Ergonomics Advice Improves Customer Service at Lloyds

We have been providing expert ergonomics, health and safety advice to Lloyds for almost twenty years.

Lloyds Banking Group is the biggest retail bank in the UK, with over 100,000 employees serving 30 million customers.  The projects we have worked on include:

• Evaluation of different bank counter designs and branch layouts
• Evaluation of automated teller machine (ATM) designs
• Ensuring Lloyds branches and services are accessible to people of all abilities
• Assessing and advising on integrating the facilities of acquired businesses
• Training in manual handling for employees loading ATMs and lifting bags of coins

Our advice helps Lloyds:

• provide an excellent, inclusive service to customers of all abilities
• improve staff productivity and morale by providing safe, comfortable working conditions
• justify investment and design decisions to senior executives and outside authorities.

Here are details of three recent projects which illustrate our work for Lloyds:

Evaluation of open counter branch designs

As technology allows banks to design branches with more open counters, it is important that the comfort and safety of both staff and customers are considered.  Lloyds built a ‘mock-shop’ in a warehouse to allow a thorough review of future branch layout and equipment before investment decisions were made.  We helped Lloyds evaluate the proposed designs by:

• analysing the tasks that needed to be performed
• interviewing staff
• checking for conformance with recognised standards
• taking  direct measurements of factors such as light levels and furniture dimensions
• calculating acceptable reaches and heights based on anthropometric data.

The equipment we evaluated included:

• marketing displays
• facilities, seating, lighting and storage at counters
• personal banker workstations
• welcome desks
• cash and deposit points.

We identified a number of issues and made practical and pragmatic recommendations to improve the accessibility of the services, the comfort of the customers and safety and productivity of the staff.

Our recommendations were prioritised to show which issues were most important and which changes would make the most significant improvements.

Accessibility evaluations of prototype branches

Service providers such as banks are required by the Equality Act to ensure that physical features of premises are not making their services impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use.

At prototype branches in Inverness and Wigan we evaluated the accessibility of banking hall fixtures and facilities to customers with disabilities including:

• Motor disabilities
• Visual disabilities
• Auditory disabilities.

Using our extensive knowledge of current best practice and industry standards, we were able to make balanced and pragmatic recommendations to help Lloyds meet their legal obligations and provide excellent, inclusive customer service.

Safety advice for automated teller machines (ATMs)

Lloyds had found that some ATM machines were being installed in ways that made servicing them unnecessarily risky for staff and wanted ergonomics guidance to help them minimise the risks.  We examined the tasks involved in servicing the machines and the functioning of two different manufacturers’ designs.
One design was clearly better from an ergonomics, health and safety perspective:

• A greater range of plinth heights gave more installation flexibility.
• The upper lid opening methods were less likely to result in head injury.
• The ATM cassette weights were less likely to result in manual handling injury.

We also provided guidance on the maximum height at which an ATM can be installed and still enable acceptable day-to-day servicing by branch staff without the use of a step ladder.

What does the client say?

System Concepts provides us with balanced and pragmatic advice, recognising the commercial impact of their recommendations.  Their wide range of experience working with financial institutions helps us achieve best practice within our sector.

Understanding the needs of our staff and customers before we invest in equipment, means we can get it right first time, and so deliver both excellent customer service and shareholder value.

Ken Lamport, Retail Standards Manager, Group Property, Design & Technical Standards, Lloyds Banking Group