Talent Trade Tidbit - Frustrations in Banking

Hiring managers in the banking world; you may be asking yourself questions like: Why do people leave? How do we get them to stay? How do we differentiate our bank from others to potential candidates? Listen in for some answers...

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, this is Stephanie Maas, partner with Thinking Ahead Search.

(00:05):
I specialize in commercial banking and commercial finance search in the Mid-Atlantic.
One of the things we talk about often being in the talent market are why people leave.
We kind of know that answer, and the number one reasonwhy people leave jobs is they don't feel appreciated.
Value.
Whatever spin you wanna put on it, that's the number one reason.

(00:25):
But often what we don't talk about is what are the.
Other reasons, and is there really anything you can be doing to make those reasons go away?
So I wanna talk to you about two things that have really frustrated good bankers.
And let me challenge you, if you are in a situation at an organizationwhere you can hear this, analyze your own bank for this reason and make it better, I really wanna challenge you and encourage you to do so.

(00:57):
The two biggest frustrations we have heard from goodbankers are inefficient processes and credit appetite.
Now a couple of things.
I say good bankers because good bankers know to be discerning.
They're not throwing spaghetti against the ceiling to see what sticks.

(01:18):
They know a good deal from a bad deal, and let's face it, based on what's happening outin the world, in the market and the bank's agendas and goals, their credit appetite.
Can change.
Absolutely.
We see it happen all the time, but when a banker, a good banker, continually sees gooddeals, get denied, this has a major effect on their belief of whether or not they can be successful, earn a good bonus, and they really begin to question, am I in the right place?

(01:51):
The second thing, which is more of the day-to-day grind.
Our efficiencies in processes.
Specifically, I wanna talk to the support around a good banker whenthey're not doing the activities that you really want them to be doing.
If they're a commercial banker, a lot of what you want themspending their time on is going and looking for good deals.

(02:16):
But if they're saddled to a desk having to do all the other things, it really takes away.
From their ability to be out there generating new business, if they're in creditor underwriting, and they're so caught up in systems and having to pull from here to get to there and go over here, instead of being able to have a smooth process of churning out four to six deals a month, they're gonna be backlogged into two or three.

(02:44):
These are the things that drive bankers crazy.
Sometimes they execute in the slow drip.
Which is its own form of insanity.
It's like waterboarding.
For some, it's, you know, oh my gosh, I am gonna get a terrible bonusbecause I had 50 million deals in pipeline and only one got approved.

(03:04):
The timing may take 'em a minute to figure out what's driving them crazy.
But I can tell you consistently when I talk to good bankers.
About what's going on in their world.
I always ask for the good, but when I ask about, well, hey, where's your frustration?
Or if anything could be better, what would that be like?
It comes to do they feel valued and appreciated processes and credit appetite.

(03:29):
So if you can do anything to manage, streamline, or make those better, you're gonnahave a better chance at keeping your good bankers, hiring managers know your bank.
Recently I was working with a hiring manager and he was giving me criteriaof what he was looking for, and we were going through kind of, you know, Hey, here's the skillset that we need, years of experience, so forth and so on.

(03:54):
And we even covered compensation at the end.
One of the things that I usually ask if I don't know the bank particularly well, Isaid, Hey, you know, I'm just curious from where you sit and from your perspective, why would a top banker in this market come work with you and with your bank?
And unfortunately there was kind of this long pregnant pause and they go, huh.

(04:17):
I mean, I like the bank for me.
I'm very happy here.
O okay, that's good 'cause you're hiring.
Um, can you tell me more?
And they said, you know, I don't really know what I would say.
I don't know how I would sell this.
Versus the other banks.
I said, okay, so let's start there.
And we actually spent the next couple of minutes and I gave him some intel from the marketand I said, Hey, here are some things that I hear about your bank that you guys do well.

(04:43):
Can you, you know, think through those, are those accurate?
And what we did is we really spent the rest of that call working on a pitch for the opportunity.
The other thing we had to spend a few minutes on is we talked aboutcompensation and he says, Hey, I'd really like to hire somebody at this level.
I said, okay, well where's that number coming from?
He says, well, I, you know, I just think it's a good number, but if you bring mesomebody more expensive, you know, if they're right, you know, we'll make it work.

(05:08):
And I really challenged them again, and I said, you know, that's really not the way it works.
Typically, you have.
Pretty hard and fast numbers that you're gonna be able to work with, and we need toknow those numbers to make sure that we're not wasting your time or anyone else's time.
There's nothing more disappointing than finding yourdream candidate only to find out you can't afford them.

(05:30):
So my points are this.
Two things.
If you're gonna be going into a recruiting mode, first and foremost, know your pitch.
Know why or what your bank does to stand out amongstthe rest of the organizations in the marketplace.
Secondly, know the details of what you can really afford and know those parameters so that asyou go in looking at talent, you know where to spend your recruiting time and where not to.