Strengthening Workforce Management
Looking at Current Market Conditions as an Opportunity to Transform Your Lending Operation into a Better, More Resilient Version of Itself.
Written By: John Spillane, Donna Thaxter, and George DeMello
In this blog series, we’ll introduce opportunities and strategies to adjust to the current business climate and drive improvements within your lending operation.
It’s no surprise that the majority of clients we’ve recently talked with have been through some level of change within the past year. Many have undergone a series of staff reductions, while others have managed to avoid layoffs through natural attrition, reduction in work hours, or hiring freezes. Each of these approaches can have challenging and lasting implications, including talent vulnerabilities, capability gaps, or employee burnout. In turn, these concerns can lead to uncertainty about whether future staff reductions will be necessary and how this will impact decisions when production volumes increase and staffing needs change.
STRATEGY #1: Strengthening Your Approach to Work Force Management: using scalable workforce practices to adapt as the market and production levels shift.
Highlights:
• Balance expenses with production through more flexible workforce practices.
• Augment staffing levels through short and long-term absences.
• Leverage the value seasoned experts can provide to improve processes.
• Demonstrate commitment to your core group of employees.
• Empower your workforce with new skills and knowledge.
• Create a versatile workforce with broadened skillsets.
Achieving success during a downturn isn't just about surviving; it can be about embracing the opportunity for long-term transformation. An article published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) titled "Employment Downsizing and Its Alternatives" emphasizes that the most successful organizations use downsizing more strategically as part of an overall workforce and business process plan. This principle holds true for the mortgage industry, especially during a down market.
Benefits of Strengthening Your Workforce Management Strategy
Having a workforce strategy is a critical component for success that creates greater predictability of staffing needs while helping you balance expenses with production levels. Several workforce strategies can be used as singular approaches or together as a comprehensive, long-term plan.
One important component to consider is utilizing highly experienced contract or shared support to augment your staffing levels through peak volume periods, vacations, or short- and long-term absences. This approach provides great flexibility as you need to add or subtract function support and comes with the added value seasoned experts can provide in evaluating and improving your processes. An extension of this strategy is to consider outsourcing specific functions on a long-term basis such as Quality Control, Loan Review, and even whole functions within your lending workflows.
A second key workforce management component is to invest in workforce development. This approach demonstrates your commitment to your core group of employees and can yield significant long-term benefits. Reallocating resources toward employee training and development empowers your workforce with new skills and knowledge. For example, training team members so they can seamlessly move from one position in your mortgage workflow to another as volume dictates. Another example would be to train members of your mortgage underwriting team to become proficient in commercial loan analysis. This not only broadens their skill set but also creates a more versatile workforce that can adapt to shifting demands within the industry.
Spillane Consulting Associates has a history of exceptional partnerships within the industry providing tailored workforce management solutions that fit your organization’s unique goals, objectives, and culture. We offer temporary and permanent solutions to fill your needs in all functional areas of lending from Processing, Underwriting, Closing, and Post-Closing to Loan Review, including loan quality and compliance.
SCA also offers training and development services for competencies specific to the mortgage and commercial lending industries. We can provide targeted evaluations of specific functions and workflows, as well as system optimization assessments and action plans. Our team of highly skilled professionals has an average of 25+ years of deep industry experience. We can provide you with the most qualified temporary or permanent function solutions, saving you valuable time and resources.
Whether it's a short-term project, volume fluctuations, or unforeseen staffing gaps, partner with Spillane Consulting Associates to create stronger, more predictable, and consistent results and financial performance.
Stay tuned for our next blog within this series where we’ll focus on Fortifying the Future. The Significance of Assessing Culture and Asset Quality Before a Merger or Acquisition.
