ABA Banking Journal - September 2007 - (Page 24)

Community Banking Pass the Aspirin two other community banks in different communities. “None of us needed a full-time internal auditor,” says Sones. “So we hired a CPA who had been doing my bank’s external audits. We agreed on a salary that we split. We all get a better quality product than we could afford if we each tried to hire someone for what we are paying in thirds, and we get it at a cheaper cost.” This trend is growing. Roundtable bankers are sending out certain asset/liability management and profitability analysis functions, for instance. Then there’s compliance. Expertise is in more demand, and Mary Lenz says the last compliance chief she hired commanded a six-figure salary—for a $600 million bank. Things didn’t work out, and Lenz decided to make someone else the Bank Secrecy Act officer and to outsource the rest of compliance. The bank is spending only one third of what the staff expert had earned, and saves the costs of fringe benefits and training. Several banks use interns, and have been pleased with the effort. Tom Leetch of Peoples Federal, whose bank is right in Boston’s university neighborhood, noted that his bank’s human resources director started as an intern. “Outstanding young lady,” he says. Sones and Hoskins say they have been able to save on staffing costs by tapping local pools of retired workers. “Our little secret is what I call my ‘old folks club’,” says Wes Hoskins of Texas. “We have a pool of employees that are retired. Right now, one’s a retired accountant and one’s a retired engineer. Their wives want them out of the house, so they work for minimum wage basically, just enough to make their golf money.” This is no charity move. “These are very effective people,” says Sones. “They were running companies or had high-level jobs and they can bring a lot to the table and they really do have a great work ethic.” BJ What are you doing about tellers? ortunately for us, we have not been looking for any tellers recently,” shared Tom Wolf, president, Platte Valley Bank. “However, I know that if we were, it would be somewhat difficult. We are a $50 million-assets rural community bank, in North Bend, in eastern Nebraska, population 1,200 and a viable candidate pool is really limited.” “When we hire, I would like to find someone younger, if possible, as their computer and technology skills are so much better and easier to train,” Wolf continued. “I’m sure we will have to pay more than we would like to hire the right person. But tellers are the first person our customer meets, so you want that to always be a good experience.” Among many of the bankers surveyed, demand for tellers—“qualified tellers”—is high, and competition keen. “It is very rare that we find a candidate that exemplifies all the qualities and traits we really want to see in our tellers,” explained Corina Garcia, vice president-operations, First Community Bank. “We aren’t looking for candidates that can simply count money—we want “thinkers” who can adapt to the ever-changing world of banking.” The $164.5 million-assets bank is based in Corpus Christi, Texas. Indeed, while some bankers like to hire experienced tellers, others hire for attitude and teach them the banking business. “Our CEO recently stated, ‘you can teach someone our teller program and teller skills, but you can’t teach someone to have a great personality,” said Frances G. Dupre, HR director at $230 million-assets M C Bank & Trust Co., Morgan City, La. What is helping? Here are four remedies, plus additional pointers in “Quick Remedies,” on page 26. “F We took a good look at the competitiveness of our wage rates last year, and made some significant changes to align our tellers more favorably to the market data. As far as attracting teller candidates into our applicant pool, we have recently added eRecruitment (a fully integrated electronic application and recruiting system) as a resource to begin posting jobs and accepting applications online. [Editor’s note: You can see this at www.susquehanna.net; look at the bottom for “Employment” and click.] We believe this gives us an advantage in moving our candidates through the interview process more quickly. We have also had considerable success using Open House Events within our branch system to invite prospective applicants to come speak with local hiring managers and human resources people. During this time, candidates get to experience our environment first hand and actually interview the same day they express interest in applying. Publicizing these events throughout the branch system, as well as online and in print media, ensures the success of the event. There is no substitute for having a dynamic recruitment process which includes the items noted above, as well as maintaining a good relationship with local colleges and universities, participating in job fairs and community events, and a vibrant employee referral program. Remedy 2 Tom Sherman, Founders Community Bank, $73.7 millionassets, San Luis Obispo, Calif. The banks in our local market have all had trouble in the past finding and retaining quality tellers. As more de novos have entered the local market in recent years, the problem has only been exacerbated. This has caused a few of the area banks to hire young inexperienced tellers, much to the customer’s dismay. These bankers explain that the inexperienced tellers can be trained from the ground up while concurrently keeping the Remedy 1 Debbie Deissroth, vice-president, regional human resources manager, Susquehanna Patriot Bank, $2.9 billionassets, Marlton, N.J. 24 SEPTEMBER 2007/ABA BANKING JOURNAL http://www.fcbot.com http://www.founderscommunitybank.com http://www.founderscommunitybank.com http://www.susquehanna.net http://www.susquehanna.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ABA Banking Journal - September 2007

Contents Editor's Column Briefing: Why Money Sense is a Top Priority Briefing: Sleight of Mind Briefing: Snapshot: What the First Half Tells Us About the Second Half Briefing: ABA Resources ABA Chairman’s Position Briefing: Get Away and Get Ahead: ABA's Banking Leaders Forum Community Banking: Trim the Fat: Winning the "Battle of the Buck" Community Banking: Pass the Aspirin Cover Story: Meeting the Challenge of the "Unbanked" Bank Marketing: Don't Miss the Boom! On the Job: Time to Power Up Your Presentations? Insurance Sales: The Art & Craft of Cross Selling Tech Topics: The Price is Right? Tech Topics: Security: Protect Information First Tech Topics: Hackers for Hire? You Bet'cha Tech Topics: Case in Point: Tellers Scan, Too, at First Federal Compliance Clinic: Adverse Action Clarified The Economy Banker’s Mart To Advertise/Index of Advertisers

ABA Banking Journal - September 2007

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