Beyond the Buzzword: Culture in Community Banking Today

Nancy Ozawa (00:06): Hello and welcome to Banking Out Loud, a podcast where we have candid conversations and deliver insights into banking topics that you care about the most. I'm your host, Nancy Ozawa, and today we're gonna talk about culture. How is it really created? How do you sustain it at your institution? And for our listeners, some of you ambitious middle managers, how do you understand culture and maybe use it as a lever to become a future executive leader? I think I've mentioned to my guest today, but I recently held some CEO round tables and we were talking about the future of our industry. And interesting enough, every single one of them, their first concern was culture. They wanted to know how do you maintain it? How does that work with remote work? How does that work with, uh, mergers and acquisitions? When you add more branches, how do you keep and retain them? (01:00): So today we're gonna kinda delve into that particular topic a little bit more deeply and understand some of the challenges. So I've invited two guests. Uh, let me start with my first one, Megan Peltier, who is the EVP and Chief Operations and People Officer at HomeTrust Bank. Megan, do you wanna just get a little bit of an introduction about yourself? Megan Pelletier (01:22): Sure. I'd be happy to. Thanks for having me on, Nancy. I appreciate it. And I'm excited to talk about culture and what we've done at HomeTrust. Um, a little bit about my background, I have really spent over 20 years in banking and financial services. I actually began my career in the commercial side of the bank as a loan assistant and have held various roles in human resources and operations and commercial banking. At several different banks, I joined HomeTrust in 2022 as their chief people officer and really was charged with helping reestablish the culture here. And in 23, my role also expanded to lead operations. So in addition to human resources and corporate learning, I get to lead our project management, bank operations, and loan operations teams. Nancy Ozawa (02:21): A lot of duties under one hat, huh? Megan Pelletier (02:23): Yeah. Nancy Ozawa (02:24): Well, perfect. And my second guest is our very own PCB, Crystal Hassan, who is the SVP of human resources. Crystal, do you wanna give a little bit of background about yourself as well? Crystal Hasan (02:36): Yeah. I'm excited to be part of this podcast. I always enjoy listening to it, so thanks for, for having me. So I have been in HR for almost 20 years. My entire career has been in HR. I've actually just recently gone into the banking industry, entering into PCB, but I have done every industry under the sun, whether that is, um, medical. So worked for a hospital, did union contracts, worked for a nuclear weapons facility. Um, I've worked for ADP, but all industries are alike when it comes to human resources. Really, what matters the most is the people, um, which is my passion. So it was very exciting to be able to join PCB in 2021. So almost a year after the pandemic had started, um, we were already fully remote, which was different for PCVB in its entirety. So anything from the culture, engagement, benefits, development, um, anything to do with the people and to ensure that they have what they need in order to be impactful to our customers. Nancy Ozawa (03:43): Fabulous. Thank you. You both have a wealth of experience, so I, I think this is gonna be a very interesting discussion. But let's get listeners on the same page, because when people hear the word culture, we really can't put your arms around it, doesn't make money. They're not sure what it is, I guess is really a better way to say it. So let's start with just trying to define it. What is culture? Let me just ask one of you to define the, the framework of this for our listeners. Megan Pelletier (04:10): You know, I think as HR practitioners, we're often taught what culture is. Um, right? We're given a definition where it's really the rituals and the practices and the artifacts of the people that make up an institution, a company, a community. Um, but I think of it, there's one more piece of it, and that's the behaviors. So we have our stories, but all of that is driven from the behaviors. How do we treat one another? Um, how do we act? How should we expect to be treated? And to me, that's really a key component of when we're thinking about defining culture, what are the behaviors that we expect of our individuals, um, that make up our organization? Crystal Hasan (04:55): Yeah. Um, to piggyback off of that, it's exactly that is how do we act when no one else is watching, especially from the remote aspect, you know, you're not visible to management as often and you really have to make sure that you're being intentional in your actions and fulfilling your duties and just making sure that you're a good partner, both internally and externally. Um, I think that's the biggest piece of, of the culture is just the overall integrity of oneself. Nancy Ozawa (05:23): Okay. Perfect. Some of the listeners might be managing their teams and how do they know they've got a good culture within their team? They've got a good culture in their company. Megan, I know you've spent a lot of time doing this recently, but do you wanna attack that particular question and help the listener? Megan Pelletier (05:41): Yeah. I mean, I think you have to have an understanding of the baseline, right? And, and you only get that understanding by asking questions and being open to the feedback that you receive. Um, so, you know, for me, one way of doing that is the old-fashioned way, right? You're just asking people, "Tell me about what your experience is like working here." Mm-hmm. What