Cash in on a bank career

Steely automated-teller machines can spew out cash and receipts 24 hours a day — but they can't laugh at a customer's Monday morning joke the way bank teller Kim Hanson can.

Though a sense of humor isn't an official part of her job description, the personal touch Hanson provides at CityBank's Harbour Pointe branch in Mukilteo is something local bank hiring managers want to invest in.

"This job is all about the personal relationship, the one-on-one relationship tellers have with their customers," says Sara Simshauser, Washington Mutual senior regional manager. "It's calling someone by their name. It's wanting to take a personal interest in someone, not only as a banking customer."

As banks and credit unions compete for customers, they hope hiring and promoting friendly tellers will pay dividends with good customer service.

It's why local banks commonly offer career advancement, strong benefits and — at Washington Mutual — an internship program that grooms high-school students as tellers.

"If you really look at it, tellers have the most important job in the bank," says Belinda Faylona, Lynnwood-based CityBank vice president of human resources. "The teller area is the point where all customers start."

Hanson, a 22-year teller who also works as her branch operations manager, agrees.

More help for job seekers Our NWclassifieds job site provides additional Job Market content, as well as tools to help you land the position you want: · Job listings · Submit resume · E-mail alerts · Salary Center · Featured employers

"If we didn't have the personality to greet each customer who walks in our door, I can tell you we would lose customers every day," says Hanson. "Customers have to immediately feel like they're an important person."

The frontline face of their industry, tellers typically make up nearly 25 percent of a bank's work force. At Hanson's branch, tellers average 75 to 100 personal transactions daily; 150 transactions is a busy day. Friends at other banks tell her that they sometimes handle 250-300 transactions daily.

Nationally, about a half-million tellers deal with customer transactions. But these days, technology is giving a teller's job a run for the money, so hiring managers are putting stock in tellers' customer-service and sales skills.

"If anybody's going to make it in this business, they have to have a good personality because this is a people business," says Greg Noren, CityBank vice president for marketing.

But banking is also a make-a-profit business. That's why cost-effective, round-the-clock ATMs at malls, supermarkets and elsewhere continue to limit hiring demands for tellers. Other technology — including increased use of telephone and Internet banking and direct-deposit paychecks — is putting a crimp on teller hiring, too.

The technology that often limits new hiring opportunities is also making tellers' work easier.

"They have to have the math skills, they have to know how a checking accounting works, but it doesn't require a degree in economics," says Faylona.

Candidates with cash-handling and computer skills are best suited for these jobs "because all of our branches operate on a PC-based kind of system. But the friendly people, the ones with people skills, are who we're really looking for."

Once a fundamental requirement in teller work, even adding-machine or calculator 10-key skills are no longer a prerequisite "because technology has enhanced the job so much," says Simshauser.

Teller training varies among employers. Some offer a three-week classroom course before tellers are assigned to the counter while a trainer monitors their work with customers.

Others acquire on-the-job training with occasional single-day classes.

Later, trained tellers may cross-train in other banking and investment specialties. That makes career advancement — a common perk in the banking industry — popular for some tellers.

Even those who prefer to remain tellers may earn advancement as senior or head tellers, with increased responsibilities earning extra pay. Nonetheless, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures project that teller hiring nationally is expected to decline through 2010. Closer to home, banking officials say opportunities are slightly better.

"In our case, there hasn't been a layoff, so there really aren't fewer tellers than in the past, but we had to freeze hiring this past year," says Faylona. "Nowadays, we can be picky."

Though local entry-level bank teller salaries start around $18,000, benefits packages — including paid holidays, full medical- and dental-insurance coverage, and 401(k) investment plans — are attractive. Tuition support and teller performance incentives also are available at some banks.

Nearly all work full time, with eight-hour days and staggered start times. A few part-time jobs are also available for students.

As an educational program — and to invest in the next generation of potential bank employees — Washington Mutual offers HIP, its High School Intern Program.

Through HIP, Seattle-based WaMu, one of the largest banks in the nation, hires juniors and seniors for on-the-job career skills and paid teller shifts after school, Saturdays and during school breaks. Sophomores may begin applying through career-counseling centers at their schools next month.

Qualified WaMu HIP candidates must be at least 16 years old, have at 3.0 minimum grade-point average and should display "enthusiasm, customer service and communications skills," says Simshauser.

"It's a career, not just a job," says HIP participant Shawn Heide, a Shorecrest High School junior who works at Kenmore's WaMu branch. "When you think of someone my age having a job in a bank, it holds a lot more respect."

Washington Mutual now has 1,600 students working as tellers through HIP. Bank officials say more than a quarter of the "HIPsters" stay on as employees after their two-year paid internship.