Monmouthshire Building Society has worked with Age Cymru to deliver age awareness training to some of its colleagues.  

The training is designed to help the building society continue to deliver great customer service to its older members.  It will help colleagues gain insight into some of the barriers older people face in obtaining financial services and highlight how they can help older people overcome such barriers.  

The training will also help to break down some of the commonly held age stereotypes about older people.  

The building society says it has a responsibility to help address some of the social, economic, and environmental challenges members and colleagues face.

Swansea Branch Manager, Jacky Grenfell, who attended the first session said “I can now go back to my branch to see how to make things easier for our older members by implementing some simple measures.  I also want to look at longer-term solutions such as the literature and photographs we use so that we portray older people in a more realistic way.” 

Kristy Maloney, Head of Retail, added “As a regional building society, we always put our members first. Our core purpose is to help members, communities, and colleagues to thrive, so it’s always important to us to listen to our members’ needs and make our services accessible to everyone. We’re delighted to work with Age Cymru to undertake this training which will allow us to continue to improve our services for our local communities.”

Age Cymru’s head of policy, Heather Ferguson said “Our research shows that older people are increasingly being sidelined by society and are finding it more and more difficult to engage with their services and local communities because so many barriers are put in place. 

“From the demise of face-to-face banking to digital exclusion, and from cuts to public transport to the closure of public toilets, older people are being excluded from our communities in so many ways. So, we’re delighted to work with Monmouthshire Building Society to help them better understand the needs of their older members and to provide a service that is more age aware.  

“Thanks to Monmouthshire Building Society for recognising the importance of supporting and including their older customers in the best way they can. We encourage other public facing organisations to follow Monmouthshire Building Society’s lead and contact us to arrange their own age awareness training session with us” 

For more information about Age Cymru’s age awareness training call Age Cymru Advice on 0300 303 44 98 Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm, email [email protected] or visit www.agecymru.org.uk/age-awareness