How To Solve For Dreaded Staff Shortages In Banks
By Katherine Regnier - Apr 7, 2025
In a nutshell 🥥 Bank staff shortages have significant impact on both employees and customers, as well as managers and others in leadership positions who want to equip their staff with everything they need to streamline operational efficiency, support bank deposit growth, and most importantly, provide a winning customer experience. But what can bank leaders do to combat the effects of being short staffed? By implementing smarter technology and using real data to drive staffing decisions, you’ll be equipping your branch staff with all the information, tools, and time they need to best serve your customers.
Staff Shortages in Banks: An Ongoing Challenge
Staffing shortages are a familiar story for most financial institutions. Picture it: It might be a Saturday morning and customers and members are piling into your branch. They’ve come after a long week of working to make deposits, ask questions about their financial health, and apply for loans for a new car, but there’s one problem—you’re understaffed. Phones are ringing, would-be customers are walking out the door without being seen, advisors are running behind, and frontline tellers are in dire need of a break. This chaotic scene, caused by staff shortage in banks and credit unions, is far too common across financial institutions today.
In fact, over the past few years, two-thirds of financial institutions see retaining their staff as a major concern. With the rise of fintechs offering remote work and a highly competitive job market, finding (and hanging onto) the staffing you need can feel almost impossible.
“Recent surveys show about half of financial institution staff are considering leaving their jobs, largely due to outdated systems that bog them down with administrative tasks.” – Financial Brand
Bank staff shortages can quickly wear down the employees and advisors, and cause managers and others in leadership positions to feel like they’re grasping at straws. So what can credit unions and banks with staffing shortages *actually* do?
The answer lies in embracing banking software tools, improving staff efficiency, and using data judiciously to plan for your branch’s success.
Let’s take a look at some of the common pain points associated with bank staff shortage for employees, advisors, and management, and then unpack how they can be improved with the right set of solutions—and better data.
Why are There Staffing Shortages in Banks? 4 Financial Industry Challenges
A high-performing frontline staff is crucial to any financial institution’s growth. Amazing customer service leads to customer loyalty and retention, which in turn results in more products sold. But when employees exceed their bandwidth due to a bank staff shortage, the whole FI suffers along with them. Banking labor shortages raise many issues for your team, including but not limited to:
- Staff burnout
Staff shortages in banks mean employees and advisors are left with a growing number of customers and members to serve—the lines, wait times, and handle times are longer, and the workload is tripled. This ratio also contributes to negative customer experiences as they aren’t given the time and attention they deserve.
These issues also contribute to decreased employee satisfaction and high employee turnover numbers. For instance, as reported in 2024, “52 percent of managers and 49 percent of staff are contemplating leaving their jobs within the next 12 months due to low job satisfaction.” Tellers, advisors, and floating staff are burnt out, and retaining talent is getting even trickier.
- No prep time
When a branch is understaffed, employees often have no time to prepare for customer conversations, which leads to longer handle times, longer queues, and a rushed experience for the customer or member.
- Constant schedule changes
When employees are sparse, those who are available to work face a lot of unpredictability and inflexibility with their schedule. Requests for vacation days may be declined more frequently, and team members have to fill in for sick coworkers more often.
To make matters worse, if the branch they’re working for has no appointment scheduling software in place, employees who are filling in have no clear view of the day ahead, leaving them feeling underprepared and overwhelmed.
- Lower quality of service
Overworked employees struggle to deliver high-quality, personalized service that can set a bank apart from its competitors. If staff aren’t equipped with a central system to store and access customer information, this problem is further exacerbated.
Staff may need to spend ample time navigating between different tools to find customer details they need—i.e. who the customer or member has spoken to recently, products they already have, and new product recommendations that align with their needs can be difficult to pin down before a visit, especially when time is already short. This type of experience leaves the client feeling slighted and not prioritized.
How can banks improve employee productivity?
DYK? If you’re wondering how to improve bank staff efficiency and productivity, you should start by looking at the data.
- What are your advisor’s average appointment lengths?
- How many walk-ins does your branch see on average?
- What do queue wait times look like on a busy day?
By answering questions like these, banks and credit unions can plan ahead for busy days, communicate better with employees, and adjust areas that might be lacking in efficiency.
How Bank Staff Shortages Affect Leadership
When a bank or credit union is short-staffed, disgruntled customers and overworked employees aren’t the only ones negatively impacted. Management and operations administrators are often faced with difficult problems as well.
- Scheduling advisors
Figuring out the best schedule for your advisors can be difficult if you’re not tracking the ongoing activity of each branch. You might have advisors working from the afternoon until the early evening to catch customers and members getting off work—when what your branch really needs is a morning staff available to handle entrepreneurs and stay-at-home parents. This creates a double whammy of understaffing in the morning and overstaffing in the afternoon.
- Underutilizing floating staff
Assigning floating team members to improve bank staff efficiency can feel like total guesswork. There’s nothing worse than ending up in an understaffed busy location while floating staff members twiddle their thumbs at the empty branch across town. Without branch-specific data driving decision-making, floating staff members end up totally underutilized during a banking staff shortage.
- Increased overtime expenses
Staff shortages in banks also hurt the bottom line of a financial institution. With fewer employees available to work, overtime expenses tend to skyrocket. FI’s often have no choice but to allow non-exempt staff members to exceed 40-hour work weeks, leading to unexpected wage spending.
- More clerical errors
Another downside of overworked employees is the inevitability of increased mistakes. Small errors like miscounting a cash deposit, failing to record a transaction, or withdrawing funds from a savings account instead of a checking account can add up quickly and reflect poorly on management. Poor performance leads to uncomfortable administrative warnings and sometimes results in letting go of employees you can’t really afford to lose in the first place.
