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National Penn Bank learns the difference between
‘analysis’ and ‘reliable analysis’.
When consistent company growth created the need to predict staffing
requirements, National Penn turned to an external, industry standard
equation. After 3 years they realised the inadequacies of standard
solutions, and called in Insight Analytics for an in-depth analysis
and sloution for their specific situation.
Client
Situation
As a result of steady branch expansion and a tangible increase in
customer transactions from an acquisition-oriented growth strategy,
the Bank Operations unit of National Penn Bank found itself under
growing operational stress due to limited staff resources. An externally
developed staffing model was being used to calculate optimum staff
resources required to perform a given, steady-state workload. However,
the output from this tool lacked analytical depth and found little
acceptance with the Bank's executive management team. Unit management
feared that if additional resources were not added in the near to
mid-term in certain critical areas of the operation, current levels
of internal customer service and operational efficiency would see
significant deterioration.
Client Requirements
National Penn required assistance with the following:
Insight's Solution
We deployed our Resource Planning Model (RPM) at National Penn's Bank
Operations unit. A workforce capacity model was designed, constructed,
and populated with data from studied Bank Operations departments.
Model inputs included all activities and corresponding unit times
for processes performed; model outputs included calculations of available
and sustainable capacities, optimum no. of people required by department
for current and anticipated workloads, and capacity utilization factors
under various scenarios. Data population for each model was done using
the automated data collection component of Structured Metrics®.
Transaction volumes were gathered from automated and manual sources.
A resource adequacy model was developed for purposes of determining
future staffing requirements that would meet actual workloads.
Results
Both the current and future state scenarios showed that additional
staff resources were indeed necessary - unit management's hypothesis
was valid. However, our findings showed far fewer resources were necessary
than originally thought by senior management. Moreover, the distribution
of additional resources was not uniform across the various processing
areas of Bank Operations. With executive management's full approval,
the unit received additional headcount funding as per our recommendations.
About National Penn Bank
National Penn Bancshares, Inc. is a $3.2 billion financial services
company headquartered in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and is the parent
company of National Penn Bank. Celebrating 129 years as an independent
community bank, National Penn operates 65 offices in ten counties
throughout southeastern Pennsylvania.
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