Bank tellers process financial transactions for their customers. They are employed in financial institutions such as banks, trust companies, and credit unions.
As a bank teller, you work directly with the bank's customers to process their deposits, withdrawals, and transfers. You also accept and process payments for bills such as those for credit cards and utilities. You sell and redeem money orders, certified cheques and traveller's cheques. Other duties include verifying signatures, or carrying out special services for customers such as stopping payment on cheques, or ordering bank cards for use in automated teller machines.
You work according to established banking practices under the watchful eye of a teller supervisor. Many of the banking transactions you handle have to be authorized by your supervisor. You must also be in contact with other banks in order to coordinate some transactions. Banking institutions have two different systems of dealing with the reception and the remittance of cash, cheques and money orders. At some banks, you have your own till. At the end of the day, you are expected to balance your receipts with your payments. Other banks use a central cash system in which you must go to a central cash window where a single teller handles the money. At the end of the dy, it is the central cash teller who must balance accounts, with the help of a supervisor. Regardless of which system you bank uses, as a teller, you will post each transaction using a centralized computing system.
Once hired, you will attend a training course that generally lasts a few days. Often the courses have only a few participants and are held in training centres separate from the actual branch where you work. Usually, each branch is in charge of its own hiring.
This not a physically demanding job, but you may have to stand for long periods of time. Bank tellers are not unionized and are paid by the hour. Bilingualism is a definite asset as is the knowledge of other languages found in the community.
In most banking institutions, you may be eligible for other positions within the bank after completing a three-month probation period as a teller. Possible positions can be found in the customer service department, where you sell various investment products, or in the loans department.
Many of the traditional functions of tellers are now being handled through banking machines. Although convenient for routine banking, machines cannot deal with the full range of services that the bank offers. Many customers also appreciate the personal contact involved in a trip to the bank.
You may start by working part-time before you are hired as a full-time member of the staff. As banking hours have been expanded into the evenings and weekends, you can be assigned to those times. After you achieve some seniority, you may have the option to move to daytime hours.
Bank tellers need to have good people skills. You should be outgoing as well as helpful and friendly. You will often find yourself working under the pressure of significant line-ups. Regardless of the stress, you are expected to be efficient and accurate in processing each and every transaction.
Honesty, accuracy and attention to detail are very important assets. You are responsible for other people's money. Since you have access to private information concerning each of the bank's clients, you must respect each client's right to privacy.
Good bank tellers either have, or develop, a solid understanding of financial matters. It is essential that you do so since you may have to explain banking concepts and policies to your customers. You should also have an interest in the money and banking industry and enjoy learning about it, because such knowledge may help you get promoted.