This document outlines Mountain Bank's human resources plan. It discusses competitive strategies like growth and SWOT analysis. It details recruitment, selection, orientation, training, compensation, benefits, and performance reviews. The plan aims to improve employee retention and engagement to enhance customer service and increase account openings through incentive programs and professional development.

1. Mountain Bank
Human Resources Plan
Simulation project
By:
Anthony Vecchio

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3.
Competitive Business Strategy 4-6.
Job Analysis / Job Description / Job Specifications 6-7.
Recruitment and Selection 7-9.
Orientation and Onboarding 9-10.
Compensation and Benefits 11-12.
Performance Appraisals 12-13.
Engaging Employees 14-15.
Conclusion 15.
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3. Executive Summary
Mountain Bank offers its clients the best in personal and commercial banking. The bank
offers many different account options for the personal and business bankers, resulting in a
booming demand for some of the accounts that they offer. One of Mountain Banks core values
is to provide the best possible customer service to its clients. In order to exceed this standard, the
bank will undergo a change in training, knowledge, and motivational attitude in order to make
clients raving fans. It is great that Mountain Bank wants to take the time to invest in their
employees, to gain a competitive advantage and win over clients from other banks to take
advantage of the great banking options for the clients financial well-being.
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4. Competitive Business Strategy
Competitive Business Decision:
It would be appropriate to choose a growth strategy to improve Mountain Bank. The bank
wants to focus on improving their numbers on the different products that they offer, in order to
compete with the competitor industry averages. The concept of a growth strategy is to recruit
and train large numbers of qualified employees to help operate growing operations. This also
goes for existing employees of Mountain Bank, current employees will be retrained to be current
with company decisions and strategies to improve the banks product numbers.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths
• Has 50 percent of the market in retail banking accounts in its area.
• Offers all four major business lines, (retail banking, consumer lending, real estate and
mortgage banking, and corporate banking).
• Conducts a cross selling method of onboarding new clients.
• Pitching offers to current clients with retail accounts to upgrade to corporate accounts.
Weaknesses
• Even though the bank has 50 percent of the retail market, they are not making much of a
profit off of it.
• The bank has less than 10 percent of the market in the real estate and mortgage banking
sector.
• The bank only has less than 5 percent of the corporate market in their corporate banking
sector.
• There is a high turnover with bank tellers.
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5. Opportunities
• Train new and current employees on how to properly sell and or suggest clients to
upgrade their accounts or add more accounts with the bank.
• Offer an incentive program, where employees earn a percentage from new accounts and a
larger percentage with upgrades to existing clients accounts.
• Offer a pay for experience program for new onboarding employees to avoid giving all
new part time and full time employees from earning minimum wage.
Threats
• Competitor banks have better percentages and clients within the real estate and corporate
banking sectors.
• Employees are going to the competitor to receive better pay and possibly a full time teller
position.
HR Strategy:
Orientation/Hiring Strategy
• The hiring strategy should include looking for a unique customer service friendly
personality to make our clients feel welcome. Also, seek out recent high school and
college graduates with experience and or education in finance to better educate clients
and or coworkers to better enhance the experience.
• The orientation process will be held in groups of no more than six new hires, reason
being is to get to know who you will be working with and have everyone on the same
page with what there is to expect for working at Mountain Bank. This type of orientation
will be conducted as a classroom setting so everyone involved can learn how we do
things at the bank and how others can enlighten on their previous selling experiences that
everyone, including the HR manager conducting the orientation.
• During the orientation process there should be a shadowing activity that will go on,
where new hires will watch certain experienced bank tellers in how to conduct their job
and learn how to use the various systems that the bank utilizes. Also, how to sell all of
the bank accounts that are offered.
Development Strategy
• New hires will be under a 90-day probationary period where the first 90 days of
employment will be a training and on the job analysis period that the branch manager
will go over with the new hire on their 90-day performance review.
• All employees of the bank will receive retraining as a review and refresher of the
current job function that they are currently pursuing. This keeps employees on track
in their job without becoming lazy or not performing certain aspects of the job.