are, what goes well, what are challenges, that sort of thing. A more formal way of doing that is through something like an employee engagement survey or a pulse survey, and that's a great way to get that baseline with consistent questions that are asked to everybody in the organization. You know, I think what Crystal said was, you know, how do you know if you have a good culture or maybe not so, so great a culture? Um, how are people acting and treating one another when nobody is looking? (06:38): And I think really understanding where you potentially have friction in your organization is important. And I think there's absolutely, um, unhealthy friction, and you can find that out through those surveys or asking people. If there's infighting, if there's politicking, if there's the inability to collaborate, that's an indicator that you have unhealthy friction in your organization versus healthy friction when you've really built a foundation of trust and people can challenge one another and collaborate together and there's teamwork. Um, to me, the type of friction you have is often an indicator of the culture that you've built and whether it's good or maybe, I hate to use the word dad, so maybe need some, need some improvement. Improvement? Nancy Ozawa (07:27): Yeah. You know, and one thing that I do when I'm interviewing a candidate and they always ask us, you know, "What's the culture at your company?" I always ask my team members, "What did you do to answer that question?" And then if we get the same answers, then I think we're all a little bit more connected and it's more of a uniform culture. And if I find that we're answering it differently, that just to me is a real quick assessment of my team, if you wish. Mm-hmm. Is that the right way to do it? Megan Pelletier (07:56): Well, I think it's a great way to do it. I don't know that there's necessarily a right way or a wrong way. Yeah. I do think a little bit of it depends on what the expectation is from the top down- mm-hmm. ... of what the culture is. So if you think the culture is, you know, team-based and collaborative and you have, um, the ability to speak straight and have an open door policy and your team doesn't know that, then that's an opportunity, especially if they're not saying that in an interview, to get clear on expectations and ensure that they're aligned with the culture that you're striving to build. Nancy Ozawa (08:38): Okay. Perfect. Crystal, is there anything else that you've seen you've been in outside of banking as well, so any other pieces you might add into knowing when you've got that good Crystal Hasan (08:49): Culture? Yeah, I think just to, to add to the engagement surveys, I think that is a really great way to ask the, really the candidate pointed questions, right? And what you're trying to, to solve for and the feedback that you're trying to get. The other side of that is also, okay, well, now you got the feedback, what now? I think the other side of that is, you know, to create the action plan behind, um, you know, the questions that came back and perhaps were not rated as great. Um, and really just putting into action and being transparent and having conversations with department managers, which then, you know, as, as Megan mentioned, it comes from the top down. Each department manager should be responsible to say, "Hey, this is what we heard from you guys. Let me ask the question," which I think, Nancy, you do a great job at, you know, asking those questions and, you know, asking your employees, "How do you define culture, um, to get a good pulse check?" Nancy Ozawa (09:42): Yeah, that's very good points of being transparent with the results and actually taking action upon them. Um, Megan, you and I had talked about something recently at HomeTrust where you guys had brought in, uh, an agency to kind of define your culture or make it more explicit, I would say. Can you talk a little bit more about that? 'Cause I find that story was very engaging, I'm sure our listeners would as well. Megan Pelletier (10:04): Yes, absolutely. Happy to. Um, I love talking about this. So, um, so four years ago, we were going through an organizational shift. Um, I had not yet joined the company, but there was, um, a succession plan in place. So our president was becoming the new CEO of the company. Um, at this year, we're a hundred year old bank, and so four years ago, we were 96 years old, and Hunter Westbrook, who's our CEO, he said, "We have got to do a culture refresh, right? It, the time is now to sort of reset the expectations of how we are going to behave and treat one another in this organization." So we worked with a third party called High Performing Culture, David Friedman, he also wrote a book, Culture by Design, and his company came in and they worked with a cross-functional group of employees from all different parts of the organization to really define what we wanted the culture to be and, and a little bit of what it already was at HomeTrust. (11:12): So we actually came up with 33 culture fundamentals, which sounds like a lot. That was my reaction the day I joined and was told about this. That's a lot. Um, and they're all behavior based. And then, uh, week two of my employment with HomeTrust, we actually did a roadshow to roll out these new culture fundamentals. So, um, the CEO and I, we hit the road, we traveled to all of our markets over the course of a week. We closed our branches for half a day, so we were able to bring people together in person. Since COVID, that was one of the first times a lot of people had been together in person in a large group, and we just communicated very clearly during that rollout the importance of what this meant to Home Trust, and the expectation we had of people