring customers to specialists.
- Operations
- Manage deliverables like various forms, welcome kits, cheque books, Cards etc.,
- Handle balance queries, provide balance statements after due verification of identity.
- Supervise administrative work
Competencies and Skills Required
A retail personal banker is an important part of the customer experience at the bank and hence good communication skills and a pleasant personality is required for the job. Candidates must also have a basic idea about banking rules and regulations and industry knowledge. The major skills and competencies that employers look for are:
- Good communication skills.
- Basic number-crunching skills.
- Interpersonal skills.
- Planning and organizing skills.
- Emotional Stability
Assessment for the ‘Right’ Retail Personal Banker
The following table illustrates how various skills and personality traits map to assessments required for the retail personal banker role:
| Retail Personal Banker Profile | AMCAT Mapping |
| Communication Skills | English: High |
| Number Crunching Skills | Quantitative Ability: Mid |
| Interpersonal Skills | Logical Ability: Mid to High Agreeableness: Mid to High |
| Planning and organizing skills | Conscientiousness: Mid to High |
| Emotional Stability | Emotional Stability: Mid to High |
Helpful Trivia
Globally, standardized assessments have been used for hiring for Personal Bankers in the BFSI sector. Studies indicate that personality plays an important factor in job success for client servicing roles. Meta analytical study was done by Mount, Barrick & Stewart (1998)1 indicates that personality factor of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability is positively related to performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions like that of retail personal bankers. A large scale validity study done by Aspiring Minds (Now SHL) in one of India’s largest private sector banks showed that aptitude and personality traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability have a strong correlation with the success of a retail personal banker at the entry-level. Organizational efficiency can be improved by up to 31% by using objective and criterion-validated benchmarks on standardized assessments for recruitment.
- Mount, Michael K., Murray R. Barrick, and Greg L. Stewart. “Five-factor model of personality and performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions.” Human performance 11.2-3 (1998): 145-165.