• Branch managers will give all employees, depending on each employee’s date of hire,
an annual 6-month performance review following a pay raise regarding their current
performance in their job.
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6. Incentive Program
• There will be two annual incentive programs, 4-months each, where employees will
earn $3.00 for each for each new retail bank account opened. They will earn $5.00
with an add-on from the new retail account for a real estate mortgage account or
$4.00 for every new standalone real estate account opened. Employees will earn
$4.00 for every new consumer lending account opened. Employees will earn $15.00
for every new corporate bank account opened. Any upgrades from existing retail
accounts to any of the other three different accounts will receive $5.00 each.
• Employees will earn a $200.00 bonus at the end of each year for opening 70 new
accounts, it can be a mixture of all four options.
HR Practices:
Attitudes- “People with positive attitudes toward their work and organization may be more
committed to making contributions to organizational effectiveness and helping achieve strategic
goals,” (CH4 Lecture). If all employees show a great working attitude, they will all get the
incentives that they want and the proficient percentages of accounts that the bank needs.
Communication- “This is the interpersonal process by which two or more parties
exchange information and share meaning,” (CH4 Lecture). Communication is a big factor in
trying to meet the banks goals to have a proficient industry percentage in the different accounts
that we offer. There will be weekly meetings with the branch manager, emails, and reminders of
what needs to be accomplished weekly to meet the banks goals.
Job Analysis/Job Description/Job Specifications
Overview:
In this section, a new version of the bank teller position for Mountain Bank will be created. The
old version of the job description is very wordy and is very uninteresting, this new one will be an
abridged version. There will also be a job specification section listing what type of education
applicants should have, age requirement, experience, and list of duties for the job.
Job Description:
Bank Teller
Mountain Bank
Part-Time 30.00 hours
$14.00/hr.
At Mountain Bank our tellers are the heart and soul of our financial institution, tellers are
responsible for many tasks and are here to help our loyal clients achieve a good banking system.
Bank Tellers are responsible for but not limited to:
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7. Providing excellent customer service that no other financial institution will offer, cashes checks
and pays out money after verification of a signature, receives cash and checks for deposit,
examines checks for valid endorsement, places a hold on accounts when necessary, balances
currency at the end of each shift, explains, promotes and sells products and services to enhance
clients experience.
Job Specifications:
Education:
• High school diploma
• Degree in finance or equivalent a plus
Requirements:
• Basic math skills required
• Basic computer skills required
• Ability to sell products and services
• 6 months or more experience as a cashier or in any cash handling position
• Basic understanding of bank services and products
• Must be 18 years or older
Mountain Bank is an equal opportunity employer.
Overview of HR Practices:
Two HR practices that ensure employee productivity, as well as, job satisfaction are as follows.
The first practice is the incentive program, like mentioned in the competitive analysis, employees
will receive a bonus for each upgrade and new account activity opened. Refer to the competitive
analysis for more information. The second practice will be the training process; every new
employee will go through a thorough training with the Human Resources Manager. After that
training, trainees will be paired up with an experienced teller to shadow the position and work
with them to get familiar with the job. Finally, after 90 days of continuous employment, new
hires will have a performance review evaluating their current performance status. Also, every
employee will be retrained every six months to keep up with industry standards.
Recruitment and Selection
Recruiting Method:
In today’s technological world, the possibilities are endless to try and get someone’s attention.
There are some ways that, as an HR manager for Mountain Bank, that I can get the word out that
we are hiring happy associates for the following positions. Some of the methods that are going
to be utilized are as follows:
• Traditional external website posting on Mountain Banks career page on the website.
• Social media postings, such as, LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Newspaper and website ads.
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8. • Radio advertisements.
• College career fair and local hiring events.
• Online job positing websites e.g. snagajob.com, indeed.com, local department of labor
and training website postings.
Recruiting Message:
1. “Become a part of an award winning team, be more than just a client become a highly
motivated associate of the Mountain Bank team! If you are looking to advance in your
financial career or are looking to gain valuable skills needed for the financial banking
industry Mountain Bank is the Place to be.”
