It’s frequently said that banking is a relationship business.
Even in the age of automation and artificial intelligence, the business of banking still revolves around relationships and trust.
But educating new employees about that culture takes time.
In the back of every employer’s mind when they hire someone is, “How far can this person go?”
We took it a step further and asked banks what they look for when hiring. In other words, how do you hire a teller with the goal of that person one day being a manager?”
It gets to the heart of recruiting and retention — and career development.
We put the question out to a handful of bankers in Maine and got some interesting responses about career growth.
Bangor Savings hires for ‘soft skills’
When bankers talk about the skills needed to grow in the industry, they often refer to technical skills, such as the mechanics of how a loan works, and soft skills — the people skills that include interacting and communicating with customers.
In recruiting, the latter is crucial at the largest Maine-based bank, Bangor Savings.
“In short, it’s always the soft skills. Without the soft skills, the hard skills don’t work,” says Bob Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings, which has $7.3 billion in assets and 69 branch offices.
The bank recruits at a number of colleges, including Husson University, University of Maine and the Maine Community College System. Internships are a good foot in the door and often lead to a job offer. Some candidates have come through the co-op program at Northeastern University, which places students in jobs for a semester-long internship.
The bank has a great demand for entry-level employees who can perform well in customer service roles — as a teller, in a call center or in the company’s payroll division.
Bangor Savings offers training programs, leadership development courses, teller programs and job shadowing. The bank’s position is it can teach you the technical skills, the specifics of how to be a banker.
At a given time, the bank has roughly 140 people in teller positions. Last year, 18 of those were promoted or moved into a non-branch job. Six tellers went into management training.
For those in an assistant teller job, “that’s your path up,” Montgomery-Rice says. “Young people want guidance and development. They want a job, but they also want a future.”
The recruiting process involves the job candidate. But the other vested parties are the college that prepared that candidate and the manager that is looking to hire the prospective employee.
“You get the investment [from different parties]. The colleges are promoting [the bank] because the colleges want to look good in their placements,” Montgomery-Rice says. “When the [bank] managers get invested, that’s good too. There’s nothing worse than an open job.”
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust encourages ‘stretch’ goals
“This is a topic I’m really passionate about,” says Marion Columbo, chief retail officer at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust.
“Young people want to progress quickly,” she says. “Many execs started that way,” as a teller.
But it’s important that they understand the process and the steps involved.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust has a significant reach, with assets of $4.1 billion and more than 60 branches in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
She recommends to young people that they focus on their growth and ways to develop their skills.
That can mean taking on additional projects or responsibilities, getting active in committees or initiatives, signing up for training.
The bank offers a structured framework and clear paths to move up. But it takes initiative. A manager may recognize skills in a junior employee but it’s good for a junior employee to ask a manager about next steps.
Often when someone is hired, they may demonstrate technical skills or they may possess “soft” skills, such as a knack for networking. It’s less common for a junior employee to have both technical skills and soft skills — so Colombo urges junior employees to cultivate that other skill set and tackle their weaknesses.
“People don’t need all the skills coming in,” says Colombo. “We will teach you the skills. What we’re looking for is the ‘will’” — in other words, the desire to learn and grow.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust likes to match up junior employees with a peer mentor — someone with a bit more experience that’s roughly at the same level.
The bank also combines classroom training (or Zoom sessions) with working shoulder-to-shoulder with a senior employee. For instance, the classroom training session might over some of the basics of customer service, combined with working side by side with a customer service rep as he or she interacts with a client.
Colombo encourages mid-career employees to look for “stretch opportunities” — which can mean getting involved in work groups, taking on responsibilities or training for management level jobs.
And, like a lot of banks, moving up at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust might mean a geographic change. The bank has branches across the three northern New England states, so the opportunity to, say, become a branch manager might mean a longer commute or even a move.
Often, she says, it’s a question of “how far you will reach.”
Machias Savings Bank: ‘Leadership doesn’t start with a title’
Machias Savings Bank, which has assets of $2.6 billion and 15 branches, says a number of managers got their start in “frontline” jobs working with customers.
“We believe leadership development doesn’t start with a title — it starts with how we train and support our frontline employees,” says Danielle Daley, chief human resources officer at Machias Savings Bank.
“They have access to a multitude of leadership development opportunities — both internally and externally. Many members of our management team started in frontline support of our customers. By combining strong operational training with early exposure to leadership responsibilities, we create a clear pathway from teller to manager. That’s how we grow talent from within and sustain our organization over time.”
Maine Community Bank: People-centric approach
Relationships are at the heart of the approach taken by Maine Community Bank.
Retail banking provides a strong foundation for career growth. Employees gain hands-on experience with customers, products and daily operations — taking on responsibilities that will propel them forward in their careers. They make decisions that have a direct impact on customers. Day-to-day experience is buttressed with classroom training, job shadowing and tuition reimbursement programs.
“Because so much of what we do is people-centric, it starts with hiring employees who value relationships. Our retail team members get to know customers by name and build trust over time, and reinforce the bank’s role as a reliable partner,” says Brian Robinson, director of human resources.
“Those relationships become even more important as employees take on greater responsibility and move into leadership roles, as many of our branch managers have done after starting in entry-level positions.”
The bank also looks for leadership characteristics, both in the hiring process and in decisions about promotions.
“We pay close attention to how individuals show initiative, support their teammates and handle customer interactions, as self-motivation, the ability to collaborate, sound judgment and a desire to learn are often the first indicators of future managers,” he says.
