Thinking of Growing Your Loan Staff? Think Again
March 20, 2015
GOOD NEWS: Loan volume is up.
BAD NEWS: Your lending manager is saying, “We need to hire more people!” Also, the current staff is working overtime.
GOOD NEWS: You may not have to add staff and you may not need to pay overtime.
Before you decide to add staff, step back and answer these questions:
- How do we know we are using our existing staff to its fullest?
- How do we know our loan processes are stripped of non-value added steps so we can handle more volume without hiring more people?
Consider the sample credit union below. Before asking these two questions, it was taking the credit union roughly 6,400 minutes or 4 days to make a decision once a consumer loan application was received. Once approved, it was taking roughly 16,400 minutes or 11 days to fund the loan. Before passing judgment, do you know how long it takes your credit union to approve and fund a loan?
This credit union addressed these questions in May 2014. By November 2014, they had reduced the number of days it takes to make a decision on a loan application from 4 days to 1 and reduced the number of days it takes to fund an approved loan from 11 days to 4. They knew their work wasn’t done but they were pleased with the results they saw in less than six months.
As the process became faster and easier for members, the percentage of approved applications that were funded increased from 62%.
Imagine increasing lending capacity without increasing staff and funding a higher percentage of approved loans at the same time. It all starts with digging into those two questions.