2. “Mountain Bank offers a comprehensive benefits package for our tellers that sets us apart
from the others.”
3. “Be more than just a client, become a highly motivated associate of the Mountain Bank
Team!”
4. “It’s a fun paced job.”
5. “Banking done better.”
Above, is a few different motivating statements that will catch a potential applicants interest to
apply for the teller position at Mountain Bank. Each one will be used in the different recruiting
sources, for instance, the first statement could be utilized in our radio advertisement to catch
people’s attention while listening. Also, the 5th
statement is going to be used on the name badge
that each Mountain Bank employee will wear proudly.
Applicant Qualifications:
As mentioned in the job description section:
Education:
• High school diploma
• Degree in finance or equivalent a plus
Requirements:
• Basic math skills required
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9. • Basic computer skills required
• Ability to sell products and services
• 6 months or more experience as a cashier or in any cash handling position
• Basic understanding of bank services and products
• Must be 18 years or older
Mountain Bank is an equal opportunity employer.
Administrative Procedures:
In order for an applicant to complete the application process, they must complete a customer
service aptitude test. The aptitude test asks applicants questions regarding their view on
customer service and ability to react to certain scenarios when asked. This gives the Human
Resource Manager a good idea of what kind of attitude the potential employee will give to the
client. Next, the information that will be gathered about the applicant will be done through the
employment application, LinkedIn account and Facebook account. To gain the social media
account information the Human Resources Manager will search the applicants name in a search
engine to find these accounts unless voluntarily provided by the applicant. During the interview
process a series of questions will be asked in regards to:
• “How did you find out about us?”
• “Why do you want to work for us?”
• “If you were dealt with an angry client, how would you handle the situation?”
• “Would you be open and willing to work on team projects?”
• “How comfortable are you with selling various products and services? and provide an
example of pitching a service.”
Each recruiting session will last one week long ranging from Sunday to Saturday, to give
potential candidates to provide and make a decision whether to express an interest in the
position. After seven days of the posting, the job will come down from all of the recruiting
methods for review. Two weeks will be devoted for review of the submitted applications and
resumes to determine who will get a response. After the two weeks, the candidate will get a
phone call from the Human Resources Manager to schedule an interview. After the interview
process, there will be a two-day period for final decisions, following that will be the response to
the candidate that he or she has been accepted to join the team. Finally, the now new hire will go
through the onboarding period to become a part of the Mountain Bank team.
Orientation/Onboarding
Overview:
In this section, we are going to discuss our orientation and onboarding process. This step comes
after the determining and selection process from the interview session. After being accepted for
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10. a job at Mountain Bank, the now new hire, will participate in a comprehensive orientation and
onboarding course. Here is what is going to be expected of the orientation session.
Method for Delivery:
First, the orientation process will be held in groups of no more than six new hires, reason being is
to get to know who you will be working with and have everyone on the same page with what
there is to expect for working at Mountain Bank. This type of orientation will be conducted as a
classroom setting so everyone involved can learn how we do things at the bank and how others
can enlighten on their previous selling experiences that everyone, including the HR manager
conducting the orientation.
Content:
Next, the new hires will learn about the company’s history, where it started, what it is brought up
on, what makes the company successful in the financial industry. They will also be informed on
the different services that the bank offers and how each of the services work so they can properly
pitch offers to existing and new clients. New hires will also be learning about the core values
that the bank prides itself on, which is, service, respect, integrity, community, and teamwork.
Along with the mission statement which is, “Banking done better, making clients raving fans.”
The Human Resources Manager will conduct new hire trainings on the topics of, code of
conduct, sexual harassment, safety basics, and welcome to the team training. The Human
Resources Manager will also discuss the description of the job, they will discuss what the job
entails and the plan for training to finally get out on the sales floor and win over those clients.
