BMO US reviews

Leadership says to leave if you aren’t happy. There is zero opportunities to move up unless you move to Chicago. Wages are well below area average.

As a bank, they're very focused on revenue and invest more in departments that can quantify sales and income. For those of us working in roles that are not sales, it's often hard to prove how much we benefit the overall company. The work we do in my particular department is vital in capturing revenue from treasury management services and sales, so while we don't work on the front lines making the sales and contracts, we're at the other end making sure we can collect the money from the sales. And, because upper management isn't entirely sure or familiar with the entire scope of our function, they don't see the need in providing us a lot of support. They're resistant to hiring replacements, as they are under the impression we can streamline processes and eliminate the need for those roles. As more of our senior team members retire, the work load will end up on the shoulders of those left behind. They're also very slow to invest in updated technology and tools to help us get our jobs done. We're still operating on Windows 7 and my computer is 7 years old. Updates roll out very infrequently. We've been promised new PCs and laptops for about 3 years now, still waiting. Considering how quickly technology is updated and evolving, it's hard to work efficiently when your PC runs slow as molasses. The company merge between M&I and Harris into BMO was very rocky, and still to this day we continue to have outdated processes. Many departments are still trying to function the way we did prior to the merge, and this has presented a problem with process improvement. It's a problem between not having the tech and access to software tools that would facilitate change, as well as redistribution of job duties and reorganizing team structure. Many departments, like mine, are still reliant on paper and haven't been able to transition to paperless. Many departments, like mine, do not have ticketing systems/software for processing requests, so it's harder to trace requests. Because many departments, like mine, have not been given access or authorization to the ticketing systems that are out there and available to other departments. The overall bank is hesitant to issue licensing of software to more business units because of the cost. So, when they cut corners, the rest of us are stuck trying to make due with what we have. They expect us to work on process improvement and function with fewer employees but they won't invest in providing us the tools because of things like licensing costs. I've applied at several positions within the company, and expressed interest in two other positions within my department, and haven't had any movement or change. My managers really appreciate the quality work I do where I currently am, so they're afraid of losing me from that role. Hence, why I can't move around. I'm stuck because they won't invest in cultivating more skills in their other employees. Also during the trifecta merge of M&I-BMO-Harris in 2011-2012, legacy employees were afraid of being culled in layoffs, so everything was hush-hush to hide weaknesses. Now we've got some employees who have no interest in learning anything new and just want to skate by until retirement, so they haven't developed new skills or taken on new tasks, while the young eager ones are picking up the slack and speeding into burnout.