Forget the classifieds. Banks are turning to increasingly creative means to attract job candidates, such as mobile billboards, cinema ads and 24-hour hotlines.
The low U.S. unemployment rate – which has hovered at or below 4.5 percent for the last 27 months – has made it difficult to fill jobs at the teller line and at the lending desk. Despite recent mergers in the Massachusetts market, many banks have to work harder than ever to attract qualified candidates.
“Banking is a far less glamorous industry than it had been in the past,” said Nancy Huntington Stager, senior vice president of human resources for Eastern Bank, based in Boston. “A lot of people are leaving banking entirely and going into other industries in the area.”
Mutual fund firms, investment banks and high-tech companies have become popular destinations for new finance and accounting graduates, Stager said. To compete with these industries, banks have tried new advertising methods and adopted more flexible work schedules. Even State Street Bank and Trust Co., one of the oldest companies in Boston’s Financial District, has placed radio advertisements selling the company’s casual work environment. Companies like Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Bank have started sabbatical programs for employees, and are paying more attention to quality-of-life issues like childcare and family leave.
‘Shotgun Approach’
Because Fleet Bank and BankBoston instituted nine-month hiring freezes after announcing they would merge last year, the number of employees was reduced through attrition. This staggered approach has helped reduce layoffs, said Tim Keefe, recruiting manager and banking specialist for Robert Half in Boston. When employees left during the hiring freeze, managers could not replace them on a permanent basis.
“That created a number of openings in all of these organizations,” Keefe said. “Organizations I’m talking to are all looking for professional people in lending-type capacities.”
Eastern Bank moved its headquarters from Lynn to Boston earlier this month, moving employees from outlying offices to its location at 53 State St. The establishment of a Boston office has made it easier to hire employees who live on the South Shore, Stager said. Eastern has also interviewed Fleet employees at the bank’s transition assistance center.
To fill job openings at the bank, employees have moved between departments that once had strong boundaries, Stager said. Workers have shifted from retail banking to commercial lending, or even traded jobs within the company. At one Eastern Bank branch two employees share the job of branch manager.
“Any organization that’s working to serve the public has to be able to have the people there to perform the service,” Stager said. “It’s just vital for us to get good people.”
To lure new workers, it is necessary to use many recruiting sources at once, Stager said. Instead of placing a classified ad and waiting for responses, the bank holds job fairs and prints invitations on customer deposit tickets. In addition to developing relationships with local high schools and colleges, Eastern has advertised on mobile billboards, cable television, movie screens and a coupon company.
“Now we have to do more of a shotgun approach and try a number of things at one time,” Stager said. “Otherwise the length of time to fill a job extends longer than you can tolerate.”
Citizens Bank of Massachusetts employed Gustin Advertising to develop recruitment ads. The bank has advertised on MBTA buses and subways, and this month placed a help wanted ad for tellers and sales associates on MBTA passes. Similar ads have appeared on billboards and on movie screens in local theaters.
The bank has handed out cards with the number for a 24-hour job hotline at busy subway stations in Boston and at branch open houses. The hotline has allowed the bank to draw a greater pool of candidates and to conduct pre-screening over the phone before meeting a candidate in person, said Donna Sosnowski, the bank’s senior vice president for human resources.
“As banks have consolidated, many of the senior people have retired and moved on,” Sosnowski said. “We’re all searching for the same kind of people and have a much smaller labor market to pull from.”
Citizens Bank of Massachusetts had more than 100 job postings on monster.com last week. Branch managers, commercial lenders, and cash management and international banking candidates are particularly hard to find, Sosnowski said. To help fill those jobs, the bank has started management development and credit training programs. While these programs were common a decade ago, they disappeared as banks consolidated and cut jobs. Next week the bank will begin a management development program for 20 people with retail experience.
“We’ve targeted people with a retail background that are interested in a career,” Sosnowski said. “We’ll train people in banking and give them skills they need to be successful as branch managers, and within a year put them in branch positions.”
A group of Boston financial institutions joined together last year to form the Financial Services Academy at the New England College of Finance. The program trained 156 people in its first year, and placed 86 percent of those in jobs. The retention of graduates is more than 90 percent, said NECF Executive Director Bob Regan.
Community agencies refer students to the program, which provides three weeks of training in workplace protocol, financial skills and customer service. Last year, 90 percent of the students were ethnic minorities or recent immigrants, and 75 percent identified English as their second language. The average age of the group was 34.
“Companies have discovered that it doesn’t take a college degree to do this entry-level work that they have,” Regan said.
In the fall, the college will launch an information technology track with Northeastern University to train financial industry employees for technology jobs. Regan expects call center employees to go through the program.
“Once you train them and they become a valuable resource, you don’t want them to walk out the door,” Regan said. “The real upside opportunities here are in the IT part of the business.”
‘Big Demand’
If the tight labor market has made it hard for banks to find entry-level workers, it is even harder to find qualified candidates for professional posts. At the end of the banking crisis in 1992, a bank could advertise for a chief executive officer, chief financial officer or senior lender post, and receive as many as 100 resumes, said Will Sheehan of the Duxbury consulting firm W.M. Sheehan. One-third of the applicants might be reasonably qualified, and the bank could quickly pick a small group of finalists. Now banks may receive only 10 applications for a similar job.
Mergers and the resulting job cuts do not provide enough workers to help banks meet their staffing needs, Sheehan said.
“It’s not the answer in that, although some people might get shaken loose, there is still a real big demand for the high-powered talent,” Sheehan said. “When banks merge they frequently don’t shake loose their best people.”
The entry of Sovereign Bank New England into the region has created opportunities for some bankers displaced by mergers. Chief Executive Officer John P. Hamill’s worked for Shawmut Bank when Fleet acquired it and moved to Boston.
“Sovereign Bank has hired a number of executives, and a lot of them seem to have ties back to the old Shawmut Corp.,” said recruiter Keefe.
As banks compete for top talent, a number of executives have moved to new companies and taken colleagues with them. Keefe has seen managers change banks and take seven or 10 employees to the new job.
“More than likely they’re going across the street to do a similar job,” Keefe said, so banks have to give incentives like signing bonuses or pay increases.
While competition and counter offers may drive pay up, Sheehan’s annual compensation survey shows that industry salaries have increased less than 1 percent. Sheehan will release the Massachusetts compensation survey next month.
Because the business of banking has changed, banks expect more from their job candidates, such as management and financial planning skills, Sheehan said.
