3 Steps to Unlock a People-First Work Culture

Written by

We all know how hard it is to attract and retain top talent in the competitive community bank market. The challenge is even more acute today, considering how macroeconomic conditions have changed during the past several months.

Investing in your bank’s culture can help it achieve growth and attract top talent. As a chief human resources officer, I have seen the value of creating and maintaining an agile, people-first work culture. Its daily contribution to operational effectiveness is enormous and serves as a stabilizing and steady force even in the face of external obstacles.

The High Cost of Employee Dissatisfaction
The cost of overlooking employee engagement and turnover can be significant. Gallup found that the cost of replacing a disengaged individual employee can range from half to two times the employee’s annual salary. Meanwhile, research has found that companies with the most engaged employees were 22% more profitable than those with the least.

Signs of disengagement can include slow working tempo, lack of interest in work, being easily distracted and minimal output. Additionally, disengaged employees often possess negative attitudes about their work and organization, which can hurt the productivity and morale of your other employees — not to mention your bottom line.

Three Stages of Culture Development
To avoid the cost and hassle of recruiting new talent, while maintaining an excellent relationship with your current employees, consider these three key points to create an agile, people-first company culture: Know Your Purpose, Know Your People, and Build Your Culture.

Know Your Purpose
Define your bank’s culture so that it becomes your North Star. Start by establishing new core values or refreshing existing ones. Conduct a thorough analysis to identify what values you want your employees to demonstrate, within the context of what is most important to your bank and to your community. This approach can provide your team with a specific direction to anchor expectations and an actionable road map for employee behaviors.

It is also important to recognize and acknowledge appropriate behaviors. These actions help reinforce and speed up the adoption of the culture you hope to build. Establishing a system of core values also helps serve as a guideline for the type of individual you want to hire and who you want to promote.

Know Your People
The needs of employees constantly evolve, especially during major macroeconomic events such as a recession or the recent pandemic. There are easy ways to regularly gauge your employees’ moods and attitudes. For example, a comprehensive semiannual employee survey can provide feedback about what is working, what is not and what can be done better. This information allows executives to see whether the culture is being embraced and internalized, and allows you to quickly address any unfavorable emerging trends.

Taking the time to build relationships with your employees and getting to know them on a personal level can also yield beneficial cultural impacts. Authentic connections between individual contributors and their senior leaders can forge a powerful “in it together” perspective that can increase employee satisfaction and spirit. Employees who feel respected, heard and seen can become personal ambassadors of your bank’s culture within your institution and community.

Build Your Culture
Offering programs, perks and experiences that matter to your employees is an essential component of successful engagement. There is no shortage of options, even if your budget and resources are limited. All it takes is a bit of research, a little creativity and some thoughtful planning.

To help spark your own imagination, here are several recent programs and initiatives that BHG Financial has introduced to enhance its work culture — many of which came from our employees’ feedback in surveys and other engagements. Recent BHG Financial programs include:

  • Transitioned to a permanent hybrid workforce with employees across the country.
  • Launched BHG Pulse, a program focused on the physical, emotional, social, financial and occupational well-being of our employees.
  • Introduced Wellness Weekends, which gives all employees get one Friday off each month to refresh and recharge. It has quickly become our team’s favorite benefit, while maintaining and enhancing productivity.
  • Created “Women in Tech,” our first employee resource group that provides training, connections and support to women within the tech industry.
  • Introduced BHG Together, a diversity, equity and inclusion program that provides monthly support, celebration and training.
  • Offered BHG LEAD, which provides employees with actionable steps they can take to become better leaders and grow their BHG careers.

Building your institution’s culture takes time. There may be highs and lows, but if you prioritize listening to and engaging within your team, you will persevere. We call this principle “winning together” — all oars rowing the same boat in the same direction.

Going Beyond Compensation to Attract, Retain Top Talent

Written by

Your employees probably don’t think about needing long-term care (LTC), especially if they feel young and healthy. But now’s exactly the right time for you to help them plan for the future.

Baby boomers and successive generations will enjoy unprecedented longevity compared to previous generations. The upside is obvious. But there’s a downside: the number of chronic health conditions that can require costly long-term care. While most people conceptualize this need, they don’t have any LTC coverage. Meanwhile, employers may already offer group term life insurance to give employees extended benefits at the lower group premiums. There’s a way that banks can make this voluntary benefit more available and more portable — and even more attractive.

