Improving Agent Motivation and Transactions at IPPB

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) wants to increase the number of transactions facilitated by its banking agents (also referred to as GDS or 'End Users' (EUs)). During the initial research, banking agents' motivation emerged as a key barrier for the same. While banking agents' motivation was linked to multiple levers, better communication of incentives was identified as the significant lever. With this background, CSBC designed a pilot which focussed on simplifying communication around incentives and improving the dissemination within the banking agents of the Delhi and Bihar circles.

Introduction

The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) was set up under the Department of Post, Ministry of Communication, in response to the new model of payment banks proposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in November 2014. It was designed to leverage the Department of Posts (DoP) field network to offer payment bank services to the rural population, using Door-step assisted banking and regular counter services through postmen or Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS).

Banking agents deliver financial services to their customers. However, incentive-related communication is not centralised and instead happens via circle offices. This results in non-standardised communication with banking agents. This project aims to improve banking agents' motivation through behaviourally-informed interventions focused on improved communication and dissemination of incentive schemes. CSBC conducted learning sessions with circle heads of better-performing circles to learn the best practices to design the interventions.

To begin the pilot, the team conducted detailed sessions with circle staff to explain the intervention. In this session, we encouraged IPPB staff to form the required WhatsApp groups for communications. All the communication material developed by CSBC was communicated to the groups via IPPB staff.

CSBC designed the following intervention package for the pilot:

• Simple, short knowledge bytes
  We shared knowledge bytes on product features and incentives in the form of messages, flyers, and videos with banking agents on the WhatsApp group. This intervention addressed the barrier of conditional incentives. Incentives are conditional to a certain number of transactions and balance requirements by the customer. Agents do not know when and if the conditions have been met. Further, there are too many conditions to earn incentives. This intervention makes it easy to understand the product and incentive details.
• Incentive calculator
  We sent a link to the incentive calculator on the WhatsApp group. The incentive calculator is a simple web page on which agents can enter their anticipated number of transactions. The page calculates the approximate amount of incentives the agent would earn for conducting those transactions. Agents find it difficult to link the accrued incentives to specific transactions or account openings and cannot track how many incentives they have accrued. An instantaneous incentive/performance tracking system like the incentive calculator makes it easy for agents to track their incentives.
• Live feedback using WhatsApp group
  CSBC created a WhatsApp group of banking agents, which enabled them to share their targets and run rate of focus schemes (MIS at branch level). The group also gave feedback and social recognition to banking agents. This intervention made IPPB work social and timely and addressed barriers related to variable (incentive-based) compensation. We found that agents consider IPPB work voluntary and high-effort and have low motivation. Agents are used to fixing compensation structures and do not welcome variable compensation, which this intervention aims to address.
• Personal calling
  Our next intervention involved the branch manager calling 2-3 banking agents daily to explain focus schemes, troubleshoot using standardised talking points and maintain the relationship and trust of agents. This addressed issues related to delays in incentive transfer. Agents reported a lag of 2-3 months in the same. This leads to mistrust as agents are not sure they will receive the incentives after completing their work.

We ran the pilot for three weeks in March 2022 in two circles of IPPB. The branch managers had to do the following four interventions daily:

• Share transaction target/ run rate of the week on the WhatsApp group
• Share incentive calculator on the WhatsApp group
• Share a knowledge byte on the WhatsApp group
• Call 2-3 agents

CSBC supported the branch managers by telling them what to share on the WhatsApp group. The team also shared talking points with the branch manager to speak to the agents.

Key results

The pilot showed promising results, especially in the Bihar circle and rural branches. In Bihar, there was a ~392% increase in Child Enrolment Lite Client (CELC) transactions in pilot branches compared to 227% in control branches. We observed a significant jump (up to 542% in Lakhisarai, Bihar branch) in the number of transactions in three out of four pilot branches.

Percentage growth in the number of transactions during the pilot period for control and test branches, Bihar circle

The Delhi circle had a mixed performance, with semi-rural branches showing significant increases (an increase of 268% was reported for Post Office Savings Account (POSA) transactions). We believe that effective communication has improved engagement and awareness in banking agents based in rural and semi-rural areas compared to urban areas.

Percentage growth in the number of transactions during the pilot period for control and test branches, Delhi circle

Description and methodology

We designed the pilot by studying best practices from high-performing circles (e.g., Telangana). We defined a baseline for Bihar and Delhi; interventions were conducted over 3 weeks. We also conducted qualitative research to identify other systemic issues faced by the staff and banking agents.
For the pilot, the CSBC team designed flyers, short videos, and a web-based incentive calculator. The pilot was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 is in the Bihar circle, and Phase 2 is in the Delhi circle. CSBC measured the impact of interventions by analysing changes in incentives earned by banking agents. Based on the pilot, CSBC provided behaviourally-informed recommendations for improving the overall motivation levels of agents by modifying incentive communication.

Results and highlights

• Simplification and standardisation of messaging around incentives results in significantly better engagement of banking agents. The communication of incentive structure can be as important as the incentive structure itself, and hence should be carefully designed.
• Creating WhatsApps groups of peers is a very impactful intervention in itself. It encourages a sense of community as well as a sense of competition amongst banking agents. Also, as they use WhatsApp for their personal conversations, the learning and adoption time is reduced significantly.
• Providing daily, live feedback on performance also helps in increasing motivation.