moving forward. And I think, you know, just going on that roadshow and closing the branches was an indicator of the importance. (12:17): And so after we did the roadshow, we really began integrating those 33 culture fundamentals into everyday life at the bank. So we actually feature a different fundamental every single week. We post it on our intranet. Um, usually an employee within the bank does a video, they reflect on that fundamental and what it means to them or how they incorporate it into their lives. And then we begin every single internal meeting that week that has three or more people, we talk about the fundamental of the week. Um, we've incorporated into performance reviews and because these are behaviors, we want to ensure that our leaders really do lead by example. And so, you know, it's been, it's been four years and what I can say is it's been so transformative to our organization. It is really part of the vernacular of the organization. I've already referenced many of our fundamentals as we've talked today, and it's because they're behavior-based, and so they make sense to people, and I think people can make a connection with them easily, and they've certainly infiltrated my life. (13:31): My kids know them. I refer to them all the time. I think my teenage son is tired of me telling him to look ahead and anticipate, uh, but it, it really is, it's that easy. And so I think that the fact that we were incredibly intentional in developing these 33 fundamentals and how we rolled it out, and then the continuous reinforcement of the fundamentals every single day has really helped them stick. And to your point, it's from the day a candidate applies. They should understand what the fundamentals are here and how important and integrated they are in our lives here. Nancy Ozawa (14:10): Well, Megan, can you give an example, because you mentioned a behavior based, and I thought one of them was something like, "Do the right thing." Yeah. But can you list off a few of them that might just kind of shed a little bit more light of what you mean by a fundamental value? Megan Pelletier (14:23): Oh, yeah, absolutely. Um, number one is do the right thing always. That's one of our bookmarks, um, that number 33, the other bookend is keep things fun. Okay. (14:36): But we have a lot in between. We have look ahead and anticipate, we have speak straight, we have work on yourself, collaborate, listen generously. So a lot of these things are things we were all taught as children, but often I think lose sight of in the corporate world, and it's really how we explain it to our employees and to candidates is the thing that guides our fundamentals is when employees show up to work, those fundamentals should tell them exactly how they should expect to be treated and how they should expect to treat others. So we really use those fundamentals as a guiding force in really how we run the bank. Nancy Ozawa (15:20): What is the end result? Have you guys seen a decrease in turnover or other kinds of metrics that really kind of helps to quantify this? Megan Pelletier (15:29): Yes. We've absolutely seen tangible factors. We've seen a significant decrease in turnover. We've seen an increase in retention. One of our strategic goals was to become a high performing bank from a financial perspective. Um, obviously that wasn't just done through the fundamentals, but the fundamentals were a factor in becoming a high performing bank. Our strategy to get there was through an engaged workforce and a strong culture. And so what we've seen every single year since these fundamentals were rolled out was we'd see a significant increase and improvement in our employee engagement scores. We have been awarded many best place to work, recognitions nationally and regionally, and we've become a high performing institution. And so all of those things, you know, again, does it all tie back to the culture? I couldn't just pinpoint that, but I believe that resetting the culture, reframing it, and really ensuring it was part of our everyday life here has had an incredibly positive impact on how the bank has performed and how our employees engage with the work that they do here. Crystal Hasan (16:51): Yeah. I love what you just shared and, and it's, everything's relatable. Like you said, everything's behavioral based. And regardless if it's a fresh grad, straight out of college or somebody who's been working for 20 years, like that is such an aligned behavior that you can easily cross between in the different generations. And I think that's a, a really wonderful way that you guys, you know, really engage the culture and to speak the same language. Nancy Ozawa (17:17): Absolutely. Now, Crystal, do you wanna touch on ours because, you know, to that point of refreshing, you know, we went through COVID and we had a significant change in terms of how we work together, um, not so much in person. Do you wanna kinda touch on a little bit of our story? Crystal Hasan (17:35): Yeah. So, um, I mean, we've been around since 97. Um, there's been some operations that have been, you know, always remote and that's more or less our sales team has always been remote. Once COVID took place, you know, we really entered into this remote workforce, um, and that was certainly an evolution of change within our organization. It really was already such a close-knit partnership and group within the company when they were in person. And so the shift to remote was while it was convenient and a need to have, it certainly did have its challenges as far as making sure that we were still cohesive and operating to the full capacity. Um, a refresh that we just recently did that Nancy, you know, was referring to is we refreshed our mission statement. We created value