Many life insurance policies now offer riders or options that allow policyholders to access a portion of the death benefit to cover long-term care expenses. This flexibility allows policyholders to utilize the benefits of a life insurance policy to address potential LTC needs, so they can maintain financial stability and access quality care without depleting their assets.

This means banks can protect the financial future of employees with an affordable employer-sponsored LTC insurance program that:

  • Protects employees’ retirement plan. An ounce of prevention now can avert the disaster that an LTC episode can bring to individual financial portfolios.
  • Gives employees a choice about their care. Although Medicare and Medicaid may pay for some LTC costs, coverage may be limited.
  • Eases the burden on employees’ family. LTC insurance allows family members to be involved in the caregiving process without being the primary provider.

Life with LTC can be a complex financial planning product. Banks interested in offering the product should find someone to help guide them through the various options and lead the implementation process. A 2019 study found that 74% percent of employees feel that LTC is important, yet 25% of their employers offer it. Offering it is a way to fill a gap in your benefits portfolio, which could help attracting and retaining top talent.

One of the advantages of incorporating life insurance with LTC into a retention strategy is the ability to offer employees customized plans tailored to their needs. This flexibility allows employees to select coverage levels, beneficiaries and additional features based on their individual circumstances. Providing employees with choices fosters a sense of ownership and engagement, which can enhance job satisfaction and loyalty.

How It Works
Employer-sponsored life insurance with LTC benefits offer fully portable term or permanent life insurance that helps protect employees’ families during their working years, and includes meaningful long-term care benefits if extended care is needed. These benefits can be structured in ways that provide additional incentives and tax advantages for employees. Additionally, certain life insurance policies offer cash value accumulation that employees can access during their working years for various financial needs.

Long-term care can be costly to your employees and places a huge burden on most families who need it. In fact, health and disability insurance doesn’t even cover LTC costs. Medicare isn’t always the answer, either. For most, it’s an out-of-pocket expense that drains retirement savings. Look at the stats:

It’s important for banks to help their employees understand that LTC insurance is more affordable to them during their working years rather than later. Employer sponsored “hybrid” life insurance products with LTC riders can offer powerful coverage, underwriting concessions and additional benefits.

In today’s competitive employment landscape, organizations must go beyond traditional compensation packages to attract and retain top talent. Incorporating life insurance with LTC benefits into an employee retention strategy offers a range of advantages, from attracting and retaining talent to providing financial protection and flexibility. Recognizing the value of these benefits and investing in the long-term financial well-being of employees allows banks to position themselves as an employer of choice and build a loyal and engaged workforce.

Insurance services provided through NFP Executive Benefits, LLC. (NFP EB), a subsidiary of NFP Corp. (NFP). Doing business in California as NFP Executive Benefits & Insurance Agency, LLC. (License #OH86767). Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Kestra Investment Services, LLC is not affiliated with NFP or NFP EB. Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures

2023 Compensation Survey Results: Measuring Up

Written by

The hiring environment remains tough and compensation costs have continued to climb, but in 2023, bank leaders renewed their focus on aligning pay with performance as succession planning concerns edged up.

Forty-four percent of the bank executives and directors surveyed in Bank Director’s 2023 Compensation Survey, sponsored by Chartwell Partners, cite tying compensation to performance as a top challenge this year. That was more than double the proportion who picked that as a top concern last year and represented a swing back to sentiments revealed in prior years.

Rebounding interest in tying pay to performance could indicate underlying concerns around attracting and retaining C-suite talent, particularly among private and mutual banks, says Scott Petty, a partner at Chartwell.

“Private banks have had to come up with more performance-based pay in order to reward talent and attract talent to run the institutions. Before, you could just get away with a base and bonus,” he says. “Now, these smaller institutions have had to get more savvy … just because the competition for C-suite talent is really at an all time high.”

In this year’s survey, respondents also point to managing compensation and benefits (47%) and retaining key people (41%) as important compensation-related challenges.

Concern about succession planning for the CEO and other key executives ticked up from last year, with a little over a quarter of respondents citing it as a top compensation-related challenge. Moreover, 17% say their CEO is over 66 years of age, and another 29% say their CEO is between 61 and 65 years old. The survey also found that bank leaders have less confidence in their long-term succession plans for the CEO than they do in shorter-term plans in the event of a sudden departure or leave of absence.

