In all the mystery shopping I've done at various credit unions and banks, if I was going to put a percentage on the number of good tellers/reps vs. the number of brilliant tellers/reps, I'd say it was 8 to 1.
One thing that I think is wrong, wrong, wrong is that these brilliant people get promoted AWAY from the members. Before you freak out, let me explain.
Yes, these fantastic people need to stay within the organization. Yes, these fantastic people need to be rewarded for their fantastic-ness. But the answer is not to jump pluck them off the front line and plant them higher up. Here are some of my ideas:
- Sit down and have a heart-to-heart chat about how valuable this brilliant person is to your credit union, and discuss a long-term career path for him/her
- Have the brilliant person take a personality profile so you can zero in on finding the next brilliant person (don't just automatically promote up the ranks unless you know you've got another brilliant person waiting their chance to shine)
- On the way to their new path, include the brilliant person in your replacement plan. This means there's a two-month job sharing that will happen with brilliant person and brilliant person-to-be to transfer the brilliant skills
My last comment is this: brilliant front-line people are gold. Pay them (cash) and reward them (benefits) accordingly.
Disagree or have a different perspective? Share it with me!
Nala