statements, um, in order to really try to bring together a nationwide group of employees. (18:35): So we're in over 26 states, you have 122 employees from all over the country is really just trying to make sure that we're aligning. So we have six values, um, rather than the 33, but it's really just talking about, you know, like, how do we evolve? How do we empower each other? How are we empathetic and, and being able to make sure that we're able to listen and to have that healthy conflict and conversation. Um, but really the top has to be really involved and at the forefront of, of all of the statements and what we believe and who we are. We've rolled it out to the entire company. We have a part of our intranet, we've done different engagements, uh, activities around our values, and just really trying to reemphasize of, of who we are. We do incorporate it into our performance reviews, um, but it's really been a nice refresh of, you know, getting everybody on the same page and all speaking the same language and ensuring that we're all taking care of each other and then our customers. Nancy Ozawa (19:36): It sounds like you both kind of came in just after these processes were started. So there's some similarities between your stories, but I also like the concept of a refresh. You know, I think some people think that you have to keep the culture you've got rather than maybe doing a refresh or reexamining, um, what it is that we all have in our head, but we're making it a lot more intentional and be a little more explicit of what that culture is. Crystal Hasan (20:00): And I think it's easy to, you know, be status quo, do your day-to-day job, but as we've evolved and grown over the years, um, you have to stop and slow down and make sure you're intentional on that refresh. You know, the times have changed, your employee base has changed, um, the generations have changed so much that you have to make sure that you stop, pause, does this still work? Most likely not if it's been, you know, 10, 15 years, now we have to do a refresh. Nancy Ozawa (20:31): Absolutely. Now you touched on generations and I, I'm thinking about the younger age cohorts that are coming in and they act different. They've got different values, they handle finances different. Do you find that there's anything different that they want in their culture than, say, the older generations? Megan Pelletier (20:49): I think what's amazing ... I mean, I really like to think of myself as a younger worker, but I realize I'm not. Nancy Ozawa (20:57): Or young at heart. Yeah, Megan Pelletier (20:58): That's right. And I, I hate to really, you know, generalize based on generation, but I think what's been amazing about the younger worker and the younger generation that's entering the workforce is that they have challenged us to think differently. We were probably all brought up to, you know, you come to work, you put your head down, you do a good job, and you'll be rewarded in time. I'm not sure I ever even knew to ask about the culture of an organization, probably until I was well into my 30s. And I think what this younger generation has challenged us to do because they've asked is, you know, think about what is the work environment like? What is the culture like? Are we being thoughtful about benefits? Are we being thoughtful about supporting the whole person coming to work? How are we interacting with one another? How are we serving our communities? (21:59): I mean, that's a big part of being a community bank. And that challenge has been maybe uncomfortable at times, but I truly believe it's making us better because to Crystal's point, we've, you know, we've had to reevaluate and we've had to make some changes, um, in order to remain competitive, but it's made us better. Crystal Hasan (22:22): Yeah. And I think all generations want the same thing. Um, they want stability, they want connection, they want transparency, they want consistency. Um, I think it's just how it's delivered, regardless if you're remote or not remote, right? Like you have to want to get up and go to work every day. Um, and I think what PCDB also does really well is we are very intentional in making sure that, you know, we have our standing meetings, we have our regular one-on-ones. I think that's a value of any generation is just to make sure that they have the feedback and they have the conversations, the communication, the growth, the development. We do get together annually. Um, we do encourage our other departments to bring in their team members. I, in particular, have one of my employees local to me. I am in California. Um, so it's easy for her and I to connect, but I am intentional on making sure my employee in Arizona also flies in during, uh, two separate periods of time during the year. (23:25): Um, so we make sure our employees are able to get together because it does matter to have that connection. Nancy Ozawa (23:32): Let me dive a little bit deeper into that remote work because I know I've talked to a lot of people recently. Some are completely remote. Uh, some are hybrid, um, and then some of them are in person most of the time. So Megan, are there any of your employees that are more in that hybrid type of a position or even more on the remote side of that balance? Megan Pelletier (23:54): Yes. We have a handful of employees that are fully remote. Um, the majority of our employees are hybrid. Um, and, and because we do believe that flexibility is really a form of currency in a way. So what we launched, I would say it was sort of a soft return to office because so many people were already coming back to the office on their own, but about 18 months ago, we, we said, "The expectation is unless you have been hired to work fully remote, we