Eighty-two percent of respondents are confident about their succession plan in the event that the CEO or another key executive were to abruptly leave the bank, but fewer are similarly confident about long-term succession plans for the CEO (63%) and other key executives (61%). Looking at their bank’s talent pipeline, 65% feel their organization has a strong bench to prepare for C-suite roles over the next five years.

Seventy-one percent of respondents say their bank coaches mid-level talent to prepare them for C-suite roles, and 55% say their bank uses external career development programs. Special projects to high potential candidates (39%) and rotational work in other departments (12%) were less popular options for grooming succession candidates.

Key Findings

Hiring Pressures Ease?
A smaller proportion of bank executives and directors report difficulty hiring; 56% of respondents this year report that hiring was more difficult in 2022 than it was the year before, down from 78% who said as much a year earlier.

Demand for Business Bankers Cools
Concern around hiring and retaining commercial bankers have lessened somewhat, likely due to a dampened outlook for business borrowing amid higher interest rates. The percentage of respondents who expect their bank to add commercial lending staff fell to 61% in 2023 from 70% a year earlier. Similarly, the proportion who say their bank has difficulty hiring commercial lenders (52%) fell slightly.

Pay Continues to Climb
Large majorities of respondents say their bank increased employee pay (97%) and executive compensation (88%), reporting a median increase of 5% in overall compensation expenses in 2022. Layoffs remain rare: 78% say their bank is not considering laying off staff in 2023. Just 5% say layoffs are likely at their organization.

Hiring Challenges
Almost three-quarters of respondents cite an insufficient number of qualified applicants as a key obstacle to hiring new talent. Bank directors and executives also cite rising wages in their markets (69%) and rising wages for key positions (47%) among their top hiring challenges.

Casting a Wider Net
Forty-one percent say their bank is more open to hiring from other industries than it has been in the past, while 10% report that their organization has always recruited aggressively outside of the banking industry. But 32% say their institution mainly recruits from within the industry, with no plans to change that approach.

Retention Bonuses Gain Ground
Nearly a third of respondents (32%) say their bank has offered retention bonuses to key staff as a carrot to delay retirement, up from 21% who said as much in last year’s survey.

Remote Work Persists
A majority (80%) of survey respondents say their bank continues to offer remote or hybrid work options to at least some of their employees, while just over half (52%) offer remote or hybrid work options to executives. Smaller banks were somewhat less likely to offer remote work.

To view the high-level findings, click here.

Bank Services members can access a deeper exploration of the survey results. Members can click here to view the complete results, broken out by asset category and other relevant attributes. If you want to find out how your bank can gain access to this exclusive report, contact [email protected].

Is Your Backup Ready? CEO and the Backup Quarterback

Written by

The 2023 NFL postseason gave us a clear example of what it looks like when a team doesn’t have a backup. Dallas Cowboys continued to use kicker Brett Maher in games, even though he missed not one or two extra points, but a total of four extra points in the Cowboys’ wild card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

If your financial institution doesn’t have a strong CEO succession plan, it could wind up feeling like the Dallas Cowboys with no options to move forward. There are many parallels between a backup quarterback who is ready and a strong CEO successor.

Recruit Next-Generation Talent
Championship teams recruit talented players for each position. In addition, they recruit the next generation of players. The quarterback knows that there is someone ready to take over his position when he graduates or becomes unexpectedly injured. The backup trains his skills with the expectation that he will one day surpass the current quarterback.

Create Opportunities to Practice Leadership
Backup players are trained, mentored and given the opportunity to practice their skills and leadership. When a team with a talented depth chart fails to designate the backup quarterback, the team is not ready to follow when one of the backups steps in. Talent is not enough. Practice is not enough. The team needs to be ready to follow the next leader. Teams can absolutely have more than one candidate for the backup position, but at some point before the season, they need to make a decision on the depth chart.

Work Together for the Greatness of the Team
The relationship between the quarterback and the backup is strong. They work together for the success of the team. Backup preparation, coupled with clear communication, prepares the entire team for the next generation of leadership — whether that time comes in three years or in an instant.

Three Steps to Cultivate Backup Readiness
1. Timeline.
The backup needs to be ready now, while having the confidence to wait for graduation or retirement. When a team extends a transition timeline in college football, we see players jumping in the transfer portal and playing for a competitor. The same is often true in CEO succession planning. Holding to your timeline helps retain your backup.