After that, they will learn about the Account Acquisition Program, (AAP), where associates will
earn incentives for upgrading existing clients accounts and setting up new clients with the
different accounts that we offer. Please refer to the competitive strategy section of this plan to
learn about the incentive program. Finally, new hires will learn about the “GOT-IT” model.
GOT-IT stands for:
• G- “Greet” every client who walks into the branch, make them feel welcome.
• O- “Offer” always offer to help at all times.
• T- “Treat” all clients and associates with dignity and respect.
• I- “Inform” all clients about the special services that Mountain Bank has to offer, to win
them over.
• T- “Thank” every client for banking with us.
Key People Resources:
Key resources that every associate can refer to are as follows:
• Branch Human Resources Manager
• Branch Human Resources Clerical
• Branch Manager
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11. • Corporate Human Resources Business Partner
These individuals are specially trained to handle any questions, comments, and concerns in order
to make Mountain Bank a fun and successful place to work.
Administrative Procedures:
All branches are equipped with personnel departments run by the branch Human Resources
Manager and Human Resources Clerical. The personnel department is in charge of new hire
orientations, trainings, benefit enrollment sessions, problem/issue go to, and many more. The
personnel department has an open door policy; where all associates are welcome inside to the
personnel office. All human resources contacts are always readily available, along with the
Human Resources Business Partner who is at the corporate level. These individuals are also in
charge of the hiring and termination decisions. Lastly, all confidential paperwork regarding
associates is kept closed to only these individuals under privacy policy.
Compensation and Benefits
Overview:
In this section, we are going to talk about the various compensation and benefits opportunities to
associates here at Mountain Bank. At Mountain Bank, we strive to give our associates the very
best to make them successful and provide an exceptional client experience. Having our total
awards compensation and benefits program is just one of the ways that associates strive to be
their very best.
Discretionary Benefits:
The starting base rate for Mountain Bank tellers is $14.00 per hour, for candidates who have no
educational or work experience. On the other hand, there are many ways to make some extra
money and gain some experience with a career at Mountain Bank.
Mountain Bank offers a Pay for experience program for candidates who have had previous
educational and work experience that can benefit with work performance and company success.
The rate change depends on the amount of experience documented and is scaled accordingly
from $3.00-$9.50. This scale is only a base range and could change depending on the longevity
of a candidate’s experience.
Full-time and part-time employees will receive paid sick time, vacation, and two (2) personal
days per year. Associates will start earning sick time the first day of hire, vacation will start to
accumulate after six months of continuous employment. The two personal days will be available
to the associate after one year of continuous employment, and is to be used within the given year
or they will disappear. Personal time cannot be accumulated, but vacation and sick time can be
used at any given time. For associates who do not call out sick for a year and not use their sick
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12. time for the year will receive bonus vacation time and can be used at any time after the associates
service anniversary date. Bonus vacation time is determined as a percentage of what the
associates sick balance states on the date of the associates service anniversary. If there are any
questions regarding time off, associates can refer to their HR Manager or HR Clerical for further
clarification.
Full-time associates are eligible for a comprehensive health & wellness program for themselves,
spouse, and dependent’s. Many benefits are included in this program like, a smoking cessation
intervention to quit smoking, and a road to a healthy diet and living tracking program. Due to
the rise of health care costs, part-time associates are NOT eligible for an all access health
coverage program, like mentioned. Part-time associates are only eligible for basic coverage that
covers the associate, spouse, and dependent’s for just medical costs. Dental is an option for part-
time associates, but the associate must pay an additional premium because of their part-time
status to add dental to their coverage.
Incentives:
All Mountain Bank associates participate in an Account Acquisition Program (AAP) which is an
incentive program given to associates who sell bank accounts to new clients and or upgrade
accounts for existing clients. The break down for the AAP program is described below, and can
be found on the competitive strategy section of the plan.
There will be two annual incentive programs, 4-months each, where employees will earn $3.00
for each new retail bank account opened. They will earn $5.00 with an add-on from the new
retail account for a real estate mortgage account or $4.00 for every new standalone real estate
account opened. Employees will earn $4.00 for every new consumer lending account opened.