would like you to come into the office a minimum of three days a week. You choose, you work with your manager, right? We're all grownups." Um, but the one ask we had was that we were making Tuesdays an anchor day. Tuesdays at our organization are called No Meeting Tuesdays. Um, and so that's really a day where we want people to connect and we've encouraged leaders to do things on those days. (24:58): You know, maybe once a month you bring in lunch or you bring in breakfast or it's just a, "Hey, bring your own and we're all gonna sit together and eat." So, um, and we had very little pushback when we rolled that out. I think because of the flexibility and saying, "You figure it out, it might look different for you week to week, you work on it with your manager." Um, from that, we had, we've had no attrition. We didn't have anyone say, "You're making me come back in three days a week." Um, and I think, you know, just really, again, trusting people and ensuring that there's communication that if that doesn't work for a particular reason, they have the ability to talk with their manager and work through those issues. Nancy Ozawa (25:42): So the new, no meeting Tuesday is to be able to not have meetings, but, but still have time that you invest in the team to create those stronger connections. Is that right? Megan Pelletier (25:53): That's right. The intent behind it is let's be meaningful about the collaboration we have with one another on Tuesdays and also you might be able to dig out and do the work you can do when you're. Crystal Hasan (26:06): I do have a question on that. Um, for you guys to implement this no meeting Tuesday, did it come from a result of a survey? Did people feel that they were in multiple meetings or maybe requested this day of no meetings? Megan Pelletier (26:20): Yes, we have received feedback. It didn't come through our employee engagement survey, but, you know, as feedback does, it filters through the organization. And I think, quite frankly, even the executive team, we were all feeling that crunch crystal of you're in back-to-back meetings all day long, you don't have time to eat, you don't have time to get a drink. And then when, where's the space where the actual work is happening because it's not always happening in the meetings. And so we put our heads together because I think what people were starting to do was, "I'm gonna block my calendar for half the day on Friday, or I'm gonna block my calendar all day on Wednesday." And we said, "What if we were really intentional about it? " And we recognize that this is a challenge in the organization as a team, we're gonna solve for this together and we're gonna give everybody some space. Nancy Ozawa (27:12): Right. That's great. Now, you mentioned you do have a handful of fully remote people. Mm-hmm. Uh, so I'm thinking about a listener who is in more of that setting. Is there any kind of practices that either one of you would recommend so that the fully remote person still feels like part of the culture, especially if they're on a team that maybe some of them are in person and some of them are remote. What would you tell to the manager of that kind of a team? Megan Pelletier (27:41): My number one tip, it sounds like Crystal probably has a whole bunch in her in her arsenal because you're all remote, but my number one is we've also set the standard that we're gonna be on camera. Um, I think just the ability to read body language, to know if somebody's engaged or not, to know what emotion they are, are exuding is important. And then when we have a mixed group of folks that are maybe some in person and some, um, remote or just geographically dispersed, quite frankly, um, being thoughtful about if you have a group of people meeting in a conference room and the rest are on camera, that you're really thoughtful about what's the chatter around the table and is that the time for one group to be sort of in a conference room or does it make sense for everyone to be in their office or at their cube, um, on a Teams meeting and then you save that in- person connection for all the folks that can be there? Nancy Ozawa (28:47): Okay. Great. Great points. Kristen. Crystal Hasan (28:50): It's really just making sure that the management and the employee are really intentional on making sure that they're meeting, um, and making sure that the conversations and their one-on-ones are very similar if anything exactly the same as their in- person employees, um, and really talking about their career and their growth and rather than ... I know a lot of the times when you talk one-on-ones, you should always build those, those personal connections, but at the same time, it's really talking about their careers and making sure that they have what they need. Um, sometimes you don't know what you don't know without asking your remote employee, "Hey, do you have everything you need? Are you, are you being able to meet with the people you need to meet? Are you feeling that there's any roadblocks in your way?" Um, the conversations really have to be a lot more intentional with your remote employees, whereas your in- person employees can naturally get questions answered by going into the, to the office with Megan's doors open. (29:46): Um, but it's really also making sure that you're aligning all of your career development conversations to ensure that your remote employee is also not feeling left out or they may miss a promotion or an opportunity. Nancy Ozawa (29:58): Good point. Good point. I mean, my team is completely remote in three different, uh, time zones right now, and we find not only are we intentional on our meetings, but we're also intentional with our fun time. This meeting is not gonna be a meeting of work. This is a meeting of