Bank, finance salaries rising amid worker shortage in LV

Phil Levine

Monday, Feb. 21, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Assets are up, the stock market is booming and the Las Vegas economy is on track for another record year.

Amid a sea of positive news, the one resource in short supply for some members of Nevada's financial industry is qualified employees.

The industry's challenge of attracting -- and retaining -- qualified financial employees will be highlighted this spring when Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank enters the Las Vegas market with 15 new branches; by year's end, it will operate a total of 20 Southern Nevada offices.

The nation's largest thrift, Washington Mutual expects to employ more than 200 people at its metropolitan Las Vegas locations.

Even before Washington Mutual's arrival, Nevada banking officials saw the region's financial labor pool turn shallow.

"It is definitely tougher to find high quality employees today than it was two years ago," said Susan Nelson, Nevada human resources manager for Wells Fargo Bank. "It is also a challenge because our bank has grown, and so we're not just looking to retain people but are adding to our staff."

Last fall, Wells and Norwest Bancorporation completed the integration of their Nevada operations; senior management pledged there would be no merger-related layoffs.

As a result of the merger, Wells consolidated 18 Nevada branches.

The bank currently operates 114 offices in Nevada, employing about 2,500 people. Nelson said despite the consolidation of nine Southern Nevada branches, Wells' staffing requirements are comparable today to those of last summer.

The challenge of recruiting and retaining quality financial personnel is further complicated by the growing complexity of today's banking industry.

"Banking today is far more sophisticated than it used to be," Nelson said. "It's really not easy to be a teller these days."

The greater demands have led to starting salaries well above minimum wage for the banks' customer service positions.

"We offer a very competitive starting salary, in addition to creative benefit packages," Bank of America Nevada Vice President Michelle Ridout said. "The labor market has definitely changed from where it was five years ago, and we've tried to respond to that."

Ridout said B of A offers its tellers a minimum starting salary of $9.50 per hour or more, depending on experience. That's up from $9 an hour a little more than a year ago.

Ridout describes that salary as "very competitive for this market," but adds that B of A is looking at ways of attracting customer service people beyond higher starting salaries.

"This year, we're looking at offering more benefits to our part-time workers," she said. "Currently, employees have to work between 20 and 30 hours a week to be benefits eligible, and that's something we may be looking at revising this year."

Competing with the larger banks for the same personnel, Southern Nevada's community banks are also making a concentrated effort to provide competitive compensatory packages.

"Our starting salaries (for tellers) are in the $9 to $10 range," Tom Mangione, chief operating officer of Nevada Community Bancorp., said. "We try to offer salaries just slightly above the current market in order to attract people to our bank."

Nevada Community Bancorp currently operates three Southern Nevada branches, with plans for an additional two new branches to be added by year's end.

B of A's benefits are also designed to reflect the competitive nature -- and changing demographics -- of today's labor market.

"For example, within the last year we began our Child Care Plus program," Ridout said. "That initiative provides employees earning a maximum of $30,000 per year with up to $152 per child per month. We also offer Volunteer Time, whereby employees with kids can take two paid hours off per week to volunteer at their kids' school."

In keeping with its new benefit programs, B of A is targeting soccer moms as a potential reservoir of untapped labor talent.

"Many of our associates are college students who go to classes in the morning, so we wondered 'well, who would be available to work mornings?' " Ridout said. "The answer is obviously moms with kids in school."

B of A employs 1,850 people in metropolitan Las Vegas, including 400 at its Summerlin call center. The bank operates 75 Nevada branches, including 38 in metro Las Vegas.

In advance of its Las Vegas arrival, Washington Mutual recruited locally for both management and customer service positions; bank officials say they've been "pleased and surprised" by the positive response to their efforts.

"We've been very happy, and somewhat surprised, with the response to both of our (Las Vegas) job fairs," Kristin Poolman, Washington Mutual's regional staffing manager for new markets, said. "Some of the (branch) managers will be transferring from other Washington Mutual locations, but the rest were hired locally."

Poolman said local hiring is also under way for nonmanagement positions; she declined to discuss starting salaries, saying only they were "very competitive."

At U.S. Bank, much of the recruiting effort in Nevada relies on the company's current employees.

"We have what's called our U-Scout program, where every employee who refers someone else to the company receives a bonus," U.S. Bank spokeswoman Dotti Loader said. "If the new employee remains for at least 90 days, the employee making the referral can receive a bonus from $500 to thousands of dollars, depending on the position of the person hired."

Loader said the bank also encourages hiring managers to be on the lookout for skilled customer service people as they go about their daily chores.

"If they come across someone -- say in a retail environment -- who is especially good at customer service, they're encouraged to hand out a business card and say 'please give me a call,' " Loader said.

U.S. Bank employs 395 people at its 51 Nevada branches.

The evolution of Las Vegas' call center industry has put even greater pressure on recruitment efforts within the financial community.

"We certainly have to look harder (to find quality employees) than before, and that's with 5,000 people a month moving to this area," Joe Manzo, Citibank's director of human resources, said. "But we try to offer employees a range of good benefits to add to the attraction of working here."

Citibank's credit card call center on West Sahara Avenue offers its 2,300 employees amenities such as child day care, a fitness center and a full cafeteria.

Manzo said Citibank also recently altered its screening process for new hires.

"We've automated our early screening process, allowing the applicant to screen the available jobs that might be of interest," he said. "We've also looked at our compensation program, and now pay higher starting salaries for experienced customer service representatives."

Local competition for financial call center employees continues to increase. San Francisco-based Providian Financial Corp. plans to open a call center in Henderson this month, employing about 600 people.

Providian officials say the center will support the company's planned growth in the areas of e-commerce and credit cards.

And just last week, Primerica Financial Services held a ceremony to mark the opening of its new Las Vegas headquarters on Industrial Road. Since moving in November from its previous office at 6100 Elton Ave., the company's work force has grown from 200 to 300 employees.

Primerica is a subsidiary of Citigroup.

Ironically, in the age of mergers and acquisitions, sometimes smaller financial institutions are seen as more stable companies.

"We can ensure our employees that we're here for the long term," Mangione said. "We're not looking to be merged or sold, and they (employees) like the stability that offers."

Mangione said community banks also view big bank mergers as recruiting opportunities.

"We currently have 23 employees at our three (Las Vegas) branches, but we're looking to add two more branches by December," Mangione said. "The (big bank) mergers often provide us with hiring opportunities.

"For example, we recently hired Peter Atkinson, who was a senior vice-president of commercial real estate at Pioneer Citizens bank. (Pioneer was recently acquired by Nevada State Bank parent Zions Bancorporation.) I'm not sure we would have had a chance to get Pete without that merger."

More "recruiting opportunities" may be forthcoming with the upcoming completion of the merger between Zions and First Security Bancorporation. First Security CEO Spencer Eccles said recently that as many as 800 employees at the two banks may face layoffs when the merger is complete.

It remains unclear how many of those layoffs would be in the banks' Nevada operations.

Still, there's near-universal agreement among financial hiring professionals the local labor crunch shows no signs of easing.

"We expect we'll have to continue to work harder to retain our people," B of A's Ridout said. "We recognize that at the end of the day, our associates are our greatest assets."

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