Pros
Blessed with great clients and co-workers that truly care about providing great service and the right solution to our client's needs. Teammates tend to be more client-centric than the competition, which in this market is very good! Longer tenured "teammates" well versed in problem solving and looking outside the box for the appropriate solutions at a reasonable cost to our clients while not impacting the bottom line for the bank. Also been blessed with good lower level managers that keep the client first and understand our limitations.
Cons
Many areas working in silos. The "process" takes precedent over the results. Eliminating support staff at many levels has brought more operational work to the front office, taking time away from trying to grow the business. Senior Management's lack of a well defined game plan, including putting the necessary resources together to compete with larger and better equipped competitors, has kept us behind for years. Antiquated systems and a "process" for everything fills the day with drudgery that keeps Client Managers from becoming primarily calling officers and focusing on sales. Very high relationship load and management's refusal to understand relationship dynamics leads to low moral. No real sharing of "best practices" as a means to develop everyone's book of business, just a lot of the same old "sell, sell, sell." Employee Gallop surveys are more lip service to try and discover malcontents and have produced very little open and honest communication between "teammates" and Senior Management. In-house training in specialized areas is lacking the independence of recognized industry schools that deliver better knowledge in various trusts and charitable solutions.