Talent management continues to be a top concern for leaders; therefore, in this blog I’ll address ten talent management best practices. Let’s start by defining what talent management involves. I often hear that “talent is the most important asset in our organization.” But are you taking the necessary steps to attract the right talent, and then educate, encourage, and maintain your top talent?

Talent management is the umbrella that covers all aspects of taking care of your employees—your talent. Talent management includes the following components:

• Strategies to attract the right talent
• Education and training tools for all staff
• Established career paths
• Personal and professional development opportunities
• Mentoring relationships
• Leadership development plans, and
• Culture training based on your organization’s core values.

In this two-part blog, I’ll outline ten talent management best practices that can enhance your institution’s talent management program. Here are the first five talent management best practices:

1.      Updated Job Descriptions and Role Clarity

The very first step to formalize your talent management program is to create and update job descriptions for all positions in the organization. In the “Position Purpose”  section of your job descriptions, clarify the role of the position so the employee understands their job clearly. Include the organization’s core values so employees can identify if their personal core values align with the company’s. Clearly defined job descriptions for all positions is a strategy to attract the right talent.

2.      Current Organizational Design

With the current turnover ratios that institutions experience these days, you could update your organizational chart daily. However, that is not necessary. Ideally, you first create an organizational design based on functions. Then you create the org chart with the employees’ names that occupy each position. The two questions to answer are: Does our organizational design support our current business model? What changes are needed to ensure it supports the future needs of the institution? Update the org chart at least quarterly and ensure it’s available to all staff.

3.      Formal Performance Review Process

The lack of a formal performance review process results in a complete lack of accountability at all levels of an organization. There are many software solutions that automate the review process and save all documentation electronically – managers no longer need to complete review forms by hand. Yes, the process takes time, but it is foundational to retaining top talent in your company.

The best employee review processes have three simple steps: 1) Employee provides input into their own performance for the past twelve months (at least one week prior to the formal review meeting); 2) Employee and manager meet to discuss opportunities to grow and recognize accomplishments; 3) Employee takes ownership of his/her growth and provides manager with a plan to improve, grow, learn, etc. for the next year. Ensure the compensation and salary communication takes place in a separate meeting. Doing so will avoid the employee to want to get to the salary conversation right away.

4.      90-Day Check-In with New Hires and “Stay Interviews”

Attracting and retaining new talent is an ongoing challenge for most companies today. Conducting a 90-day check-in interview is one way to ensure new employees are integrating into your company’s culture and performing their jobs as agreed. It is also crucial to stay in touch with your existing staff and one way to do this is to conduct “stay interviews.” The purpose of these interviews is to discover any challenges employees may have within the organization. Many issues can be addressed through these informal meetings with your current team members.

5.      Provide Culture Training

Your company has an established culture. Can you define it in words? Does your culture reflect your core values? Do your employees know and can recite your core values? These are important questions to ask your leadership team. The first step to provide culture training is to ensure you define your top 3-5 core values and share them consistently with the entire staff. Reward those who exhibit and live out your company’s core values to encourage others to do the same. Your culture reflects how you do things “your company’s way.” You need to continually enhance your culture and protect it from bad influences once you achieve the culture you aspire to have in your organization.

I will address the next five best practices in Part 2 of this blog. I hope these five will get you started in enhancing your talent management program at your organization.

Are you looking for help with your talent management program? As always, we are here to help.

One of the biggest challenges Community Banks and Credit Unions face today is turning Treasury Management services from free to fee. Regardless of where our clients are within the U.S., they share a common frustration: bankers are giving the Treasury Management services away for free. It’s a “culture thing,” they tell me. We need to then change the culture by learning about TM services and valuing the depository side of the balance sheet.

If you have been given the monumental task to start, formalize, or “fix” your Treasury Management department, this blog is for you! Below are five steps you can take in the right direction:

Stop Waiving Fees!

The first step should be to simply stop waiving fees immediately. Stop the bleeding! Nobody expects to go to a grocery store and walk out with a free pound of best quality steak, just because the cashier chose to give it away for free. The same way, bankers should not give away these important and valuable services. Bankers should have a good business reason to give away a TM service and document the reason. I make the analogy to a “best quality steak” because TM services are very expensive services to provide, and you are missing a huge fee income opportunity. When I coached a client to quantify how much the $2 billion dollar institution was waiving on TM fees, the total came to $1 million dollars a year! Can you afford to give away this kind of money?

Educate Your Business Bankers on Treasury Management Services

It is imperative that business development officers obtain the proper training on all the available Treasury Management services your organization offers and possibly obtaining the Certified Treasury Professional designation. If your business model is to service small businesses and/or mid to large corporations, those businesses expect you to offer the more sophisticated banking services they need to run their businesses. If you expect to attract larger companies, then you must offer the depository products (the correct type of checking account that produces an Account Analysis Statement) and the Treasury Management services they typically use to help them manage their cash and streamline their operations.

Educate Your Business Clients on Treasury Management

Now that your business development officers understand the value of each TM service, they are ready to offer these services to your business clients. The same way they explain how the appropriate loan structure deserves a specific rate due to the risk exposure the institution carries, they should explain why there is a fee to use the right depository services. Incentivizing your sales team to sell TM services is perfectly appropriate if you want to compete for and attract larger businesses.

Understand and Embrace that TM Services Are Technology Services

It is crucial to understand and embrace that all the TM services your institution offers are, in fact, technology-based services. Therefore, you must support them as such. How do you support technology services? Start with keeping track of all the issues (“tickets”) related to each product. Track the resolution time and ensure complete customer satisfaction with the results—consistently. When you take this approach, then your customer service level will truly achieve “excellence” which is what every institution strives to provide.

It All Starts with The Tone at the Top

As with every strategic objective a Board of Directors plans to achieve, it all starts with the tone at the top regarding the TM services. The directive to formalize or start or develop your Treasury Management department must come from the Board. When your institution embraces the incredible value that each TM service provides to your commercial clients, there will be no question as to why you must charge for these services. You are now on your way to turning Treasury Management services from “free to fee.”

Community Banks and Credit Unions are in dire need to attract core deposits as a primary funding source and to increase non-interest fee income. Treasury Management is a “treasure” your institution must mine to not only provide your commercial clients top of the line TM services, but to also provide or increase your non-interest fee income.

Struggling with Treasury Management services and how they fit into your business service offerings? As always, we’re here to help. 

Looking for ideas to expand your Treasury Management reach to new business customers? Look into the TMClarity Framework, our comprehensive and transformative training and Treasury Management business management system that leads to greater sales success, higher margins, and increased customer retention in a competitive marketplace.