social time, and this is gonna be something we're gonna do. And even though we're remote, we'll come up with creative ideas. I think I shared with Crystal, uh, one of our more successful ones was take a picture of your refrigerator and send it to us. Don't put your name on it. And everyone had to look at all the pictures and figure out what team member went with what refrigerator. And it was just a lot of fun. It didn't cost anything, but it was a lot of social time and being very intentional of building those relationships with the team members. Megan Pelletier (30:40): Yeah. And I think what, what Crystal was saying and what you said, Nancy, is, you know, we have these meetings, we're very structured and I think it's easy to focus on the work, especially when you're meeting virtually and just jump right in. And I think leaving space to ensure that quick touch base of the thing that maybe they shared that's going on with them personally and also being flexible in the fact that, you know, because people aren't necessarily in person and they're not, you know, dropping by to say, "I have this issue or I'm struggling with something," um, that sometimes that meeting that you thought you were gonna have gets derailed by what's going on with somebody personally. And I have employees that are gonna pick up the phone and tell me if they're having a tough time, but there's always one that isn't, and it's gonna be when we get on a Teams meeting and suddenly they're really stressed or in tears and that has to become the top priority. Nancy Ozawa (31:43): Sure. Yep. I agree with you 100%. Now, one of the other things that I find is challenging, and I think Megan, you and I chatted about this is banks are constantly being bought or, um, buying. And so now you might be inheriting another culture of another company. You guys have recently gone through this. I know more recently with you and then a couple more in the past for you. How did you guys handle the culture? Because I think that was a, a big criteria that you guys thought of and proactively rather than reactively. Megan Pelletier (32:19): Yes. The last merger we did was three years ago, and culture was certainly a factor, and I believe it was a factor in how successful that merger was. Mm-hmm. Um, I don't know that culture necessarily should or needs to be the impetus for, for buying or selling a bank, but I think that culture and employee engagement, they ultimately do correlate in how a bank performs and what that transition could be like during an acquisition. So for us, when we're evaluating, um, another organization, we are looking at that culture component. Is there a cultural match or are there potential issues there? And so it might not be the factor that, you know, we're gonna move forward or not, but it certainly is a factor. And it's an important factor for us, um, especially because of how much we've put in to building the culture here and we've seen the positive impact. (33:27): I think we also recognize by doing a deal where there potentially is a significant cultural mismatch, that could have unforeseen negative impacts on the work that we have done here and, and the overall success of a merger. Nancy Ozawa (33:45): Okay. So when you guys evaluate, um, whether you're gonna merge with another bank, I mean, obviously it's financial, it's gotta be part of it, strategic, it's gotta be part of it. Do you see culture being the third piece of it or is that after you've made that decision? Megan Pelletier (34:01): Culture is absolutely a piece of that evaluation. Nancy Ozawa (34:04): Okay. Mm-hmm. So then once you've merged with another bank, how do you bring those employees into that culture that you eloquently has got 33 behaviors on? Do you treat them as a new hire and just start at that stage or do you have a different process for bringing them into that culture or does the culture change again because now you have two sets of employees? Megan Pelletier (34:27): Yeah. Uh, that's a great question. So, um, in our last merger, we decided that early and frequent communication was going to be beneficial. I've gone through a lot of mergers. I've been both, um, on the side that was acquired, um, and on the buy side. And it's hard- It Nancy Ozawa (34:47): Is. Megan Pelletier (34:47): ... when you're acquired. And, and I remember one merger I went through, the mantra was always, "It's easier to be hired than acquired," right? 'Cause you just feel like you didn't have a choice in the matter. And I've sort of kept that top of mind, especially when we did our last merger. So A, getting in front very early on. In fact, when, the day we announced our last merger, our CEO and I went down, um, we were at that bank that morning when we were talking to their senior leaders shortly after the announcement, and then getting in front of the entire employee population face-to-face. And we talked about the culture at Home Trust, and we talked about our benefits, because I think there is a, a correlation between culture and benefits, um, and answered a lot of questions. We also learned what was important to them. (35:40): So when we started, we talked about some of those ri- you know, culture can be defined by rituals. Yeah. And I think really understanding, are there important rituals at a company that might not really cost anything to keep going, but it could cost a lot to stop- Mm. ... um, in terms of the impact it has on the people. We learn about that and that's important that we ... Is that your celebration? Is that a luncheon? Let's keep that going, um, and really making a decision, right? What's the cost to keep it going versus the cost to stop? The bank that we acquired, we did the same thing after our, our close is we closed branches