2. Position Profile.
Look at your organization chart for your institution today and understand what is needed for each position in the next five years. Create a position profile that combines a job description with what the business will look like at the point of succession. Make sure your bank’s backup options have, or are building, the skills and experiences they will need to align with where the business will be at the point of succession.

3. Assess Your Talent
Much like a wide receiver can move to play safety, your institution needs to find strong talent to fill key position to lead into the future. Use a comprehensive assessment that profiles leadership potential and identifies development opportunities that allows for your “best athletes” to move into a range of roles.

When your bank needs a succession plan or depth chart, follow the example of championship football teams. Understand the timeline, then match the skills of your players with the demands of your organizational chart. A third party can be useful in helping to assess and plan for the future team.

Why Attracting and Retaining Talent is No Longer Good Enough

Written by

Every year, Cornerstone Advisors conducts a survey of community-based financial institution CEOs that asks what their top concerns are. The 2022 survey produced the biggest one-year change we have ever seen. A full 63% of executives identified the ability to attract qualified talent as a key concern, up from just 19% the year before.

No doubt this focus on talent is at least partially the result of the sheer number of new topics requiring industry expertise. Think digital currencies. Embedded finance. BaaS. Buy now pay later. Gen 3 core systems. Artificial intelligence and machine learning. How many of those topics would have been on any FI’s training curriculum two years ago? Yet boards now ask about every one of those topics in terms of the financial institution’s strategy.

However, attracting qualified talent won’t be enough. Every financial institution has knowledge and expertise that can only be developed internally, simply because the knowledge build is so unique to the industry, including:

  • Processes unique to a line of business: There is no school or degree for bank processes, front or back office. And they vary by financial institution.
  • Regulations: The practical application of regulations to specific situations at the institution requires deep “inside” knowledge.
  • Vendors and systems: The vendor stack and roadmaps, and the institution’s databases, make its knowledge requirements unique.

In short, there is no university diploma that can be obtained for many areas of the bank – and, in my opinion, the further you get into the back office, the truer this is.

At Cornerstone Advisors, we’re observing that banks need to focus on “build or buy” of key skills and knowledge for the next generation of leaders and managers. Some thoughts about what we see working:

1. Have a clear list of jobs, skills, and knowledge that will need to be developed versus hired. Everybody will have a different list, of course, but four areas where we consistently see the biggest “build” need are:

    • Payments: While there are certainly people that can come to a bank or credit union with a great deal of understanding about payments, there is the entire back-office component – disputes, fraud, reconciliation, vendor configuration options, et al. – that can be learned only on the job.
    • Commercial credit: An institution’s required credit expertise will depend on its business and niches. For example, knowledge of national environmental lending will be unique from that of import/export letter of credit. Unfortunately, peers and competitors don’t have a deep bench to abscond with.
    • Digital marketing: This is simply too new an area for there to be loads of potential applicants with loads of expertise and experience. Even if execs can find candidates with broad digital marketing experience (they’re out there), they will need to understand the nuances of banking and what will constitute meaningful marketing opportunities in particular client segments.
    • Data analytics: There are a growing number of available people with very strong data skills, but even if hired they will need to come to grips with the complexity of the institution’s data structure.

2. Don’t ignore the importance of the apprenticeship model when building talent. Most leaders at FIs can point to on-the-job training they received early in their careers that has been the basis of their success. The apprenticeship model has worked for centuries and still works well at the modern bank.

3. Balance the in-person need for apprenticeship training with the new realities of remote work demands. In a recent Accenture study, over 60% of employees surveyed felt their productivity had increased due to working at home, and only 13% felt it hadn’t. Whether it is a new hire or re-skilling of an existing employee, the message of “five days in the office” won’t sell. Getting the right amount of face time for development while giving the new generation of stars an appealing work-life balance will be a key challenge for HR groups.

A clear, disciplined, focused plan for development of the next generation of talent is more crucial than ever. There are times when buying talent from elsewhere just won’t be an option due to cost, availability, or the risk of retaining those same people. The good news? Some of the best opportunities might be right in front of you in your existing workforce.

Focusing on 4 Key Trends for 2023

Written by

The current market presents unique challenges for financial institutions.

As we navigate a complex environment during a time of significant industry change, recessionary pressure and geopolitical uncertainty, it’s crucial that banks focus on a realistic number of strategic priorities. Entering the first quarter of 2023, I see four key trends impacting the financial services industry that boards and executives need to focus on to survive and thrive amid economic uncertainty.

