Very little time I have spent of these first three weeks of my internship in the actual office of Santo Domingo Norte. Instead, I have spent most of my time running around with the loan officers from meeting to meeting, from community to community. And during this time I have become fascinated by the work these women do (in this office all of the staff are women). On average, loan officers start working as early as 6:30 am and do not stop until 6 PM or so. Therefore, during this time I have nailed down just some of the requisites needed to be an Esperanza loan officer. My hope is that after reading this post you will understand how incredible it is that Esperanza has found people with such unique characteristics.
What is an asesor or asesora (loan officer)? What is her role? And what characteristics does he/she need to have to be successful?
- Authority: Handling a bank of hope requires discipline. One of the disciplines of Esperanza requires every associate to be present at every bi-weekly meeting and to be there on time. They also collect money and that is always a topic that needs to be treated carefully. To establish that discipline in the Dominican culture requires controlling, rewarding, and yes, sometimes punishing too.
- Friend: Esperanza is not a bank and thus, loan officers are more than just the people who collect the money. They need to act as personal, spiritual and business counsellors. In order to have a successful bank of hope, there needs to be a good relationship between the associates and the loan officers. Therefore, loan officers need to establish trust with the associates and turn that trust into a friendship.
- Independent: While it is true that loan officers spend a lot of time in meetings where there are many people, these women also spend a huge part of their day by themselves. When they are walking, travelling in “carros publicos” (type of public transportation similar to a taxi) or “motoconchos” (motorcycle taxis), and when they deposit the money at the bank they have no one to talk to (in a way I think that is why they enjoy my companion so much). I bet it is difficult for Esperanza to find women as independent as these loan officers are.
- Fearless: These women get into the poorest communities of Santo Domingo with their phones and cameras, they travel with money in public transportation, and ride in old motorcycles without helmets. After three weeks with them, I can tell you that doing all of that in a single day is pretty dangerous. Yet, they seem to enjoy it; apparently they like the adrenaline involved with it.
- Extremely flexible and adaptable: Weekly schedules are pretty much coordinated on Mondays every week, but in a country like the Dominican Republic schedules are only plans. You can try to follow the plan, but many things can happen during the day and loan officers just need to improvise and adapt to the situation. They have to think fast, decide fast, act fast in order to visit the greatest amount of people in one day.
- Competitive: So maybe this is not a requirement, but it may help. I found two loan officers who have been working for three years in the same office. And both of them are considered two of the most successful loan officers across Esperanza – just to give you an idea of what I mean by successful, they are both pretty close to having 500 associates. The two loan officers are really good friends, but they are also great competitors. They both strive to get more associates and to have successful banks that pay their loans on time. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons for their success.
- Energetic: It is 3 PM in the afternoon, right after Dominican lunch time (a lunch made out of rice, beans and steak). The sun is hot and bright and humidity feels like 3,000%. To make things worse, the zinc ceiling of the church where the bank meeting is going to be held is keeping all the heat inside. Just like the loan officer and me, the associates are feeling the hot too and they are tired cause it’s been a long day. However, the meeting has to take place right? Well, if you want your associates to have energy, you better start showing it yourself. That is what happened last Wednesday in a Bank of Meeting where Kenya, one of the loan officers, responded to the situation in a way that I am still amazed to remember. She got up from her chair and started singing loudly her Christian songs. Kenya’s energy and intensity was contagious so the associates followed her. Wow! Imagine doing that 8 times a day, every day.
- Conflict manager: So many times the bi-weekly meetings go pretty smoothly. The associates are on time, they bring all the money for their payment and a little extra in case someone didn’t. But many times the associates are late to the meeting, they don’t bring their money and the rest of the bank refuses to pay for their fellow associates. As a consequence, conflict arises at the meeting in the form of gossip and sometimes in shouting. And the mediator of that situation, of course, has to be the loan officer. Not everybody can handle a conflict like this between 30 Dominican women, I can assure you that.
- Punctual: Although this may seem like an obvious requirement for any job in the world, you have to remember that in Latin America in general there is different conception about time. In the Dominican Republic they call it the “Dominican time” to refer to that 30-minute to one-hour time frame in which it is OK to be late. However, Esperanza is constantly seeking to change this mentality and this conception in their associates. Punctuality in fact is one of the disciplines that every associate accepts to follow when they accept their loan, and it is part of the verbal contract that is repeated at every bi-weekly meeting. Therefore, as an Esperanza representative, loan officers are supposed to be the example of such punctuality.
- Patient: At least once a week, every loan officer experiences problems with payments. A loan officer cannot leave the meeting until all the money for the payment is complete… and that can take a while (2-3 hours sometimes). Seated under the sun and sometimes skipping meals, loan officers have to be patient and wait until the associates collect all the money that has not been paid yet.
- Leader: In conclusion, that is how most associates think of our loan officers: as leaders. Associates are followers because loan officers are caring for them, helping them, teaching them, and controlling them as well. Therefore, loan officers have to be able to meet the expectations and act like leaders of her banks of hope and their communities. And well, you know how difficult it is for most organizations and companies to find leaders right?
Esperanza International Interns 