By Ong Bi Hui

FORMER banking staff who spent years serving difficult customers are being called back into service.

But now, they will be the ones dishing out the demanding behaviour as they pose as customers at Singapore's first full- fledged simulation bank branch to train front-line staff.

Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) is re-hiring former employees to train new hires as personal financial consultants and bank tellers at its simulation branch in Commonwealth Drive, which was opened yesterday.

The $120,000 training centre - called Learning Hub @ Commonwealth - will be identical to a typical Stanchart branch, but it will be used to train staff instead.

The training centre is a first for the bank in Singapore.

Stanchart hopes to train about 600 staff members in the next three years at the centre.

Currently, banks teach staff only the theoretical aspects of the job - for example, what they need to know about the various bank products and the operational procedures they have to follow.

Stanchart hopes that hands- on training will allow its staff to be more confident and less prone to errors when dealing with customers, especially difficult ones.

Mr Ajay Kanwal, head of consumer banking at Stanchart Singapore, likens the process of serving clients to driving a car: 'If you want to learn to drive, you have to be put in a car. Banks only put you in a classroom.'

He added: 'The hands-on training will allow staff to have a better idea of what banking entails. At the same time, the former staff members can share their experiences with the younger ones during training.'

Twenty to 25 staff members will be trained every month at a cost of $3,000 to $5,000 each.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 19 June 2008.

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