for half a day, we rolled out the culture fundamentals, and we got people involved. And I'll say three years later, um, that group of employees, um, which they're in the Atlanta area, are fully bought into the culture. (36:40): Okay. Um, it's been incredibly successful. And I think a lot of that has to do with the leadership there, you know, that the market president, he completely bought in, he believed in it, and so he became a culture carrier for us. Nancy Ozawa (36:55): Great. That's a really interesting point, because I know when I, I mentioned the CEOs that I had talked to earlier in this conversation, not only culture was top of mind, they were concerned that as they added more branches, or if they merged or were acquired, what happened to the culture? And there was this sense of maybe there had to be two cultures. So I like the way that you addressed, um, you know, bringing the two together and trying to do the best of both worlds was kind of bringing in a marriage of two people and they have their own family traditions, you bring both of the family traditions forward. Megan Pelletier (37:29): That's a good analogy. Nancy Ozawa (37:30): I wanna pivot over to another big market trend. We're all talking about AI and how AI can be so efficient, but there's a people component that is in here. Um, in terms of there's some people who think it's gonna replace their jobs, some think that, no, I'm just gonna be able to manage it, but how do you think it impacts the employee experience, um, and how does it impact the culture? Crystal Hasan (37:55): So, uh, I'll start with this one. Um, I know it's a really heavy topic- It is. ... in our world. Um, and I think what's so wonderful is that we're entering into these conversations with excitement and energy, and we're also entering into this as it's a team environment. So we have, um, technology bought in, we have risk bought in, we have HR fought in, we have our executive team bought in. Um, so it, it makes the conversations and our employees a lot more comfortable when it arises and when the conversations come up. Um, (38:33): I know for us, it was a lot of hesitation and are we allowed to, what's the limitation of, you know, our ability to use the product? Um, and we've have an awesome team at the top to be able to go through and vet and train and really bring forward what the risks are, what you can and cannot do. Um, but we really are trying to make sure that we're emphasizing to our employees that it's a tool to make you more efficient and to be more helpful rather than it being a hindrance to your role or to your job. But I know from the HR standpoint, I mean, we use it on a daily basis. I have one of the highest utilizers on my team, um, which using the recruiting side of it, but I mean, it just creates so much value of efficiency, um, but also being mindful of the risk that could be there and, and just making sure you can trust the information that you're being given. Nancy Ozawa (39:30): And then let me put the caveat that the kinds of work that the employees are encouraged to use is not using customer data, not using employee data. It's more of the generic public, um, pieces of information. And so just getting used to it and experimenting with it. Crystal Hasan (39:47): Exactly, exactly. That is a huge part of our training, um, conversations and whether it's training that we have already published and whether it's training with the, or individual managers, um, that is the biggest emphasis on ensuring that we're not using customer data. Um, but being able to identify how you could use it to make your life a little bit easier and as a partner to your role. Nancy Ozawa (40:11): Agreed. Good point. Megan, what is your thoughts on AI? Do you have any thoughts just yet? Megan Pelletier (40:16): Uh, yes, lots of faults because how can we not? It shows up in my inbox about every third email. Nancy Ozawa (40:22): Thanks. Megan Pelletier (40:24): I would say what we have done is we've also put a policy in place, um, very early on regarding the use of AI and ensuring that we were protecting, um, our information, our customer's information, and so we've sort of approached AI in a crawl, walk, run phase, and, and we're crawling today, um, and we are evaluating, we're actually putting together an AI steering committee. So we are evaluating different use cases of AI and where we want to implement. But I think about, and we, and we get the question, right? What, what does AI mean? Is it going to replace my job? And I think that's the one thing that we have been consistent with our employees about is AI is not an FTE replacement or a cost save. In fact, it's gonna cost us money to implement, however we implement it. Um, but really it's, is there more, I'd say, low value work that's being done today that AI can do for us so our people can focus on the high value work? (41:37): You can use AI, but it's not always complete data that you're getting back and you have to use your critical thinking skills. Um, you have to put a lens on it. Does this make sense for, you know, the banking industry, for HomeTrust Bank and really just be thoughtful about that? So I think it's actually providing an opportunity for employees to focus on some of that high value work and think about also working on themselves, right? Nancy Ozawa (42:07): Yeah. Agreed. You know, um, I was at a conference last fall, MACON, uh, which is all about AI across all the different functions, and one of the speakers actually had an organizational chart, and they talked about AI being a team member on their org chart. But what they said to, to your point, Megan, is they weren't taking anybody off the chart, but they were allowing the AI assistant or the AI person to have a very