American Banker Magazine - November/December 2021

2021 Best Banks to keep working for

Executives at the 90 institutions that made the ninth annual ranking are boosting benefits to attract new employees, amid intense competition for talent. They're also rethinking how they approach recruiting and increasing their diversity efforts.

Americans are changing jobs in record numbers, posing a challenge for all employers. Here's how the Best Banks to Work For are redoubling their efforts to recruit and retain talent.

Now that dispersed workforces are expected to be the long-term norm, banks are taking steps to maintain a sense of teamwork and giving managers new training in troubleshooting.

From paying for lawn care when an Army Reservist on staff was deployed to offering employees office space and laptops for their children to do school work, United Bank in Alabama aims to make life easier for the people who work there. It is also ramping up internal training programs.

First Busey Corp. is investing in software to eliminate the drudgery of some tasks. But this Best Bank to Work For will judge the success of the tech initiative by employee engagement more so than just efficiency. The goal is to boost morale.

The Pennsylvania community bank lacked the resources to go all-in on developing a diversity, equity and inclusion policy, so it turned to grad students at Georgetown University for help.

Recruiting from competitors can be hard to pull off, and it won't create more equity in the industry. Some of the Best Banks to Work For are finding ways to develop, support and promote women who are already on the payroll.

Wilson created an app from scratch in the middle of a large merger, he's setting up “client journey rooms” where customers co-create technology with technologists, and he's moving the bank forward into cloud computing.

The firm's global head of transaction banking says practicing meditation helped him manage a team that built a new corporate banking platform. His leadership of the project was one reason Moorthy was selected as a finalist for American Banker’s Digital Banker of the Year.

Lincoln Parks at Heritage Bank in Georgia built from scratch its social media following, a digital-only way to open accounts and (in 48 hours) a Paycheck Protection Program lending system. For these and other efforts, Parks is a runner-up for American Banker’s Digital Banker of the Year.

Overdraft fees are criticized as unfair penalties for lower-income customers, but they are often better for consumers than getting purchases rejected.

Diane Morais, the bank's consumer and commercial banking president, writes that eliminating overdrafts has had little impact on the bottom line, and she encourages more banks to do the same.

In his new book, “Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy,” the historian Adam Tooze argues that the Federal Reserve's interventions preserved a flawed economic status quo. But it still isn't clear what the central bank could have done differently.