Incivilities in bank branches: a growing phenomenon
In banks and insurance companies, incivilities are no longer isolated cases. Inappropriate remarks, raised voices, threatening gestures, intrusion into personal space…
These aggressive behaviours, although often verbal, leave lasting marks. They can have serious consequences for employees’ well-being and for the organisation of work within banking institutions.
Unlike physical violence, incivilities often appear more acceptable. They are sometimes even perceived as “tolerable” or “normal”. Yet they wear down employees, affect their emotional stability and weaken the climate of trust between staff and customers.
Violence and aggression: a direct impact on health and safety at work
These incivilities leave lasting effects.
When they become frequent, normalised or ignored, they have a significant impact:
- increased chronic stress,
- a lasting feeling of insecurity,
- lower employee engagement,
- deterioration of customer relationships,
- increased absenteeism and staff turnover.
These effects are not always visible. But they gradually change the way employees work every day.
Energy is redirected towards managing stress, to the detriment of their core mission. Emotional balance becomes fragile.
In a sector built on trust, proximity and stability, these imbalances weaken health and safety at work.
Why are incivilities still largely underreported?
Despite how common they are, many incidents are neither reported nor documented. This underreporting is a major obstacle to any prevention strategy.
Several reasons explain this:
- fear of being perceived as weak or incompetent,
- feeling that the incident is “too minor” to report,
- belief that nothing will change,
- a culture of normalisation embedded within the organisation,
- lack of a simple, fast and legitimate reporting channel.
This silence comes at a cost: without reporting, the organisation loses visibility over the issue. Without visibility, no structured action is possible.
The role of frontline managers in dealing with incivilities
Frontline managers are often the first to hear informal feedback. They detect tensions, warning signs and employee fatigue.
But without a clear framework, their ability to act remains limited.
Many work in isolation. They sometimes lack reporting tools or support from HR or legal teams. As a result, they struggle to structure an appropriate response.
Professionalising the management of incivilities means giving managers procedures, tools and genuine recognition of this risk. It strengthens their operational role in prevention.
Why structure the management of incivilities?
Incivilities should be managed as an occupational risk, just like workplace accidents or psychosocial risks. A structured approach is based on three key principles.
1. Recognise incivilities as a real risk
They should be integrated into prevention programmes. Like workplace accidents, they should be included in prevention processes and risk assessments.
2. Provide a clear reporting tool
The tool must be quick, simple and understood by everyone. It should enable employees to describe incidents without judgement.
3. Analyse incidents across the organisation
A local view is useful, but only a consolidated view makes it possible to identify recurring patterns, sensitive areas and peak periods.
This helps define targeted actions before situations escalate.
Managing incivilities: the specific case of banks
Managing incivilities presents specific challenges in banking:
- open access to the public,
- customer relationships often influenced by financial or emotional issues,
- regulatory constraints sometimes perceived as unfair by customers,
- heavy workloads during busy periods.
Front-office teams face this pressure every day.
They must manage unstable interactions with very little room for manoeuvre.
All of this makes the management of incivilities in banks particularly critical.
From reporting to analysis: the BPCE Group approach
For more than ten years, the BPCE Group has deployed a programme dedicated to preventing incivilities.
Its branches notably use an internal reporting portal integrated into their working environment.
This system allows:
- incidents to be reported in just a few minutes,
- full traceability of events,
- consolidated data for security managers.
The information is then cross-referenced with other indicators (psychosocial risks, training, incidents).
This provides a detailed understanding of the situation and helps define appropriate actions.
This approach illustrates the transition from local, isolated management to a global strategy managed across the entire network.
In 2022, 6,333 incidents were reported within the BPCE Group. 77% occurred in physical branches.
69% involved verbal aggression and 5% physical aggression.
54% of victims were customer advisers.
Looking for a practical solution to structure your prevention strategy?
Managing incivilities in banks: what role do digital tools play?
Managing incivilities is not just about filling in a form.
It requires a robust HSE software solution, designed to integrate this risk into an overall health and safety strategy.
Such software should:
- integrate incident reporting through dedicated modules,
- link reports to other indicators (accidents, psychosocial risks, training, alerts),
- ensure full traceability,
- produce reports suitable for audits and committees,
- facilitate multi-site analysis, benchmarking and data consolidation.
The digital tool then becomes a strategic asset, not merely an operational one: better visibility, better understanding and better anticipation.
The benefits of a structured prevention approach
Implementing an organised approach to managing incivilities helps:
- strengthen employees’ psychological protection,
- restore confidence within teams,
- anticipate local crises,
- allocate resources more effectively,
- better inform management about field realities.
These benefits are not only social.
They are also economic, by reducing staff turnover, absenteeism and internal tensions.
This directly contributes to quality of working life (QWL), sustainable performance and better management of human risks.
Act before situations escalate
Incivilities are sometimes silent, but their effects are not.
They gradually damage workplace balance, undermine motivation and complicate customer relationships.
To prevent them, organisations must be able to identify, report, monitor and address them.
A structured, tool-supported approach aligned with the company’s health and safety policy has become essential, particularly in workplaces exposed to public interactions.
Are you responsible for safety, security or human resources within a banking network?
Looking for a practical solution to structure your prevention strategy?
Contact us!