The “war for talent” remains a defining challenge in banking. More than 25 years after McKinsey coined the term, institutions still struggle to attract, develop, and retain top executives in a fiercely competitive market. One expert advises banks to confront talent gaps head-on by investing in leadership development, clear career paths, and a strong culture. Those that do, he says, will be best positioned to succeed in the years ahead.
Where are your bank’s most critical talent shortages? How are you addressing them? Have you expanded training programs to reduce reliance on external hires? What’s working, and where do gaps remain?
At CFSB, we provide training opportunities through multiple channels, including ICBA professional development planner that can be customized to meet each individual team member. We also have monthly awards recognizing Client service and Operations MVP nominated by their peers. All nominations are submitted and available in our weekly newsletter and announced in our CEO address that is recorded and shared with our team weekly. Our bank was the recent winner of Best places to work in Kentucky in the medium class division, and each team member was given an extra two days of PTO for helping us win the award, along with a cash bonus. We provide leadership training monthly for all our team leaders of each department as well as outside seminars that we encourage them to attend that the bank will pay for such as Live to Lead, Global leadership and many others. We continue to look for ways to build stronger leaders within our bank and promote from within when possible. Getting quality talent that meets our expectations is challenging, so keeping them with us, is critical to our success.