The extra pungent smell of freshly mown grass in September always reminds me of high school, when it came with happy anticipation of pre-season track team practices, wondering who one's teachers were going to be, who our friends were going to get, and what the year ahead would bring.
September still feels like a fresh start to me, all these years later when it brings no change in routine whatsoever to my middle aged life. It seems like a time for coming up with new ideas and starting new projects.
We do have some new plans in the works here at Bank Technology News, some of which I can tell you about and some I need to keep under wraps for now.
One thing I can share: We have started a new video series called CIO Vision that will air on the 15th of every month. September's episode will feature First Horizon CIO Bruce Livesay, who will offer his perspective on the future of retail banking. Livesay, who has the impeccable manners of a Southern gentleman, is on a mission to help his industry regain its collective confidence and improve its standing among U.S. consumers.
One topic Livesay discussed that didn't make it into the video is his bank's employee-first philosophy, which keeps turnover low. The attrition rate in IT is less than 3%.
He provided the average tenure of First Horizon's branch employees.
* Branch manager: 12.8 years
* Financial services representative: 7.0 years
* Branch operations manager (kind of a senior teller/team leader): 11.0 years
* Teller: 5.3 years
Across the industry, Money magazine reports that teller turnover will reach 30% in 2012.
Speaking of video, if you haven't been checking out American Banker's daily broadcast, you're missing out. About once a week someone on the tech beat hobnobs with the newspaper's Editor in Chief Neil Weinberg to analyze breaking news.
We also recently aired a series of video interview segments with Dan Schulman, group president of enterprise growth, American Express. Schulman explained the card company's approach to the digital wallet and where it envisions taking its Serve platform in the future.
There are many other new content packages coming to the website BTN shares with American Banker (www.americanbanker.com/technology) starting in October. Stay tuned.