Employees will earn $15.00 for every new corporate bank account opened. Any upgrades from
existing retail accounts to any of the other three different accounts will receive $5.00 each.
Employees will earn a $200.00 bonus at the end of each year for opening 70 new accounts, it can
be a mixture of all four options.
Group & Organizational Incentives:
Associates who participate in organizational groups who help drive sales and client volume, will
receive a $300.00 every year for meeting the four quarterly quotas that are set by Mountain
Banks corporate board of directors. This incentive is only given when each associate involved
has documentation of personal quota proficiencies for all four quarters to be eligible for this
bonus. No associate will earn this incentive from other associates efforts.
Performance Appraisals
Overview:
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13. In this section, we will discuss the performance appraisal piece for every Mountain Bank teller.
Performance appraisals will be held with associates every six months to keep track of the success
of each associate. Below, is the breakdown of how the appraisal is going to be conducted and
the criteria that is going to be evaluated during that appraisal.
Behaviors & Outcomes Being Measured:
According to the job description, which can be viewed on page__ is the job duties that will be
performed by each associate which will be evaluated every six months. The style of
performance appraisal that will be utilized by the Human Resources department is the
behaviorally anchored rating scale. For those who don’t know how the behaviorally anchored
rating scale works, is that manager oversees an associate and evaluates their behavior when it
comes to customer service, selling, dealing with problems, working with other associates, and
their efficiency to work during busy times. The following are questions on the performance
appraisal that will be grading on a 1-5-point analysis with each number rating being needs-
improvement to exceeds the standard.
• How is the associates ability to properly serve our clients, in a happy, friendly, helpful,
and urgent manner?
• Can the associate properly sell particular services to the appropriate client? And can the
associate be able to explain all of the services that are offered effectively to every client?
• How effectively can the associate handle client issues or concerns before involving the
shift supervisor or branch manager?
• Can the associate work well other fellow associates effectively?
• Does the efficiency of the associate keep up with the constant flow of clients even during
busy times?
As a result, there will be a section where the branch manager will notate any observations that
are good and some that may need to be addressed to improve. There will also be a section where
the associate can notate any questions or concerns regarding the outcome of the performance
appraisal.
Tools to Measure Performance:
As mentioned above, each piece of criteria will be rated on a 1-5-point rating scale ranging from
needs improvement to exceeds the standard. However, there needs to be an intervention process
that leads from the needs improvement criteria to meets or exceeds the standard. The
underperforming associate will go through a retrain on the subject matter that they need
improvement on. The associate will be coached by the manager and or another associate to see
what they do and possibly take what the other associates do to be successful. If both intervention
procedures do not work and the associate continues to be unsuccessful with their performance, it
could lead up to a corrective and or means for termination.
Administrative Procedures:
Every performance appraisal will be done one-on-one with the branch manager and the associate
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14. on every six-month mark from the date of employment. The performance appraisal will be
forwarded over to the Human Resources department for filing in the associates personnel file.
For scheduling of the intervention process, if needed, the Human Resources department will
schedule days where they will take a retraining on the subject matter that needs improvement.
The Human Resources department is responsible for making sure that the associate is properly
trained in every piece of subject matter that goes into the job description. As a result, it is not
only up to management and Human Resources to make sure that every associate is successful,
but it is up to the associate whether they want to follow through to be successful as an end result.
If there needs to be any clarification regarding training, please refer to the orientation procedures
on page __.
Engaging Employees
Overview:
In this section, you will learn about how supportive Mountain Bank management will give
valued Mountain Bank associates the proper motivation to keep them engaged. Trying to keep
the team engaged in a customer driven establishment is hard, because you are dealing with many
different personalities within the workplace and also outside in within the public eye. Here is
how we keep it positive, strive for success, and give our associates the encouragement to be not
only a great associate but advocate in the community.
