Thanks to all Finsec members who gave their views on the role alignment and on the future of the National Bank. This update is to let you know the outcomes of our Union Council meeting with ANZ National management to discuss NZ simplification, the role alignment and targets for the new financial year.

New Zealand ‘simplification’

The roll out has been delayed due to IT hold ups. The bank has reassessed training and has extended the one day Service Consultant course to two days and will be finalising the new date within the next few weeks. The new rollover date for ‘simplification’ will be confirmed soon.

Role alignment

We raised concerns about who will be appointed to Senior Personal Banker roles. The bank said there would be a transparent process, but this is contradicted by feedback Finsec has received. The bank asked for specific examples. The process is supposed to be that managers ask staff if they are interested in SPB roles and four questions would then be asked before a decision is made. If your SPB interview did not follow this process please email union@finsec.org.nz outlining your concerns and we will forward these to the bank.

For CSO1s, interviews are not necessary. The bank wants all CSO1s to become Service Consultants when they feel like making the change and there will continue to be opportunities for CSO1s to be Service Consultants.

The Senior Service Consultants will not have any management responsibilities. The bank wants to know if any SSCs have been told that they must run one-on-ones, so please email us and advise if you have.

The bank confirmed that the role alignment will start as scheduled 1 October 2011. National Bank has already started to use the role names. The bank advised that the following numbers are an approximation of what roles have been aligned, as there are still a couple of regions that have not provided reports. They advised 118 CSO roles have been transferred, 9 declined and 5 are still yet to be confirmed. With the SPB roles 131 have been appointed, and 99 out of 154 branches are currently on model for staffing.

The bank said that they will be running a two-week pilot in the Wellington North region starting the second week of October. The bank said that the customer sets for sales roles will be completed by November.

Targets

Targets have not yet been finalised for the financial year starting 1 October due too many variables merging of the two incentive schemes and the bank has set up a working group on this project. However it is expected that Quarter 1 will be similar to Quarter 4 and it is unlikely that targets will increase for this first quarter, but this is still to be confirmed.

What effect does this have on the future of the National Bank brand? At this stage none, however David Hisco has stated that when systematics is fully operational across the two brands (in the first half of 2012), the bank will be focussed on making a decision about the future structure.

From the ANZ National Union Council