Beth Drum is here with us again and Alpine Bank has done a lot to assure that employees have good, healthy work life balance and there's a good fit for employees at the bank and I want to talk to Beth about that. Thanks again for being here Beth. Thank you John. One of the big things that we claim anyway, a value of sustainable businesses is retaining employees. And you and I have talked a little bit about this. So, one of the best ways to retain employees is to make sure that the fit's good at the start. Can you talk a little bit about that because I know you're involved in choosing employees and what not for the bank? You know, when you're absolutely right it really does make a difference. I think when you hire people that can fit into the culture of your organization, and they believe in what you're doing as our green team, our environmental practices, our commitments to our communities are important. And if we don't hire people that have those same values that Alpine Bank does, they probably won't be around very long because it's just not a good fit. We have five values that are displayed very proudly on our wall at every one of our locations. And, those five values are loyalty, integrity, independence, communities and compassion. And we show up every day and see those values, walk those values and they're important to us. So it's very important when we are hiring new employees that those resonate with them as well, because you can only imagine if somebody comes to work at an organization and they don't believe in the level of customer service perhaps, they can take down your organization really fast. And take down all that good, really, brand recognition that you have built in your community and that reputation. So it is important. And, in those five items that you just listed, a big paycheck wasn't necessarily one of them. So, just come in to work to get a paycheck is not enough for a company to continue to be sustainable and grow and prosper. No. No, not at all. Again, it's culture and it's wanting to serve, help, a genuine sincere desire to want to help that person, whether they're at the teller line, they're sitting across the desk, at a new accounts desk, or you're out in the community and you're volunteering. That's what is really important at Alpine Bank. That's great. That's just great. You already alluded to this in another conversation but, how do you help retain people, you know, work- life balance is hard, there's stress at work but I know you folks are taking real positive actions to create situations so that employees can feel more comfortable. They don't feel like they need to change jobs to maintain that work-life balance. You know, we try very hard to keep our employees and it is hard you know, living in the communities we live in, we understand sometimes, you know, people need to move on because their spouses or significant others have gotten different jobs and certainly pay is important you know, young people. I think it's getting harder John, to keep young people for a long time in an organization. So, one thing that we have in place is called a wellness benefit. And we recognized I want to say, about 12 to 15 years ago, how important it was for our employees to be well. And this wasn't just physical it was mental, as well, and mental means that work-life balance. Get out there, enjoy, go play, go hike, go raft do whatever calls you, you know, into the woods to do. And, our wellness benefit, they can submit for a twelve hundred dollar reimbursement every year and all we ask is that they go and they get their eyes checked, their teeth checked, go to the dentist, go to the eye doctor, get your flu shot. And here's twelve hundred dollars. Now, go buy that new kayak that is going to give you that work-life balance, so you can get out and play. That's just one example of what we do. A lot of our organizations, our regions, branches, do individual get togethers, hiking, trail clean up together and they get out together. And when you think about you're working with these people eight hours a day, you need to get along, you need to like each other, right? And that's important. And, we see that happening throughout the organization, as well, where the more we're out together in our communities volunteering together, that also creates that longevity. I think you might just have to again focus on culture and who you are as an organization and start training that behavior. Behaviors can change, and you can train behavior which then results in creating a culture that then I think the end result is then having that sustainability as a strong business organization. Your people really are what differentiates you from your competition. And it's important that you take care of them, you develop them and you listen to them, like we did in 2005 and we created the Green Team. What about, say family, we call it family friendly policies but it really for people, maybe you don't necessarily have kids but I'm telecommuting, that sort of stuff. We are always encouraging our employees that if really you know, a lot of their jobs don't require them to be at the bank and if they can work virtually from home, we encourage that. Again, if the job allows for it, I know for me personally, I've been afforded that and it makes a huge difference for me when I talk about work-life balance. I'm an early morning person and I can get up at 6 a.m. and just get going on the computer and have my job done, have all those e-mails answered usually by noon, and then I can go out and get a hike in with the dog. And it's lovely and it makes a difference. So these are different banker's hours than normal.. Much different. You know and I think it was the green team that was one of the initial proposals with some telecommuting for people that you know, didn't need to be at the bank, they weren't the frontline staff and it made a lot of sense and some job sharing and. And we do have incentives for our employees that carpool, use public transportation, bicycle or walk to work. Yeah. That's great. I've got one last question for you. It's kind of career oriented. We hear a lot about millennials are going to be in eight jobs in their lifetime and they jump you know, after two years, they move to a different job and you know, I've been in my position for 15 years and I feel that there's enormous value in being with an institution for a while. I know your career is over 20 years with the bank now. Can you talk about the value of being part of that culture for an extended period of time and how that has created some opportunities for you. Sure, it's created a lot of opportunities for me. I'm very thankful to work for an organization that promotes from within, looks at what you bring to the table every day. You know, I started at Alpine Bank as a mortgage originator. I worked in marketing, I worked in compliance, I ran day to day branch management. And, I hired the staff and now I'm back to marketing and community development. But, I wouldn't have had those opportunities if I was only sticking with the job for a couple of years and moved on to the next. I feel like my, thanks to Alpine Bank, I have a really nice resume, because I've done a lot of things with one organization. But I think that speaks to, you know, if your job. If you're always trying to find the next best thing or you always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you might want to look at really how green is it and is it real grass, because it could be Astro Turf, right? If you look at a culture of an organization and you feel good about the people you're working with, then I would suggest you stick it out. You don't have that seat at the table, and you don't bring that historical knowledge, if you're always going to the next best thing. I strongly feel and I've I've been fortunate enough that as a 20 year employee, I do bring that historical piece to the table and I even ask often times like well what about this, did this work? No it really didn't work, but let's try it a different way. And I think organizations still value that, that longevity. I was just at Disney last week and they had employees talking to us that had been with Walt Disney for 37 plus years and they started as you know, doing the rides and moved into management. That's a long time in mouse years. Long time right? But Alpine Bank has a lot of longevity with their employees, too. But it's equally important as an organization to always listen to the employees. How can we always be better? I think as management we sometimes lose sight of that. And I think it's definitely a two way street and longevity is important, and I encourage people to always, you know, don't job hop. See how you can make the organization better, as well. And management needs to listen to the millennials and the up and coming generation just because we've done it one way for a long time, doesn't mean it's the right way going forward. That's great. That's great. I I certainly value the time I've spent with the university and I feel like there's things I wouldn't have been able to do without having put in that time and you know, it's credibility building, you get to know personalities, you know who you want to work with, who's going to be effective. There's just a lot of benefits. And sustainability is a long term deal. Maybe it means you've got to be with an organization for some time to really have an impact. Yeah, longevity may not be you know, for you 15 years, me 20 years you know, maybe the new norm will be five or 10. You don't know but, it's important. It's like those mouse years you were just talking about at Disney, right? Five morphs into 15. Beth, thanks so much for spending time with us. That was great and I appreciate your insights and I thank you for my daughter. Like I say, I hope that she finishes her engineering program, and part of it was because of the support you gave her early on. Very welcome. Thank you for the opportunity.
