How to market your community bank as an employer

Your bank isn’t the same place that it was in February 2020, and your hiring strategy shouldn’t be the same, either. While many factors are making it harder than ever to recruit, hire and train the best people, there are some surefire marketing strategies that are delivering solid results for community banks all across the country. 

These employers are tossing out preconceived notions about job requirements and looking at brand-new kinds of candidates. They’re finding better ways to remind everyone—including prospects—of their community focus. And they’re paying close attention to the data to help them formulate the right hiring and retention strategies.

Community banks that market themselves as authentically good places to work can find that the overall hiring experience is easier. Hiring better candidates and maintaining employee satisfaction levels can create a virtuous circle in which your employees reach out to friends and refer them for open positions, contributing to a culture of success for your bank.

“In a tight market, you need to look outside the box of your typical candidate profile. Yes, [baby boomers might] have more experience than you need for the role, but from their view, it might be a win-win.”

—Valerie Utsey, ICBA

Fewer workers overall

Valerie Utsey, ICBA’s EVP, chief human resources officer, understands how the changing employment landscape still presents a significant challenge for many community banks.

“Even before the pandemic, economists were projecting labor shortages by 2030,” she says. “Add that to an increasing number of losses during the Great Resignation, and a number of baby boomers who opted out of the job market, and you have a gap created by sheer numbers.”

Here’s what Utsey recommends to help with your employment marketing efforts:

• Look at the data. First, review the numbers. “Using data allows you to be more proactive, instead of having to be reactive when someone quits,” Utsey says. “As an example, look at your average turnover in a department or position or across the organization. Ask yourself, ‘What’s the average turnover? Do certain departments have higher turnover? Are you losing more of a certain demographic than another?’ Then use that data to help make changes. You might observe that the highest turnover is when someone has been with the bank for two years, so implement some programs to address that.” You might implement an increased number of touchpoints at the two‑year mark to check in or suggest different lateral moves within your bank to keep more seasoned employees challenged and engaged.

• Open your doors wider. “In a tight market, you need to look outside the box of your typical candidate profile,” Utsey says. For example, consider baby boomers who might be open to part-time teller positions. “Yes, they have more experience than you need for the role, but from their view, it might be a win-win.” On the other side of the age spectrum, consider starting or enhancing an internship program for college students. “Even after they return to campus, they might be able to work remotely,” she says.

• Tell your story. “Especially among the younger generation, it’s important to work for a place that’s deeply involved in the community,” Utsey notes. If you’re doing good things, don’t be shy about getting the word out. She adds, “I’ve noticed some banks that devote most of their websites’ career pages to reflecting what they and their employees are doing in the community.”
  

Understand potential candidates

Most employers focus on the hiring interview as a chance to get to learn more about a candidate. But interviewees are also using that time to look at the bank, the people in it and the way it treats them. 

“We’ve found that the way we engage with prospective talent, how we pay attention and actively listen to their goals and being honest and transparent throughout the process has served us very well,” says Christie Gunderson, senior vice president of people at $1.8 billion-asset IncredibleBank in Wausau, Wis. 

“We make it a priority to understand factors driving the talent market, as well as to understand the needs of our employees once we bring them on.”

—Christie Gunderson, IncredibleBank

“We’ve had to challenge ourselves to think differently, and we’ve put in a lot of work into hiring and retention the last few years,” she says, noting that the community bank’s efforts have been successful. “We ended last year with an average of 36 days to fill open positions and a 95% average retention rate.”

Looking at the interview and hiring process from potential hires’ perspective can be a significant factor for success. “Developing our brand in the talent market, what we’ve found to be key is how we make prospective candidates feel throughout the ‘get to know us’ phase, which is something that ties back to our core values,” Gunderson says. “We make it a priority to understand factors driving the talent market, as well as to understand the needs of our employees once we bring them on.”

Smart social

For Emily Mays, vice president, chief administrative officer and senior marketing director at $185 million-asset Community Spirit Bank in Red Bay, Ala., a smart social media strategy that showcases an authentic voice is a good foundation for effective hiring. 

“We rely heavily on our social media presence to tell our brand story, which in turn makes us a bank of choice and employer of choice,” she says. “We’re deeply devoted to the communities we serve, so we actively engage with initiatives that help our communities thrive.

“We consistently try to share who we are as a brand on social media, so when people start looking at potentially applying, they already have a sense of who we are,” Mays adds. “We make it a point to regularly share about bank life and bank culture, because that establishes a familiarity that people respond to when we do have positions available.”

Mays has gotten real-time feedback on the effectiveness of those messages. 

“New hires might say, ‘I’ve followed your bank for years because I love all the fun you have at Christmas or the annual Halloween contest,’” she says. “If they’re seeing our content, it means our job postings are also getting views, we’re positively sharing our bank culture and it’s translating in the way we want it to.”

When openings do arise, Mays already has a plan in place. “Job postings are advertised on all of our social channels,” she says. “Plus, you really do need to pay-to-play and boost your ads, because gone are the days when you could rely solely on organic reach.”

She adds, “These paid ads are a regular part of the marketing budget now.”