2010 Choice Employers, 101 to 300 Employees No. 1: Commerce Bank

The 267 local employees of Commerce Bank have no waiting period for participating in the company’s profit-sharing and stock options or for access to paid days off such as holidays. All employees have opportunities to earn bonuses, which average between $751 and $1,000 annually. Commerce offers an employee mentoring program and tuition reimbursement, and top management meets regularly with employees. The bank promotes from within, and employee achievements are recognized through both formal and informal awards and via an employee annual report. Commerce’s culture includes regular communication from Chairman and CEO David Kemper and events such as Bring Your Child to Work Day.

Springfield Region Chairman John Himmel answers SBJ’s questions:

How would you describe your company’s culture?
(It) can be described as collaborative, energetic and customer-focused. At the heart of our culture are our core values, which include acting with integrity, being team-oriented and customer-focused, striving for excellence and taking a long-term view.

Those core values, combined with our mission statement: be accessible, offer solutions, build relationships – also known as BOB – and our customer promise to ask, listen and solve, helps define who we are and guides our daily actions with each other. … We recruit, hire and develop professionals who embrace our values, mission, business strategy, customer promise and our OneCommerce culture.

We’re always asking each other “What else can I do?” to achieve our key results of revenue growth, profit growth, customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

What methods do you use to involve employees in benefit decisions?
Annual benefit fairs and an annual employee opinion survey. Commerce Bank also has a program called iSuggest, an online forum where employees can make suggestions anytime.

Give us some examples of how your benefits package has evolved to meet work-force needs.
Commerce has added flexible options for supplemental care such as accident and cancer protection plans, a long-term-care plan also available to family members and a vision plan. Commerce now offers personal time (for) more flexible time off, (and) depending on the job description, some employees have the option of scheduling work from home.

How does your company support professional development?
(Through) a variety of internal opportunities for professional development, including leadership development, succession planning and classes that enhance supervisory and sales skills.
Every employee is expected to complete a core curriculum and additional classes based on particular roles. Commerce also offers opportunities to participate in external seminars and organizations.

What intangible perks make your company a great place to work?
In Springfield, there’s no huge distinction between management and employees. Everybody is on the same team and shares the same purpose.

We’re all held accountable to our core values. Commerce employees’ contributions are needed, valued and acknowledged regardless of their particular jobs.

What makes your company a family-friendly employer?
Commerce employees can use some of the time off they accrue for personal activities, including attending their kids’ school functions or volunteering. Also, whenever possible, Commerce tries very hard to work with employees who have unusual circumstances at home to accommodate those needs.

Just for Fun
If there were no limitations – budget or otherwise – what benefit would you begin offering employees tomorrow?
We would love to have gourmet lunches brought in every day to every Commerce location – free to our employees, of course![[In-content Ad]]