Best Banks to Work For 2024 with more than $10B of assets

November 15, 2024 10:00 AM

Out of the 90 institutions that landed on American Banker's Best Banks to Work For ranking this year, nine have more than $10 billion of assets. Pinnacle Financial Partners in Nashville, Tennessee, is once again the largest bank on the list, with $49.2 billion of assets.

Continue on to find out more about this year's winners in the largest asset category.

Note: Asset sizes are from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as of June 30. Employee headcounts were provided by the banks.

For additional Best Banks to Work For coverage, please see: Best Banks to Work For 2024

Busey Bank Illinois associates volunteer at a food bank. Busey Bank offers employees two paid hours of volunteer time each month.

Busey Bank

Champaign, Illinois

Assets: $11.9 billion

Chair and CEO: Van Dukeman

No. of U.S. employees: 1,356

Giving back to the community is an important part of the culture at Busey Bank, which offers employees two paid hours of volunteer time each month. Combined, employees rack up nearly 20,000 volunteer hours each year, including more than 2,000 hours during National Volunteer Month in April.

Charitable donations are also a big part of giving back. On Fridays, staffers have the chance to wear jeans to work and donate $5 toward a worthy cause. Last year, Busey Bank, whose parent company is planning to acquire CrossFirst Bankshares in Leawood, Kansas, raised $110,500 through the initiative.

United Community Bank sponsors a Leadership Academy.

United Community Bank

Greenville, South Carolina

Assets: $27 billion

Chair and CEO: H. Lynn Harton

No. of U.S. employees: 3,096

Aiming to open up lines of communication between managers and employees, United Community Bank recently launched The Power of U, a council made up of non-management employees from across the bank's six-state footprint. The group provides a platform for employees to share their ideas, suggestions and recommendations about five core areas — belonging; work experience; talent attraction and development; benefits and life management; and rewards and recognition — with the bank's senior leadership.

"We value the opinions and recommendations from employees at all levels in the company," CEO H. Lynn Harton said.

First Merchants Bank created the Gold Shield Awards to encourage top performance and recognize employees who serve as role models.

First Merchants Bank

Muncie, Indiana

Assets: $18.3 billion

CEO: Mark Hardwick

No. of U.S. employees: 2,124

In 2022, First Merchants Bank's employee engagement survey revealed some interesting information: only 59% of employees had a career development plan and only 35% thought that professional development would improve their job satisfaction. "Those were some eye-opening stats" that spurred the bank to take action, CEO Mark Hardwick said.

Today, First Merchants, which recently sold five Chicago-area branches to Old Second Bancorp in Aurora, Illinois, offers a leadership program that offers two career development paths. One is a self-guided program available to all employees who want to learn and apply leadership skills to help build a strong bank. The other is a program to help high-performing employees develop more leadership capabilities, in part by attending sessions that have been co-created by members of the executive management team.

The Washington Trust Bank team in Portland, Oregon, celebrates Employee Appreciation Day.

Washington Trust Bank

Spokane, Washington

Assets: $10.8 billion

Executive chair: Peter Stanton

No. of U.S. employees: 1,179

Washington Trust Bank went through a leadership transition in April 2024 when Peter Stanton, the fourth generation of the Stanton family to oversee the bank, passed the CEO title to Jack Heath. The rollout of the multiyear succession plan "ensured leadership continuity [and a] seamless transition," Stanton said. The company, which is the largest privately-held bank in the Pacific Northwest, said it empowers its employees to do right by customers.

"This often takes the form of decentralized decision making," the bank said. "We encourage employees to take the initiative to serve clients quickly and effectively, and we know this results in higher satisfaction for both our employees and our clients."

Members of Seacoast Bank's Women Mean Business associate resource group do volunteer work at Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program.

Seacoast Bank

Stuart, Florida

Assets: $14.9 billion

Chair and CEO: Charles Shaffer

No. of U.S. employees: 1,460

In response to employee opinions and suggestions, Seacoast Bank overhauled its medical benefits offerings for the 2024 plan year. The changes entailed expanding the health provider network — 98% of 2023 in-network providers remained in-network and 90% of 2023 out-of-network providers moved in-network — and lowering total medical costs for "a vast majority of associates," according to Chair and CEO Charles Shaffer.

The changes appear to have made an impact on employees' overall satisfaction with the bank's medical benefits offerings, highlighted by an 11% year-over-year increase on Seacoast's annual engagement survey when employees were asked if benefits meet their needs, Shaffer said.

Enterprise Bank & Trust associates in New Mexico participate in a "Day for Good" by lending a hand at a local food pantry.

Enterprise Bank & Trust

Clayton, Missouri

Assets: $14.6 billion

President and CEO: Jim Lally

No. of U.S. employees: 1,226

Nearly a quarter of Enterprise Bank & Trust's employees have worked for the company for at least 10 years, the company said. Part of the draw is a culture that values employees and provides advancement opportunities, including internal training and third-party development to help staff members make progress in their careers.

Employees enrolled in the Career Acceleration Program, known as CAP, learn about Enterprise by job shadowing across departments such as credit, operations and relationship management and may wind up someday working in one of those areas, depending on organizational needs, the bank said. Full-time employees receive eight hours of paid volunteer time, and the company matches up to $1,000 per associate yearly in charitable giving.

SouthState's bankers in Charlotte, North Carolina serve the diverse needs of their local community.

SouthState Bank

Winter Haven, Florida

Assets: $45.5 billion

CEO: John Corbett

No. of U.S. employees: 5,248

SouthState Bank's company values center around three concepts — the entrepreneurial spirit, pursuit of excellence and life's greater purpose. Last year the bank, which operates in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, created a culture-focused council to address areas such as employee engagement, leadership development, recruitment and retention, and diversity and inclusion.

In the spring and fall, the bank hosts a virtual internal job fair that allows employees to have a first look at job opportunities within the organization. The bank, which announced in May that it would acquire Independent Bank Group in a bid to expand into Texas, is also adding employee resources groups for women, veterans and their allies.

Bell Bank employees take part in the United Way Day of Action and volunteer their time at the local YWCA.

Bell Bank

Fargo, North Dakota

Assets: $13.9 billion

President and CEO: Michael Solberg

No. of U.S. employees: 1,899

Bell Bank's "Pay It Forward" program is the company's employee-driven charitable giving effort. Each year, all full-time employees receive $1,000 and all part-time employees receive $500 to donate the funds however they choose, be it individuals, families or organizations in need. Some years, employees pool their funds for one cause or leverage the funds with matching gifts to make the dollars go further. This past year, total giving through the Pay It Forward program topped $29 million.

Employees of Pinnacle Financial Partners support the community, compete in and cheer on others in the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, South Carolina.

Pinnacle Financial Partners

Nashville, Tennessee

Assets: $49.2 billion

President and CEO: Terry Turner

No. of U.S. employees: 3,319

One of Pinnacle Financial Partners' goals is to maintain a workplace where employees are excited to spend their days, an effort that should ultimately create long-term shareholder value, President and CEO Terry Turner said. The company believes in making every employee an owner by giving them restricted stock upon hiring and on an annual basis.

It also aims to eliminate micromanagement, promote transparency, encourage a healthy work-life balance and be intentional about its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Pinnacle plans to keep collecting feedback from employees to make improvements.