Talent
Having the best bankers, treasury management officers, middle office talent and banking center managers is always critical. But it’s also vitally important to have those unique individuals who can take an innovative idea and turn it into reality.

Your bank needs people who can work well with your partners and vendors to make sure you’re delivering the right kinds of capabilities to customers, and leaders who can see around the corner and anticipate the capabilities you’ll need in the future. That talent can be hard to come by; the turbulent labor market presents some challenges, but also opportunities.

There have already been some significant layoffs at large tech companies, but they aren’t the only ones. Smaller tech companies have also had to cut back — and that could be a chance to hire talent that has historically been out of reach or acquire a superstar that left for an early-stage company and is ready to come back. Lastly, banks should look for high-performing people at lower-performing companies and see if they might be ready for a change. Successful talent strategies will have an outsized impact on future performance.

Strategic Clarity
Reaching strategic clarity with all of your stakeholders will be crucial. Scarce resources and changing investment environments means financial institutions must make clear and deliberate decisions when it comes to their strategies.

Not only is it important to know your customers, your market and how you will differentiate and win, but it’s imperative to guard against strategic drift or succumbing to the temptation to be all things to all customers.

Pressure to Innovate, Simplify
The marketplace has been noisy. The substantial amount of funds invested in new financial technology firms over the past five years has made it feel like there are endless opportunities to innovate. Stakeholders in all directions may be making suggestions and recommendations. This has helped move the banking industry forward in important ways and helped power some of the digital leaps we experienced during the pandemic.

However, bankers seem to gravitate toward complexity. Now is the right time to take a step back, take stock of your organization’s investments and determine whether they have helped you simplify your business and operations.

Could you rethink entire lines of business based on the digital capabilities that you now have? Where can your institution make incremental, but important, moves toward simplification? What are the bank’s most important innovation priorities that need to move forward regardless, or because of, the turbulent macroeconomic environment? These are critical questions that every management team should be addressing.

Deposit Strategy
Not too long ago, it seemed every bank was flush with deposits. Today, even financial institutions with favorable loan-to-deposit ratios are figuring out how their deposit base is changing, what effect higher and rising rates are having, where they’re experiencing attrition and churn within their customer base, and what parts of their funding strategy need to be reworked.

It will be critical to develop a long-term sustainable deposit strategy and identify advantages specific to your institution. For example, in which industries does your bank have lending expertise? Use that experience to develop working capital solutions for those same customers. If your bank has developed your digital banking capabilities, explore where you have untapped potential in the existing customer base with targeted campaigns and marketing messages. Haven’t revisited your compensation strategy? Now is the right time to be addressing incentives for developing a commercial deposits business. Actions that a bank takes today will have a lasting positive impact.

It’s easy for directors and executives to become overwhelmed in such a fluctuating environment but the financial institutions focused on strengthening talent, clarifying critical priorities, accelerating innovation and maximizing their deposit strategies will be ready to take advantage of growth opportunities in this new year.

Back to the Office

Written by

Although studies have shown most workers like hybrid or remote work opportunities, CEOs rarely like the concept.

A recent KPMG survey across industries this summer found that 65% of CEOs see in-person work as optimal over the next three years. It was even higher for bank CEOs: 69% of them envision their operations fully in-person during that time frame. Only 24% of bank CEOs envision a hybrid work environment, with both in-person and at-home work, during the next three years.

One of those who dislikes the idea of hybrid work is Fifth Third Bancorp CEO Tim Spence. But Spence has an interesting take on why hybrid or remote work doesn’t work well for banking. While many bank CEOs talk about the importance of in-person work to foster a certain culture, Spence sees another reason, too. While tech companies may embrace the concept of a diverse workforce throughout the world plugging in via videoconferences and online chat, banks have long been deeply rooted in their communities where they do business.

The questions every bank faces are now: Will workers feel as motivated to volunteer and make financial donations when they’re not working in local communities where the bank operates? What happens to a corporation’s philanthropic endeavors when its workforce is diffused through the country?

I met up with Spence in late October at the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati. “My biggest fear about the movement in some quarters of the economy toward remote work is that it’s severing the link between headquarters employers and their responsibilities to the communities where their employees live,” he says.

