Australian banking group Westpac has announced a fixed pay rise for the frontline tellers replacing the incentives scheme.
The move, said to be the first in Australia, is aimed at improving customers experience at the branches.
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Westpac teller pay rise
Under the new initiative, the current teller incentive will be replaced with an A$500 fixed pay increase. The arrangement will be applicable on 2,300 customer-facing employees across Australia from 1 April this year.
The current teller incentive is based on multiple customer satisfaction measures, which are driven by various factors.
Westpac Group Consumer Bank chief executive George Frazis said: “Westpac was the first bank in Australia to remove product-related incentives for branch tellers in 2016, in a move to provide our customers assurance they are being served over-the-counter based on their banking needs, not sales outcomes.
“A simple fixed pay only model takes us a step further to reinforce the importance of putting the customer first and providing our 2,300 tellers with more clarity and fairness around how their work is remunerated.
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By GlobalData“Our focus remains on putting our customers at the heart of everything we do. We believe these changes complement our ongoing focus on helping our people deliver an exceptional customer experience.”
Currently, Westpac Group is working with the Finance Sector Union (FSU) and employees to implement the initiative.
However, Westpac is closing 22 branches over the year. The bank will shutter nine branches in New South Wales, eight in Victoria, three in Queensland, and one each in South Australia and Western Australia.
Closure of these branches, which are located in metropolitan areas, is expected to affect around 76 staff.
The four major lenders of Australia may struggle to achieve the new capital requirements mandated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
Despite all the banking mishaps in the country recently, customers have started to regain trust.
Satisfaction levels improved marginally from 78% in October 2018 to 78.1% in November 2018, the Roy Morgan’s ‘Customer Satisfaction-Consumer Banking in Australia November Report’ found.
The increase comes at the time when the Australian banks are struggling to restore consumer trust, which plummeted due to a series of misconducts.