The theory of motivation:
To begin, here is a quote that all Mountain Bank associates live by to make themselves feel
successful, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” At Mountain Bank we
want our associates to do their very best every day. We have no room for negativity, we work
very hard to keep our clients happy and having welcoming branches with optimistic associates
puts not only a smile on our face but most importantly the client. We follow Herzberg’s theory
of two motivational factors, which are hygiene and motivational factors. We chose this theory
because it really fits in with our motivation from management to associates and having a clean,
welcoming, and friendly place for clients to do their banking.
How we implement the theory:
With Herzberg’s theory, there are only two factors that we follow to be successful, but there is a
lot that goes into maintaining those two factors. At Mountain Bank, we put a lot of time into
hiring, training, and mentoring our associates. First, in order to motivate our associates, it all
starts during the orientation process, we plant the motivational seed early on while welcoming
and acclimating our new associates into the business. We also are very much involved in the
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15. communities of which each branch is located. This gets all Mountain Bank associates out of
their seat and out serving those in their neighboring communities. I believe that getting involved
in the community gets you to learn about other associates and create that bond to make each
branch team like a family. It has been proved, that the more company employees that get
involved in their communities that it actually improves employee morale and gives them a better
sense of what really happens outside of business doors. As a result, the associate who volunteers
the most time at the end of the year will receive a check from Mountain Bank for $1,000.00 to
donate to the charity of their choice of which they spend the most time with. Finally, it is very
important to educate someone about what we are all about early on, because they are more apt to
implement that behavior from day one instead of day 90. As for the hygiene factors, we are
serious about both the associate and client’s safety and well-being. We make sure that all
branches are clean and in good repair each and every day to make sure that associates are
working in a safe establishment free from harm. We make sure that associates are educated on
safety, because it is important to act according during an accident.
Administrative procedures:
It is the responsibility of the Human Resources department to educate all associates about to be a
motivational advocate in the Mountain Bank company. Human Resources associates, as well as,
management are to be fully educated and be able to coach and persuade associates to do their
best every day. It is important that all members of management be supportive and involved in
the community activities. Finally, what the problem is in other companies, is that management
really doesn’t get involved and support each employee to do their best. They really don’t get
involved themselves. But we don’t care about what other companies do, we support all of our
associates and is managements most important duty to be supportive to every associate. That is
how we maintain a motivational workplace, and it makes everyone feel like they are appreciated
and that their existence in the building means something. All Human Resources associates will
work day in and day out in order to keep our promise to make Mountain Bank a fun place to
work.
Expected Outcomes:
• All associates will get involved in their communities to support Mountain Bank.
• Management will create a special family oriented bond with each team of associates
at all branches.
• Help associates strive to be the best they can be.
• Keep all or our branches in clean, welcoming, warm, friendly, and in exceptional
repair.
• Keep associates with the company for a long period of time.
Measurements of success:
We will measure the success of the strategy through each associates performance review. There
will be a section on the performance review that talks about being an advocate in the community.
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16. Each associate will be rated from 1-5 and will provide a box where management will provide a
describe a description of the kind of community service they do. The Human Resources
department will collect all of this data and make a determination through a graph to see if they
are meeting requirements of community activity involvement. There will also be another graph,
involving the safety and well-being standards. This graph measures how many accidents that
occurred in each branch, and whether they needed to fix or repair fixtures in each branch. If the
graph shows low points, then they have proficiently meet strategy requirements. In conclusion,
this is how we will measure our performance and see whether we are maintaining our theory for
motivation to make our Mountain Bank associates successful.
Conclusion
Mountain Bank is truly a great bank to work for, we offer a lot of advancement and the ability to
learn as you go. What is important over here, is that we as members of the Human Resources
department are responsible for implementing all of these ideas and changes to make sure that we
are meeting company goals, bringing in the best candidates, and making sure that we maintain a
great work environment and culture. We want to ensure that every Mountain Bank employee is
successful in their job, and if there are any problems that we will be there for them every day to
improve their well-being. We want our clients to bank with us for a very long time, and we also
want our employees to create a long lasting career with us as well. As a result, we will meet all
of our core values and become the best bank there is in the industry.
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