2023 Community Bank Case Study Competition Journal

THIRD PLACE: Messiah University

outperformed peers in categories of asset growth, % of non-interest bearing deposits, and Tier 1 Leverage and Tier 1 Capital ratios. Moving forward, LINKBANK must work to continue loan facilitation and take advantage of the current interest rate environment to continue

LINKBANK has significantly outperformed peers in categories of asset growth, % of non-interest bearing deposits, and Tier 1 Leverage and Tier 1 Capital ratios.

high earning trends. Part II: Staffing

LINKBANK has maintained a workplace where culture, dynamic, and partnership come together to perform diligently and serve the people of their community, through their expanding footprint. This was shown by the fact that LINK was placed in the top 50 Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania for three years in a row. The bank has been able to rank on this list by recruiting and retaining talent throughout the years since opening in 2018. The bank is fortunate that their leaders, such as CEO Andrew Samuel, LINKBANCORP President Carl Lundblad, and LINKBANK President Brent Smith, are well connected in the community and are experienced bankers that have extensive knowledge and have strong affiliations with other Pennsylvania bankers. Not only do LINK’s leaders have banking affiliations, but also strong ties to colleges and universities, specifically Messiah University of which all three are alumni. Using these connections, they have drawn in students for internships and have retained many of them, resulting in a culture that is fairly young and diverse. As the bank grows their footprint, they are being intentional in expanding their reach and including multiple surrounding universities to give several students the experience in community banking they are

seeking. The human resources department also uses tactics such as Indeed, and their website. While they have used LinkedIn in the past, they did not find those efforts to be as fruitful as the ones they currently utilize. As a part of their incentive of recruiting and retaining employees, they have new benefits that were put into place. With the Gratz Bank merger in 2021, LINK altered their short term disability structure so that it went from employee paid to employer paid and increased medical options for employees. They have done this with other benefits as well such as paid parental leave and expanding family-time paid time off and they have taken it upon themselves to do regular and continuous reviews of who pays for what. The HR team takes that data and asks themselves, “What are employees paying for that they, as employers, can pay for?” This mindset has led to the development of overall increased benefits and has gone further into asking what resources can they provide for their employees. Last fall, LINKing

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