TD trains 33,000 employees in robbery prevention with award-winning program
Two years ago, during the height of the economic downturn, TD bank became concerned about the growing number of reports about robberies at its branches.
It was clear something had to be done to protect employees and customers, says Nancy Nazer, vice-president of leadership development and learning strategies at TD Bank in Toronto.
“We had a challenge at hand and wanted to ensure we were proactive in terms of a solution.”
Any type of training done at TD is tied into the business need because it has a better impact, she says, so the training of 33,000 employees had several objectives: reduce the number of robberies, enhance risk-management practices, improve robbery prevention overall and reduce financial losses.
While TD already did some training around robberies, “this was to really take a more comprehensive approach than we had historically, to take it to the next level,” says Nazer.
In the summer of 2008, a needs assessment was conducted and an outline for the training was developed. The assessment included focus groups, interviews and surveys, and it centred on three areas: the most common types of robberies, what happens during attempts and what processes and behaviours are considered best practices in the financial sector.
The instructional designers worked with external subject matter experts and networks to determine learning objectives and also partnered with the RCMP and an armed robbery association in the United States to ensure there was a good North American-wide perspective, says Nazer.
“We wanted to make this as true to life as possible,” she says. “That was really a critical area of success for us, to create a program that used real statistics, replicated real events and profiles of actual suspects.”
That fall, the various components were designed, reviewed, deployed and tested. By November 2008, the program was piloted with trainers and a train-the-trainer leader’s guide was developed, followed by train-the-trainer sessions.
TD leveraged a blended learning approach to robbery awareness and prevention, which included e-learning, instructor-led discussions, scripted role-play scenarios, debriefs, informal discussions and ongoing coaching.
“Having this blended provided more comprehensive learning because it wasn’t just a one-time event, it was more fulsome to go beyond just the awareness,” she says.
The course itself is pretty holistic, says Nazer, with strategy tools, tactics for robbery prevention, procedures and actions to follow during a robbery, employee and customer safety standards procedures, documentation and communication strategies, and tips, tactics and tools for dealing with trauma.
“In focus groups and interviews, we realized we have to touch not just robbery prevention but what happens afterwards,” says Nazer.
The program was rolled out in January 2009 and all employees were expected to complete the training, including the first in-branch session, by April. The training consists of:
E-learning: What to do before, during and after a robbery, with video clips. This takes about 30 minutes and has to be completed before the in-branch training. It includes a mastery test of about 15 minutes that requires employees achieve a score of 80 per cent to receive credit for the course.
In-branch training sessions: The first 60-minute session reviews key learning points from the e-learning sessions and includes role plays and debrief sessions. Six months later, a second in-branch session is delivered.
Each year, employees are required to review the e-learning course, including a “what’s new” section and, thus far, 95 per cent of the participants have scored 80 per cent or higher, says Nazer.
Once the training is completed, participants and stakeholders give formal evaluations, both quantitative and qualitative.
Overall, it’s been very positively received, she says, as seen in one participant’s comments:
“I’m not sure what you are hearing from other regions but I just wanted to let you know that in the last few weeks we have had a number of ‘attempted’ robberies (two already today!). The reason these are only ‘attempts’ is that people are using their learnings from the robbery awareness training. Before this training, we would have had two holdups today — now, we only have two attempts.”
Return on investment
In addition, TD has seen a reduced number of robberies, enhanced risk management practices and procedures, improved prevention through ongoing vigilance and greater safety around customers and employees, says Nazer. Return on investment is further evidenced by a 41-per-cent reduction in cash losses in 2009 compared to 2008 and an 11-per-cent decrease in the number of robberies.
“We know this program has increased the confidence of our customer service representatives and other bank personnel who participated,” she says. “For us, it’s just raised the bar in terms of how we can do other types of modules differently.”
The program also won a silver award for training excellence from the Canadian Society for Training and Development in 2010.
Going forward, TD plans to evolve the program by incorporating new technologies, when appropriate, and new training modules, says Nazer.
“As the world around us changes, we need to make sure the statistics and data are as accurate as possible and continue to advance the technology so that it’s current and easy for our participants to use in the learning process,” she says.
