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Needs Assessment Cycle

February 7, 2017

CUR /528

Presented by: ShaDonna Gray

Professor Justin Atwood

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The environment of banking is evolving to be less personal and faster paced. The

financial industry has the challenge of keeping up with the fast pace and technological

advancement that will meet customer and employees needs. Older customers who have been

with the company for years are not accustomed to the fast pace yet they are the highest investors

in the company. Employees are also crucial to the company because they are the face of the

company and despite technology there are a percentage of customer who like the one on one

interaction of the employees. However, with technological evolution, comes the decrease need

for overhead. Financial doors are closing daily. But, where do we close these doors? What

employees are most influential to the company? What advancements does the financial

institution need to adopt at least cost to satisfy the employees and the customers? This proposal

is for your bank, Superior Bank, to answer these questions and to get a feel of customer and

employee loyalty.

Why a needs assessment?

In the ever-changing world of finance, there is a need for financial companies to perform

a needs assessment to ensure employee retention and customer satisfaction. There is an

overwhelming demand of customers to modernize banking yet to have engagement and

correspondence from financial institutions. The course of training and program to be

implemented within this needs assessment is entitled, Your Needs Come First. I propose this

training to explore the various options and necessities of performing the needs assessment.

Purpose
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The purpose of the needs assessment is to evaluate whether current banking visions and

procedures are sufficient to retain employees and to create an environment that customers are

happy with.

Training and program for needs assessment

The course of training, Your Needs Come First, will implement the employees

involvement and feedback to ensure employee satisfaction and retention. This training is online

and in person. The training online will help employees understand the needs assessment cycle

and why the program is being implemented. The program as it will be presented to the

customers will have a possible monetary incentive. This will motivate the customers to

participate. Within the program customers will participate in surveys and give feedback of their

current and future needs of banking.

Level of Assessment

Assessments will be conducted on two levels. One level is online surveys and the other

is one on one interviews and observations. Online surveys give a participant the opportunity to

be thorough with answers and to possibly be anonymous with no biased opinions. Example

questions that will be asked are: How many banking institutions do you have? What sets other

banks apart from Superior Bank? How do you see your banking environment in the future? The

one on one interviews will take place over the phone and in the retail branches. Over the phone

interviews will be done from an automated survey center. The in person interviews will be

conducted by managers and will be given to employees and customers. Examples of the

questions managers will ask employees are: Did your customer feel valued in their interaction

with you? Why? Do you often tell customers about the new online banking services? If so, how
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do feel about the new services? How do you feel we can support future customer needs and your

career needs? This will allow a customer to evaluate the current feelings and feedback of their

experience. The information provided will allow customers and employees to not be

apprehensive and to determine what they are looking for in their financial institution.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders who will have genuine interest in these findings are the managers and

finance committee that allocates budgets to support retail stores and employees. This needs

assessment will allow them to evaluate if budgets are being allocated correctly.

Budget/Available Resources

While budgets can be costly for this type of assessment, it is beneficial and should only be

performed twice a year. The pivotal step in this process is follow up with the customers to

ensure long lasting satisfaction. The budget allotted for this program is $10,000. This budget

will allow for marketing to inform customers of the program in which we will call Your Needs

Come First. The allotted budget will also allow employees training of how they interact with

customers and what resources are viable to them and their success. Available resources will be

an open survey for customers to identify their customer satisfaction needs. Team members will

also have a training program that they can attend to become informed of what competitor banks

are offering to customers that may benefit current customers in their financial institution.

Time Allotment

The time allotted for this needs assessment is 30 days. This will allow enough time for

marketing material to be distributed, time for customers to provide feedback and time for

managers to answer any questions that employees may have.

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Specific Measurements of the Needs Assessment

The assessment will provide a quantitative and analytical approach to solve the existing

problem. There are four areas that will be measured to perform the needs assessment. Of these

areas, there is specific information that will need to be measured. The four areas are observation,

evaluation, summarize and plan and observe. The observation phase of the needs assessment

program will involve monitoring customer feedback and employee feedback. Customer

feedback will be measured by customer feedback surveys and to evaluate how long the customer

has been with the bank. There will be a focus to build long lasting relationships with the

customers which ensures that the customer relies on the financial institution for all of their

financial needs such as banking, lending and the length of time that the customer has been with

the bank. Employee feedback will be done in person and anonymously. The environment

surrounding this feedback will be that of feedback and creativity to ensure their involvement.

The evaluation phase will be the customer feedback surveys. There will be an incentive to take

the survey and provide honest opinions as to whether they are satisfied as a customer. Upon

successfully completing a training that pertains to the needs assessment and why it is being

performed, the employee will then be given an opportunity to conduct a survey. This survey

completion will also have a possible incentive.

Does this information exist?

There are approaches that financial institutions take daily to ensure customer satisfaction.

They most commonly take the approach to use surveys for customers. However, the parameters

of these surveys are misconstrued. For example, in the past Premier Bank only gave surveys to

customers with home numbers. In todays time, there are not a lot of customers who have home
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numbers. There is a population of customers who are not being heard. With technology

evolving daily there is a constant barrier to keep up and to satisfy a majority of customers. The

employees also will provide feedback that can be streamlined. The employee interacts with the

customers and the company interacts with the employee. The employee can gain insightful

information that does not exist with proper training.

Conclusion

The implementation of the needs assessment does not solve the problems for Superior

Bank and banks alike. However, it gives various avenues of research that is needed to solve the

problem. Using the methods of observation, evaluation, planning and implementation, the larger

banks can create an environment where the customer and employee feel needed and wherein they

will retain business and employment.