Staff shortages in banks and credit unions can also lead to managers or administrators feeling overworked. Higher-ups may feel the need to step in and help out on their day off, or fill in for advisors without a knowledge of the customer’s history or background.
If management is busy filling in for other roles, they risk not being there for their employees and neglecting other administrative duties.
How Can Banks Fix Staffing Shortages? 3 Starting Points
Branch staff and advisors need the support of their managers, but they also need intuitive, easy-to use tools that will ease the burden of being under-staffed. In order to improve morale and support bank staff efficiency, it’s important to provide your employees and advisors with the information they need to succeed.
If hiring staff is not in the budget, the time has come to consider technological solutions that can support in that efficiency—and serve the needs of every customer that walks in the door.
- An Interactive schedule
Your staff needs a clear view of what their day (and week) will look like. A comprehensive, interactive schedule that includes both pre-scheduled appointments and those from the in-branch queue can make their job so much easier and less stressful. By giving your team more visibility, they’ll be able to take control of their day and do their best work.
- Accessible context
Along a calendar, your staff needs context into every appointment. By asking customers a few questions when they book appointments through your appointment scheduling tool, you can set advisors up for success. When advisors can see the customer’s reason for their visit and relevant documents in advance, they can provide much better service.
- Centralized tools
Your staff and advisors’ tools should all be kept in one central digital workspace in order to make it easier to deliver a personalized service to customers. Ideally, functionality like calendars, video banking, appointment scheduling, lobby management, and all captured customer data should be available in a centralized banking platform to best equip banking employees to serve customers in the best way possible.
How to Fix Bank Staff Shortages: Use Data to Predict Scheduling Needs
In addition to implementing technology, considering how to properly staff branches is key—but you need the data to do so.
Many of the pains caused by staff shortages in banks and credit unions can be alleviated by implementing appointment scheduling software that captures data that helps a fuzzy picture of your operations become clear. With it, you can make decisions that make the most of your staff’s limited time. If you’re not currently collecting data about your financial institution, the time to start is now.
Finding out crucial information like how long appointments last, which days of the week are the busiest, and which products are selling will help you ensure your staff are working as efficiently as possible.
- Capture bank branch data to improve staff efficiency.
First, managers and administrators should be capturing and analyzing the right data points to drive their decision-making. For example, advisor optimization solutions Coconut Software track key banking metrics like productivity per advisor, average appointment and call times, branch traffic trends, customer satisfaction, and more. Collecting important data will directly impact your ability to improve staff efficiency during an employee shortage.
- Know—not predict—your branch staffing needs.
By looking at branch-specific data on appointment lengths, walk-ins, and busy times, managers can prepare for staffing needs—even when employees are few and far between. Make informed decisions about where your advisors and other employees are needed on any given day.
- Analyze how staff spend their time.
Before adding new full-time employees to cover an understaffed location, managers can use branch data to analyze how existing staff are using their time. Understanding how staff members spend their time will help you see who is over- or under-utilized.
- Monitor performance outcomes.
Capturing data points from every customer or member interaction will greatly improve bank staff efficiency. Monitoring products sold, revenue generated, and additional cross-sell or upsell opportunities will inform your staffing decisions as well as your overall goals as a financial institution.
Everybody Wins When You Ease Staffing Pains
While staff shortages in banks and credit unions are hard on employees, they impact your customers and members as well. Some people only have one day off, or very limited windows to visit a bank or meet with an advisor. When they’re met with hour-long wait times and cancellations, the frustration is palpable.
Financial institutions should do everything they can to prioritize a positive customer experience—especially in such a competitive banking environment. Solving bank staff shortage issues with the right tools is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your financial institution.
Invest in centralized banking software that captures key customer data and branch metrics, and you’ll be able to improve employee efficiency, inform management decisions, and impress customers and members—even amid ongoing staffing shortages.
FAQs
How do you reduce staff shortages in banks?
Banks can reduce staff shortages by implementing digital solutions like appointment scheduling, lobby and queue management, and video banking options to optimize customer interactions and reduce branch staff workload. Investing in cross-training employees and offering flexible work arrangements can also help maximize efficiency and retention. Plus: leveraging AI-powered chatbots and mobile banking services can alleviate pressure on in-branch staff by handling routine inquiries and transactions. These strategies can help one truly become a branch of the future.
What is appointment scheduling software?
Appointment scheduling software is a digital solution that allows customers to book meetings with bank representatives at their convenience, reducing wait times, and improving service efficiency. It helps banks optimize staffing by forecasting demand and ensuring the right employees are available when needed. Many modern scheduling systems integrate with mobile video banking, CRM platforms, and queue management systems to provide a seamless customer experience. Plus, with all of the customer data it collects, advisors can get better at following up after a meeting.
What are the benefits of appointment scheduling software?
Appointment scheduling software improves customer experience by reducing wait times and allowing clients to book meetings at their convenience. It enhances operational efficiency by optimizing staff allocation and ensuring employees are prepared for scheduled interactions. Additionally, it provides valuable data insights that help banks understand customer behavior, anticipate demand, and refine their service strategies.
What is a banking queue management system?
A banking queue management system is a solution designed to streamline customer flow in branches by organizing and prioritizing service requests. It often includes digital ticketing, real-time wait time updates, and mobile notifications to reduce congestion—and frustration. By implementing one, banks can enhance CSAT, improve operational efficiency, and better allocate staff resources.
How can banks reduce queues?
Banks can reduce queues by implementing digital appointment scheduling, allowing customers to book time slots in advance rather than waiting in line. Self-service kiosks and mobile banking apps can also help handle routine transactions, freeing up branch staff for more complex inquiries. Additionally, queue management systems with real-time tracking and notifications can provide a more organized and efficient experience for customers visiting the branch.