M&T Bank Reviews

Pros

They seem to care about their employees as well as the general outlook/ consequences for business decisions.
The company likes to advocate that they promote from within.
They are in actuality, superior to competitors, therefore selling their products/services is something to not feel guilty doing.

Cons

The general sense of promotion is not always done fairly. A current employee should be at least given an interview if meeting basic qualifications of a specific job they are applying to.
Pay is less than competitors.
Raises are ridiculous.
Branch asst managers and managers can not fully support the rest of the staff because they are unfamiliar with teller systems.
Lots of sales required for tellers.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase pay for the tellers, who you continuously say "are the FACE OF THE BANK." Give more training to upper mgmt in branches. Maybe some communication and team playing training as well, since many asst mgrs or br mgrs feel as though they do not have to treat their employees with respect.

Pros

M&T is a profitable bank that has consistently weathered the storms of mergers and poor economies. In fact, M&T has continued to grow through mergers over the years. The company keeps up with technology and makes wise financial decisions.

Cons

As the company continues to grow they have less respect for new employees that come through mergers. The new employees’ suggestions are ignored and basically discouraged. Human Resources does a poor job working with management. The company states the importance of the employees, work-life balance etc. Unfortunately, they do not practice what they preach.

Pros

Nice Friendly coworkers that will help you out when needed
Close to downtown restaurants
Plenty of places to park / close to train or bus

Cons

Low Pay / no bonuses
Benefits are poor
Management can not lead or make a decision
All staff is not treated equally
Can not use vacation days that are given to you to use

Advice to Senior Management

Review the over abundance of middle management

Pros

It's a good career start, but you will ultimately be thrown behind new employees with more experience who come from other banks (most of them failed)

Cons

It's a boy's club. Women make much less compared to men. Management wants workers who are sole bread winners so they are locked into their job. Many new hires are overpaid failures but middle management covers it up so they don't look embarrassed. Promotions to other divisions are done through secret "lists" and major opportunities are never posted.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to post jobs like companies with strong successful cultures do. Stop making poor investments and return share price to prior levels. Pay more market rate salaries as nobody makes money from stock options anymore.

Pros

The people I interacted with at M&T Bank where uniformly professional. I saw very few politics or game playing. Work-life balance is good--I didn't witness many occasions of people, even senior management, getting into the office before 8 AM or leaving after 5:30 PM. Base salaries seem to be generally good--much higher than my previous employer job-for-job. Professional advancement is adequate--there seem to be ample opportunities for someone to move up with the right combination of skill and ambition.

Cons

Professional development was below average. Managers are not compensated on how they develop the people below them. I encountered numerous managers who didn't even conduct one-on-ones with their subordinates (aside from annual reviews). Skip-levels are unheard of.

While base salary was decent, the bonus structure was inadequate. For the position I was in, 20-60% of base is customary, but M&T was offering 2-4% annual merit bonus.

The technology and systems at M&T are woefully outdated. They are probably 20 years behind the cutting edge financial institutions. This problem is emblematic of a general reluctance to undergo change. Pushing through any substantive change at M&T takes an act of Congress, so if you've got a lot of good ideas, prepare to be either stymied or have it take 4-5 times longer to implement your ideas than you expect.

Not to be overly nitpicky, but no coffee in the break rooms? C'mon! It's such a cheap perq that makes such a big difference.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a plan to emphasize people development. Overhaul performance incentives and the bonus structure. Figure out a way to encourage change and growth without compromising the bank's famous return on shareholder equity.

Pros

Adequate feedback from management, somewhat meaningful work.

Cons

Outdated IT systems, lower than competitive pay, other departments are at times uncooperative.

In my in my department you're expected to work more than 40 hours per week or else you're seen as an underachiever.

Advice to Senior Management

There's a reason why the employee engagement results are less than optimal. Either pay employees more or make the appropriate improvements to boost job satisfaction.

Pros

Good benefits such as vacation time 2 weeks after only 6 months of service. A good schedule with holidays off. Incentive bonuses quarterly

Cons

Very demanding of the tellers with not enough managment respect and support. Always working short handed and expected to answer phones in the middle of transactions. Under paid for the amount of work and responsiblities that are expected.

Advice to Senior Management

Please hire when people are needed at your branches. Quit cutting corners with your branch staffing. You will brag about your profits to the employees, then leave them high and dry without any compensation.

Pros

Pick up experience, but continue on to another place...if it's just a job, not career; you'll be fine

Cons

Lifer's taking credit or steal your work, promoting not with the best, but with insecurity so no one can move up and around. Keep the good people down, keeps the insure management up.

Very expense benefits package cost with low quality, no free parking; costs upward to $900.00/year.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean up the politics, develop fair practice standards and remove the insecure people by having a review system that is objectable, not subjective. Intelligence could go along way for the future, but having fear or threat of the brightest will only drive more people out to organizations such as First Niagara; who are successfully gaining the brains. Smart people have been targeted because their bosses are very intimidated. Need to change the 155 year buddy practice and understand what's important.

Pros

Strong bank. Great people. Strong credit culture. Substantial investment in training programs. Large amount of community involvement, from both the bank and individual employee level.

Cons

IT processes and services could use improvement. Sales folks are required to do too much; business development, credit underwriting, portfolio management, etc. Could use additional resources around portfolio management and more streamlined onboarding process.

Advice to Senior Management

Great engagement, support and leadership throughout the local community. Strong local leadership. Improvement in IT services both internally and for end clients needs to be improved.

Pros

Good pay, has a lot of assets and is a strong community bank. It has a reputation that is built by the strength of their leaders.

Cons

Terrible employee training. A lack of competent leaders. Too much politics involved within the atmosphere. There was a trend of dishonest and dirty practices within the workplace. No one who works there is to be trusted.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no training or direction given to new employees with promising potential for success. Certain departments are corrupt with playing favorites. Terrible leaders are left in positions of leadership when they have track records of poor management.