A Note from our CEO, Scott Soderberg

I often find myself thinking about all the many important things that absolutely must be done in our business every day, and it is mind-boggling. Like most organizations, we must address potential employee turnover and retirements in our budgeting and succession planning each year. These issues can transform the amazement of daily accomplishment into apprehension about maintaining the manpower and expertise necessary to get the job done well. Unfortunately, a shortage of skilled workers is a long-term national problem, particularly for manufacturing firms.

In 2019, we started what began as “Training Day” here for our staff by closing the bank on Presidents' Day and getting together off-site. A primary objective was to bring all our employees from the four branches together for a day to emphasize that we are one bank, and to create engagement between staff members who don’t normally work together during the year. While training was a significant part of the first few years, we soon realized that the real value of the exercise was the team-building and camaraderie that flowed naturally from the event. The annual get-together soon evolved into “Team Connect Day”, with much more emphasis on examining and enhancing both employee and customer culture at the bank. This year’s event on February 19 featured a prominent guest speaker exploring communication and engagement challenges amongst different generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z) as they relate to interaction between staff members and to the customer service we provide to the public. The session was both interactive and enlightening and turned out to be the talk of our social hour gathering at the end of the day.

Friday, March 1st is Employee Appreciation Day. Whether it is on that day or any other, it can be helpful to think about what can be done to express that gratitude throughout the year for the daily “heavy lifting” that your team does to keep your business moving forward successfully. For us, we recognize that principle in the very first line of our two-sentence Core Values Statement: “Our team members are the bank, and our bank is a vital community asset.” The mission, of course, is to live up to that standard every day.


FNC Bank all-staff photo from Team Connect Day