BankAtlantic Reviews

Pros

Great, friendly atmosphere. Executive Management shares important issues with employees at all levels.

Cons

Going through difficult financial times and had lots of lay offs last year.

Advice to Senior Management

To value employees that have the faith in the company.

Pros

It was a good place to work when the economy was good. Management was open to compensation based on performance.

Cons

Constant red tape and jumping through hoops. Very top heavy organization. All reductions in force are across the board, rather than in unprofitable departments. Promotions and job security seem to be realted more to who you know, rather than what you know.

Advice to Senior Management

Rethink the way in which you handle promotions and reductions in force. Go back to having managers who work rather than delegate. Reduce the unneccessary paperwork such as reviews and requisitions. Most of these things are counter productive,

Pros

Laid back workplace - small bank means less corporate more people focused
Team atmosphere gives you ability to interact with senior managers on a day to day basis
Easy customers. Local bank and local people mean you'll see the same characters weekly

Cons

Small corporation means lack of significant benefits
No matching 401k

Advice to Senior Management

Identify hard working and educated workers and make sure they grow within the organization - do not want to be forgotten.

Pros

The hiring process is pretty easy, the only thing you have to is breathe and you got the job. Locations are very accessible around the South Florida area.

Cons

You don't get awarded for anything you do that is above standard, the growth protential is tottaly out the window, so forget about making this a career.

Advice to Senior Management

You guys need to start concertrating on employee moral, because they are the ones that are driving this company. Also, management should be more educated, I worked there going through school and now that I'm graduated and moved on to a corporate level position with ATI Enterprises and see a big difference in professionalism.

Pros

- WOW customer service both external and internal
- great interpersonal relationships
- great working environment
- great management and leadership training

Cons

- compensation could improve
- benefits package wasnt all that

Advice to Senior Management

- do not allow your personal life to affect your work life negatively
- should keep personal politics as a minimum criteria for advancement (favortism)

Pros

Almost all employees will learn to become a personal banker and learn all the banks services. Also, because it is a smaller community bank, the morale is higher than if you worked for a larger bank where you can tend to fill like just another employee.

Cons

For experienced colleagues the pay and incentives are horrible. So after years of working in the banking system you are still making next to nothing. The pay is not competitive to other like positions. Also, because everyone most likely will get the opportunity to become a personal banker, there is a lot of uneducated, unqualified staff talking to customers about investments that they don't have a clue how interest and investments work. It's just not a professional environment and salaries are too low to house the best people. So once again, it is a great place to work for someone that couldn't keep up in a typical banking environment because you actually get opportunity here. Cheap labor for cheap work!

Advice to Senior Management

Higher qualified educated people, raise salaries and benefits, have incentives. Unitl then, you will continue to staff the stores with unknowledgable people and never make the bank income that is needed to stay alive!

Pros

Good benefits. Smart people , Flexible work schedules. Constant communication from management

Cons

Relying on associates in the branch to ultimately drive deposits with poor direction from regionals who are more concerned with making their numbers for senior management than training future leaders

Unprofessional, young tellers and reps who have no accountability nor individual incentives to sell bank products

No promotional opportunities in Corporate.

Systems infrastructure holding on by a thread -too many band aids-Mgmt does not want to invest in better, newer technology

Takes forever for a project to complete due to poor systems, accountability of departments, and too few resources.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the deadwood-senior management and highly paid directors that make no impact or provide any strategic direction for the company. Don't hire people you know that are not competent to run a department. Employees are afraid to speak up for fear they may be venting to someone who has a 'close' relationship with senior management. Lots of nepotism. Provide stronger thought leadership and don't change direction every quarter at an officer's meeting.

Pros

Great bank with room to grow in all sectors. Also the ability to move laterally and vertically from within. Pay was good and the reward for doing well at your job was also good. The job often involved travel and reimbursement was very fast and fair. Managers were meticulous and ran a clean operation from head to toe as expected by a large bank.

Cons

Management was not always the brightest and as motivated as the rest of the staff. Sometimes lackluster and not as motivated as the rest of the staff. If you don't enjoy the travel then this might not be the job for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to motivate management and employees more.

Pros

Good people, the employees really help each other out and treat each other like family

Cons

Low pay. Employees are not promoted based on their capabilities but who your friends with in senior management. Many good managers have been fired and replaced by incompetent managers whose only qualification is their ability to suck up to senior managers. The work schedule, being open seven days a week is also unfair. Most Managers do not work on saturdays or sundays but employees are required to work on the weekend. In most cases scheduling is adhoc and you can get stuck working pretty much every weekend. You have to make an effort to get the weekend off. The whole 7 days a week concept is good for employees who are students, part-time or have a personal preference to work on the weekend.

Advice to Senior Management

To keep good employees you have to compensate them well. You cannot just keep making demands from your employees and not reward them for their efforts. Management should stop making false promises of promotion and promote based on a persons performance not politics.l

Pros

It's a comfortable work environment.

Cons

Politics, yes man culture, bueracracy, mediocracy

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to refocus on what they are good at and clean out the underperformers from their rankings (including the sr managers)