Teller Difference Policy

MrCreosote

For those at financial institutions, do you have a teller difference policy that is shared with employees? The policy would state in detail the disciplinary results of cash shortages. For example, the first time you are short more than $50 you get a verbal, the next time you get a written, and so on. This is not part of our employee guidelines, but an "internal control policy" that operations wants to give to cashiers in writing. I don't like it because it ties our hands, but it is seen here as the only way to ensure consistency. We are at-will and non-union and I think it goes withouut saying that employees can't take, or misplace, money. I have worked a lot of retail cash registers and managed cashiers and never heard of such a policy. If the thresholds were $50, a lot of cashiers would have come up $49 short on a regular basis.

Leslie

We have a 4 step progressive discipline variance policy - written, written with retraining, written and suspension, written and term. There is no minimum amount. It's up to management discretion when they start the process - if someone is $5 up or down, it probably won't trigger. Our regulatory agency investigates anything $100 or more over or under.

DeidreFR5

We have a progressive discipline policy for overages/ shortages. $100 employee notice, $200 warning, $250 90-day probation, $300 possible termination (review of record). Tellers sign for the policy at orientation. I'm happy to email it to anyone interested.

AnneLa

Just send me your email and I'll be happy to share our policy with you.

cthr

I would be interested as well. [email]Cathy.L@aefcu.com[/email]

Thanks

MrCreosote

Thanks. Do you share the policy with tellers?

Leslie

Yes, it's part of internal controls and department procedure.

AnneLa

Of course the policy is shared with the teller............. a part of the appraisal process addresses teller accuracy and balancing.

Crout

Interesting. Years ago, the first book I ever read about W. Edwards Demming and Quality Management highlighted this precise scenario as an example of bad management practice. The tellers in question were told that the first time a shortage occurred it would be a verbal warning, the second time they would receive a written warning and go back on probation, the third time would mean termination. Shortly after the policy was in place the shortages stopped happening and Management patted itself on the back. Know what really happened? The tellers got together and pooled their overages, which they would draw on when a shortage occurred. The point is that the problem was never really solved because the focus was on individuals rather than the system. I suspect something similar will happen at your place of business.

AnneLa

Our policy also forbids a branch "Kitty" for just that reason. Our processing system is so sophisticated today that we can practically (but not prove) who the customer was that received the "EXTRA" $100.00.