Commerce Bancshares Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area

Pros

Good campus. Good corporate culture. High level of integrity within the company. Good people working there. Great management. Safe place to work.

Cons

Not a huge company - some downsides come along with this.

Advice to Senior Management

Be a little better.

Pros

Easy job with little supervision. Training easy and quick. The benefits were ok.

Cons

Management only worked opening and gave bad shifts to new hires. Sat on the Internet all day. Behavior terribly negative. Never talked about or encouraged advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire positive people. Get out of the executive office once in a while to find out what really happens within the organization.

Pros

I did not realize how truly dysfunctional my previous employer was until I came to Commerce and saw the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I'm a recent hire, in the interview process I spoke with 5 different people at different management levels. The overriding message I got was that people really like to work here. Now that I've been working at Commerce for a few months, I get it. At my old company there was a lot of lip service given to respect and dignity of employees but that was it. Commerce on the other hand, does it instead of just talking about it all the time. Management treats employees well, employees treat each other with respect, and there's a true sense that we're all working toward the same goals. There's also a refreshing focus on ethical values. I feel that regardless of level, every employee is made to feel as though they have a voice. No company is perfect but Commerce is really a great place to work.

Cons

Base pay is a little below market value. There is bonus opportunity to supplement base pay however. For me the work environment and work/life balance afforded by my position outweigh the higher pay somewhere else.

Advice to Senior Management

Commerce has great employees because they are treated with respect and dignity and feel as though their voices are heard. Don't lose this focus.

Pros

As a regional bank, Commerce embodied community values and was family-oriented. Managers as a whole were competent and empathetic. The conservative values applied to lending has helped Commerce remain strong in the current economic crisis.

Cons

Doesn't always apply Best Practices of large banks. Allows all departments to be managed through HR, instead of evaluating business requirements. Autonomy sometimes looks like anarchy.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a Commercial LOB executive position that is separate from the individual bank president positions.

Pros

Adequate compensation and superior employee benefits make this a good place to work. Friendly atmosphere with good core values. Emphasis on developing new products for customers bodes well for the future. Political infighting is no worse than most banks. This bank avoided the mortgage mess currently plaguing many large financial institutions.

Cons

A reluctance to recognize the value of telecommuting. Exceptionally high performance review goals insure that 99 % of employees will never qualify for telecommuting. Conservative values sometimes make it difficult for the company to recognize the benefits of newer technologies.

Advice to Senior Management

Company should explore ways to share information with employees more often. Performance reviews can be subjective and goals are often set high to discourage promotions & salary increases.

Pros

Their investment in technology and information security is high. Database performance and stability is very important. Management is very accessible, and it has a fairly flat hierarchy. The workload is spread fairly evenly, and those who perform well are recognized and generally promoted. Movement from department to department and professional growth is supported by management. Management of the bank is fairly conservative, which has made this bank a very stable employer even in the current economy. There was no investment in the sub-prime mortgage market.

Working in the IT department, it can be a little slower paced than some IT shops, due to the conservative nature of the bank, but the projects have a very large impact, so they are carefully planned. A person with a bit of initiative can find themselves in a position of great responsibility quite quickly.

A lot of people return to work at the bank after pursuing employment elsewhere. The only reason that I am leaving this company is because my wife took a job in a new city.

Cons

Certain departments and teams are overloaded, but if you know how to handle your workload, you can do well. The conservative nature of the company can be too slow paced for some IT professionals. The business units often buy products without consulting the IT department and then ask us to make it work.

In my opinion, as far as jobs go, there aren't too many downsides to working at Commerce Bank.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to unify policy across all business units and cost centers, but overall, Commerce is a great place to work.