A HYBRID METHODOLOGY FOR MEASURING UNIT COSTS IN MULTIBRANCH INSTITUTIONS

For large multibranch institutions such as banks, knowing the unit lab our costs of services is essential for effective planning and control. This requires accurate information on the amount of time spent by emp loyees carrying out various tasks. The literature on work measurement identifies two main approaches for establishing unit labour costs: wor k standards and work sampling. Although work standards indicate how mu ch time employees should spend on various tasks under ideal conditions , statistical sampling methods employed in work sampling determine how much time is actually spent on these tasks in their natural settings. Work sampling can be extremely expensive, since exceedingly large sam ple sizes are required to accurately determine the costs of functions requiring small proportions of personnel time. Thus, we propose a hybr id methodology that combines survey sampling with the work standards a pproach.