Independent Banker - December 2021 - 46

BETWEEN $750 MILLION AND $999 MILLION
COMMUNITY NATIONAL BANK & TRUST OF TEXAS:
LISTENING PAYS DIVIDENDS
BY ED AVIS
W
hen employees at Community
National Bank & Trust of
Texas think they have a better way
to do something, management
listens. In fact, the $968 millionasset
community bank in Corsicana,
Texas, has two employee committees,
the Operations Advisory and the
Focus Forward Group, that consider
new ideas.
" The Operations Advisory includes
representatives from every location
and the [chief operating officer], " says
CEO Rusty Hitt. " It's a work group
where they talk about processes,
pain points and products. And the
Focus Forward Group is where we
try to get perspective of the younger
demographic and add some new
products as a result of that. "
The respect that the community
bank's leaders show for employees'
suggestions is just one reason
Community National Bank & Trust
of Texas was selected as a 2021 Best
Community Bank to Work For. Other
key reasons are its generous benefits
package and healthy work-life balance.
" The bank treats everyone as if they
are all very important, " says Michelle
Fonseca, a cultural ambassador at
the bank. " They show it in the little
things, like Rusty going around and
asking someone who has been out
for a couple of days, 'How are you
feeling? Are you feeling better?'
Those are the little things that make
me never have to say, 'Am I in the
Community National Bank
& Trust of Texas
Corsicana, Texas
Assets: $968 million
mybanktx.com
right place?' Because I'm über in love
with this organization. "
A family feeling
Community National Bank & Trust of Texas's family-first culture
helps employees maintain a work-life balance. Michelle
Fonseca, cultural ambassador, recalls joining the community bank
and telling Misty Louthan, the bank's senior vice president of human
resources, that she was going to miss an event at her daughter's school
due to work.
" [Louthan] matter-of-factly told me, 'You have to make time to tend to
your family. We will always be here,' Fonseca says. " And she was right.
The bank has an understanding that there is a life outside of here. "
CEO Rusty Hitt agrees. " Part of our culture is that sometimes the bank
might require more of your time, but other times not, and if it doesn't,
you don't need to be here, " he says. " If it's 3:30 and nothing is going on,
go check on your kids. "
Employee ideas that pay
Hitt says the ideas generated by the
Focus Forward Group have been
essential to the community bank's
growth in the digital era. For example,
the committee initiated both an online
account opening process and the
bank's rewards debit card. During the
pandemic, the group's suggestion to
develop an online document-signing
process paid off, since the lobby space
had a limit on customers.
" We did over 2,000 PPP [Paycheck
Protection Program] loans, and it
would've been much more difficult to
do that without DocuSign, " Hitt says.
9S^Sb_ec PS^SŮdc `NQZNVS
Community National Bank & Trust
of Texas' 187 employees also enjoy a
healthy benefits package, including
no-cost health insurance and a
match of employee contributions to
42 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q December 2021
http://www.mybanktx.com
Independent Banker - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - December 2021
