Bank Compensation Trends

Another year is in the records books and by all accounts our industry has a lot to be thankful for, and a lot to look forward to regardless of what is out there circulating. Most of you should have your Strategic Compensation strategies locked in, if so great. If not, we wanted to share some things happening in the market that could impact your retention and compensation strategies:

Mortgage Lenders and Commercial Lenders are not treated the same with noncompete agreements and non-solicit agreements.  We will not talk about why that is, other than to say be careful with selective implementation. If you ask one select group to sign an agreement and do not hold other people to the same requirement you could have trouble defending that if you get pulled into a battle. Most of these cases never see the inside of a court room. The trend we expect to see is more widespread use with tighter and more restrictive covenants. For more advice talk to an Attorney. Mortgage compensation plans out racing out of control.

Platform (Teller) Trends-there are a couple of interesting developments with compensation, titles, and incentives. More of our community bank clients are moving toward a “Universal Banker” title with more focus on education and training.  Many of our clients have struggled here with extremely high turnover. The banks that shifted to an incentive and education focus are reducing what used to be the highest turnover area into the lowest resulting in happier people, and happier customers.  Your credit union counterparts are actively recruiting your frontline bankers, be sure to have an attractive plan.

Stock, and options continue to be a key component in attracting candidate and could ease the burden in walking away from a February incentive payout.

Change in Control Agreements are a great way to entice, attract and retain high performing employees. We expect these agreements to be more widely used in the coming year, and we could start to see them used more generously at the SVP level, or with selected superstar employees.

This is a sampling of compensation trends we expect to see in the future. For more information on any of these areas, or if you need specific help be sure to reach out to our team for a confidential conversation.