specific, dedicated job, and there was somebody who supervised that person. Megan Pelletier (42:42): Yeah. I like that too. We've, we, um, we're just in a meeting last week and we had a big focus on AI. And I think the big piece of it is that people don't go away. Um, in fact, they're increasingly important because you need the people lens on the work that AI is creating or doing. Nancy Ozawa (43:00): Okay. Perfect. Well, we've, we've covered a lot of different areas in this conversation and I do appreciate both of you. So let's see if we can kind of sum this up for the listeners. What are one or two things that you could tell listener to start doing this next week with their team to improve the culture? Crystal Hasan (43:21): I hold middle manager meetings once a month. And one thing that I do remind the team that, that joins, um, is just to ensure that they're making connections with their employees. I think the connection at the middle level is one of the most important because they're the ones that are there with them day to day. They're the ones that are the advocates and the speakers of their teams. And building those connections and making sure that they're having their one-on-one meetings with them and checking in with them, I think is one of the most important things that our middle managers can do for their team members. Okay. Um, and then also just ensuring that they're also on board with, with our values, making sure that they understand, you know, what does this mean? How do you recognize your employees? How do you create the feedback? How do you have the, the conversations that are open and candid with your, with your employees to ensure that they're building that trust and that transparency with them? (44:19): You know, I've, I've said that word transparency a couple times now, but I think it's really important that our team members trust our managers and trust our department heads and trust our executive team to ensure that they're knowing everything that they need to know in order to be able to do their job and to be able to help our customers. At the same time, coaching is really important, not just for the, the employees from the middle managers, but the middle managers need the coaching too. You know, they don't always have the answers in ensuring that we're checking in with our middle managers so that way they can understand, you know, "Hey, do, do you need help? Do you have any questions to be able to help their employees?" I think we have a really great middle management team because they are never afraid to come and ask the questions to me. (45:04): And I get calls daily, multiple times sometimes, you know, just from one or two of the managers, "Hey, this situation came up. What should I do? Hey, let me just bounce this off of you. " And I value that a lot because I feel like I have created a two-way line of trust with them that (45:22): They're not, they know it's not gonna be a conversation where we need to performance somebody, but maybe it's a question just to be able to help provide the feedback that their employees need. Um, so I think just overall, the open communication and the transparency to the employees is really important. Nancy Ozawa (45:37): Perfect. Megan, what would be one or two tips you would share with a middle manager? Megan Pelletier (45:43): Well, first of all, I love that question and I, I love lots of middle managers asking that question. Um, I think the first tip is to understand the culture of the organization that you're in. Okay. Um, i- if you have an understanding of it, then be a champion for that, meaning you're upholding that culture every single day, um, whether it's in your branch or on your team. Um, and I think if there isn't a clearly defined culture, then I would encourage them to really reflect on what is the culture that they want to build in their team or in their branch. I think about the culture that I want to uphold. It luckily aligns with, um, Home Trust, but really is that, that sense of belonging. I want every single person that works for me to feel like they belong in the organization and on the team. (46:42): And so doing that is really building trust and support and creating a standard of excellence, similar to what Crystal was saying. So that means providing feedback, you know, often, whether it's positive or constructive, and then leaving some room for growth and change. And if somebody's unsure of what the culture is, either in the organization or on their team, they've got to get curious and ask. It's Nancy Ozawa (47:09): A really good point. And one piece that you mentioned, which I also like is sometimes people believe you gotta, the employer needs to figure this culture out. It's somebody else's problem, but if it hasn't been defined, if it's not there, then create what the culture is you want on your team and start from their point. I like that, that nuance that you mentioned. Well, thank you both. Um, thank you, Megan. Thank you, Crystal. This was, uh, amazing. I really enjoyed kind of going all over and talking about this topic. I love that you were able to share your insights, and also more particularly that culture really does touch companies in performance, so that's where the importance is of bringing those two together. So thank you so much, and thank you to our listeners for joining us in this forward-looking conversation on Banking Out Loud. If you haven't already, be sure to check out our other episodes and subscribe so you know when a new one drops. (48:01): And also, we're always looking for new ideas for future topics and guests. So if you have an idea or maybe you'd like to join us as a guest, send us an email at bankingoutloud@pcbb.com. Thank you again for listening. Have a good day.