Like many banks, Fifth Third’s financial success is tied up in the success of its communities. The $206 billion bank traces its roots to Cincinnati back more than 160 years; today, it is a major philanthropic entity in the Queen City and its employees contribute sizable volunteer hours. For Spence, being in a community means physical presence and the ability to be out with clients.

“There’s not another regional bank with a more significant share of its balance sheet attached to manufacturing and transportation and logistics companies than Fifth Third,” he says. “Those folks had to [work in-person during the early days of the pandemic] and we needed to be there with them.”

That doesn’t mean no one works from home at Fifth Third. Spence says about 15% to 20% of positions are eligible for remote work. The rest of the employee base works with their managers if they need an alternative work arrangement, for example, to accommodate caregiving responsibilities. But there’s no across-the-board hybrid work that’s available to all employees.

These issues have been on my mind lately as I head to Bank Director’s Bank Compensation & Talent Conference Nov. 7 to Nov. 9 in Dallas. Compensation consultants, executive recruiters and human resources officers at banks will talk about designing compensation programs, attracting and retaining staff and the ever-shifting regulatory environment. Stay tuned for more on those topics in the days ahead.

The War for Talent in Banking Is Here to Stay

Written by

It seems that everywhere in the banking world these days, people want to talk about the war for talent. It’s been the subject of many recent presentations at industry conferences and a regular topic of conversation at nearly every roundtable discussion. It’s called many things — the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffling, quiet quitters or the Great Realignment — but it all comes down to talent management.

There are a number of reasons why this challenge has landed squarely on the shoulders of banks and organizations across the country. In the U.S., the workforce is now primarily comprised of members of Generation X and millennials, cohorts that are smaller than the baby boomers that preceded them. And while the rising Gen Z workforce will eventually be larger, its members have only recently begun graduating from college and entering the workforce.

Even outside of the pandemic disruptions the economy and banking industry has weathered, it is easy to forget that the unemployment rate in this country was 3.5% in December 2019, shortly before the pandemic shutdowns. This was an unprecedented modern era low, which the economy has once again returned to in recent months. Helping to keep this rate in check is a labor force participation rate that remains below historical norms. Add it all up and the demographic trends do not favor employers for the foreseeable future.

It is also well known that most banks have phased out training programs, which now mostly exist in very large banks or stealthily in select community institutions. One of the factors that may motivate a smaller community bank to sell is their inability to locate, attract or competitively compensate the talented bankers needed to ensure continued survival. With these industry headwinds, how should a bank’s board and CEO respond? Some thoughts:

  • Banks must adapt and offer more competitive compensation, whether this is the base hourly rate needed to compete in competition with Amazon.com and Walmart for entry-level workers, or six-figure salaries for commercial lenders. Bank management teams need to come to terms with the competitive pressures that make it more expensive to attract and retain employees, particularly those in revenue-generating roles. Saving a few thousand dollars by hiring a B-player who does not drive an annuity revenue stream is not a long-term strategy for growing earning assets.
  • There has been plentiful discourse supporting the concept that younger workers need to experience engagement and “feel the love” from their institution. They see a clear career path to stick with the bank. Yet most community institutions lack a strategic human resource leader or talent development team that can focus on building a plan for high potential and high-demand employees. Bank can elevate their HR team or partner with an outside resource to manage this need; failing to demonstrate a true commitment to the assertion that “our people are our most important asset” may, over time, erode the retention of your most important people.
  • Many community banks lack robust incentive compensation programs or long-term retention plans. Tying key players’ performance and retention to long-term financial incentives increases the odds that they will feel valued and remain — or at least make it cost-prohibitive for a rival bank to steal your talent.
  • Lastly, every banker says “our culture is unique.” While this may be true, many community banks can do a better job of communicating that story. Use the home page of your website to amplify successful employee growth stories, rather than just your mortgage or CD rates. Focus on what resonates with next generation workers: Your bank is a technology business that gives back to its communities and cares deeply about its customers. Survey employees to see what benefits matter most to them: perhaps a student loan repayment program or pet insurance will resonate more with some workers than your 401(k) match will.

The underlying economic and demographic trend lines that banks are experiencing are unlikely to shift significantly in the near term, barring another catastrophic event. Given the human capital climate, executives and boards should take a hard look at the bank’s employment brand, talent development initiatives and compensation structures. A strategic reevaluation and fresh look at how you are approaching the talent wars will likely be an investment that pays off in the future.