Established bank, potentially a stepping stone. - Personal Banker II First Farmers Employee Review

The bank has overly restrictive policies that make it’s employee’s work very difficult. These strict policies often put employees who deal directly with consumers in negative situations. The bank has serious trouble getting rid of employees that continuously exhibit unprofessional and legally compromising behavior. The bank continuously has trouble hiring a relief pool to make day to day functions possible. The bank has a bad habit of skeleton staffing many of its branches, potentially to save money or lack of initiative in hiring. This makes daily operations tricky at best. The bank utilizes antiquated systems and limits employee access to them, this very often limits how successful an employee is in meeting a customers needs. The Training department is too small, and the amount of training given does not come close to fully preparing employees for the transactions/situations/responsibilities they face. Employees are often thrown to the wolves, then have to fend for themselves while they have to bog down other employees for advice and job training. The bank was at one point very active in all of the communities it served. The bank now makes all of its CRA sponsorships and lets everything else go by the wayside. Upward mobility is stunted frequently because the bank chooses to hire externally for positions, so if you don’t work for First Farmers there’s a good chance you’ll get a position over an employee.