How They Did It

Bank:
Teller

BACKGROUND: For Rob Hallowell, attention to detail comes easily. He's been good with numbers since he was a kid. His uncle Dan worked at First Federal for many years until his recent retirement, and Rob talked his way into a position there as a teller this past year. Rob, 30, had held a series of retail clerk positions but he really wanted to take a job where he felt he had an opportunity for upward mobility. The manager was willing to take a chance on Rob and explore reasonable accommodations.

SOLUTION: The $50 table lamp at Ron's teller desk allows him to shed more light on the item he needs to examine; he uses a hand-held magnifier ($15) to help make sure he's giving out proper forms and matching signatures accurately. To help readily identify items that are similar, Ron has created a color-tag system that speeds things up considerably.

The talking calculator ($50) provides useful confirmations for both the customer and Ron that each item has been properly entered. Similarly, his computer includes a screen magnifier program ($395) that allows him to view entries at four times their normal size.

The bank also has renovated one of its older black-and-white closed-circuit TV units for Ron; he uses it to read the forms customers fill out and match IDs when the magnifier doesn't give him enough detail. (A new unit would cost about $2,000).

It's true Ron does take a little longer than some of the other tellers, but his pleasant manner with customers has earned him praise. And his manager notes that Ron's track record for end-of-the-day drawer-count accuracy so far is 100-percent. (Quite an accomplishment for any first-year teller!)