Our human capital management strategy focuses on recruiting, developing, and engaging a talented, diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. Our core values are not something we just hang on the wall – our employees embody integrity, teamwork, hard work, and caring. We foster positive attitudes, communication, goal attainment, personal growth, and the pursuit of United’s mission of excellence in service to our employees, our customers, our shareholders, and our communities.
Colleagues
At United, one of our key competitive advantages is our people. With approximately 3,000 employees across our footprint, investing in our human capital is a top priority.
Employee Development
Our formal talent pipeline development strategy encompasses the full lifecycle of our team members’ careers. It starts at the college level with summer internships and recruiting and continues all the way to succession planning and pipeline development at the executive levels of the Company. United gives our team members the tools they need to advance as far and as fast in their careers within the Company as they are willing and capable.
Recruiting
Talent selection and developing top talent are strong pillars of our organization. Our primary focus is to attract and advance the careers of employees with different backgrounds, experiences, ideas, and skills. We host exceptional college recruiting and internship programs that attract candidates from a variety of colleges and universities within our footprint. These programs build a continuous talent pipeline and prioritize these team members for internal job openings.
Onboarding and Training
United also has an effective onboarding program, introducing new team members to the culture and enabling an environment that helps them be engaged in their roles. We have rigorous interdepartmental training and development programs that provide employees increased capacity to not only perform their job function, but to deliver results and advance their careers.
Our onboarding program applies to United Bank full time, part time, and temporary employees. Our new hires receive formal onboarding training on corporate systems, culture, products and services, diversity equity and inclusion (DE&I), and community reinvestment. In addition, our Sales Associates are paired with a market mentor for their first 90-days. New supervisors participate in leadership, managerial, and DE&I training, along with completing training on sexual harassment and labor laws. All employees complete annual compliance training and all supervisors complete sexual harassment training. Our Wealth Management team enjoys full access to on-demand training resources through the American Banker Association.
We offer robust career development for our retail employees in particular. An additional 25 hours of training for retail employees was offered in 2022, helping them sharpen their sales and service skills. Branch managers participate in sales and leadership workshops and sales associates have the opportunity to be cross-trained. Additionally, our retail market mentors receive professional development training to help them grow their relationship and leadership skills.
Career Advancement
United offers several programs that provide opportunities for our diverse workforce to enhance their skillsets and expertise, expand their internal and external networks, increase visibility to senior and executive leadership and forge career paths for advancement.
Our Step-Up program is a 6-month career development program specifically designed for Sales Associates across the Bank’s footprint. Through live virtual training, the program exposes them to various departments across the institution.
Our Leadership Development Program provides an opportunity for the Company’s rising talent from across our footprint and various business lines to strengthen their leadership and communication skills, increase their visibility within the organization, and establish internal networks. This program helps to cultivate a future pipeline of leaders across the institution. Over a period of four years, these individuals are empowered to work on pertinent projects designed to enhance revenue, reduce expenses, and improve risk management functions, while developing the members’ leadership, interactive, and managerial skills. Past members now hold key positions across the Company ranging from Department Managers to Line of Business Leaders to Executive Officers.
We also partnered with West Virginia University to develop an executive training program aimed at developing the technical, theoretical, and applied skills needed for a successful launch into a career in Business Banking. High-performing employees are given opportunities to attend state and national banking schools, conferences, industry peer groups, and training webinars. All United employees have access to career development and skills-based training through our internal online HR management system.
Succession Planning
One of our strategic priorities to ensure leadership continuity is effective succession planning. The Company has a formal plan to identify potential successors and actively develop those employees. The plan includes all critical management positions throughout the organization and is updated annually. This process is dynamic, and we have added additional management positions to the plan as the Company continues to evolve and grow. The Company’s executives constantly review and evaluate personnel to identify pools of candidates with high levels of leadership potential and promote their progress by engineering their range of work experiences.
Well-Being
Compensation and Benefits
United makes every effort to ensure that our compensation and benefits packages are comprehensive and competitive to attract and retain talent. Our employees’ compensation packages include market-competitive salary, annual incentives and commissions, and a long-term incentive program.
United’s annual performance evaluation process provides the opportunity for discussing, planning, and reviewing the performance of each employee. The goal is to help employees clearly define and understand the responsibilities and expectations of their position while also identifying employees with high potential for advancement within the company.
Performance evaluations also provide opportunity for employees to be awarded additional compensation based on merit. Managers are expected to maintain open communication throughout the year as it pertains to the performance and mentorship of their employees. Training is provided to managers annually to prepare them for difficult conversations, analyzing team compensation, and maintaining fairness, among other topics.
Our holistic benefit plans are designed to fully support our full-time and eligible part-time employees and their families through every stage of their life cycle, recognizing our employees’ individual needs and offering flexible benefit options. As an enhanced benefit, we recently increased our parental leave and family medical leave and added coverage for enhanced infertility coverage. We provide comprehensive health and wellness plans for all eligible employees as well as retirees of United. We also provide other paid-time off benefits such as vacation, sick time, personal days, and birthdays. The Company also provides financial wellness benefits to all employees through our 401K Plan in which the Company provides a competitive match of employee contributions. All employees are eligible to take advantage of United’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan through payroll deductions.
Workplace Safety, Health and Well-being
We are committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for our employees and offer services to foster the best physical, mental, and social well-being of our workforce. United’s Employee Assistance Program provides all employees a comprehensive and personalized process with a tailored approach to meet employees where they are and supports them through whatever journey they may be facing. The Employee Assistance Program provides unlimited phone access for information, resources, and referrals and provides sessions with a counselor for the employee and their family members. The employee, and their family, can also take advantage of a host of web-based resources the program provides as well.
The commitment to our employees and their family’s well-being remains at the forefront for United and allows us to remain competitive in attracting and retaining top talent and ensuring our employee benefits remain competitive when compared with other institutions.
To continue to cultivate our inclusive culture, United offers employees a way to report confidential and anonymous issues of concern through our website. Whether it is a compliance or regulatory violation, wrongdoing, improper conduct, or harassment, the confidential report will be instantly and discreetly forwarded for review.