Over and over, clients tell us that our caring, committed people set our bank apart. Providing an environment that brings out the best in our talented workforce is the result of our attention to core issues of compensation and benefits, two-way feedback and career development, and ongoing opportunity for growth. Importantly, we strive for a workplace that values diversity and inclusion.
Our Culture
People are the foundation of Western Alliance and we invest in their success. Our people are committed to our clients’ success and, by putting clients first, we create strong shareholder Performance. This leads to tremendous Possibilities to fuel client growth and support our communities, and in turn provide expanding opportunities to attract and retain our People.
Our Values Drive Us
Integrity: We expect everyone to apply high ethical standards and sound judgment in all we do.
Creativity: We are all part of an environment that welcomes new ideas and prizes creative, strategic thinking to benefit customers and our commitment to relationship banking.
Teamwork: We work together across departments, specialty areas and geographies in a productive, collaborative way that forwards the interests of clients and the bank.
Passion: Our passion motivates us to overcome obstacles, think big and do more.
Excellence: We strive to deliver strong performance and excellence in everything we undertake.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Western Alliance believes that employing people of varying backgrounds, identities and experiences reflects the diversity of our markets and our clients, and offers us added strengths as we reach toward higher performance and greater opportunities for our people. Diversity helps us build understanding, a linchpin of our customer-first approach to doing business.
Improving Diversity at All Levels
Western Alliance is committed to improving workforce diversity at all levels of the organization. We are working intentionally to enhance diversity in our workforce by tracking recruiting and promotions, and reporting this data to executive management.
- In 2019, we set a goal to attract a 50% diverse candidate pool for open positions. We are exceeding that goal, accelerating the rate of diversity hiring.
- In the first six months of 2020, ethnically diverse and female employees received 39% and 63% of internal promotions, respectively.
- During succession planning, the Chief Human Resources Officer met with every executive leader to review diversity statistics within their divisions/departments to identify ways to further improve diversity levels for their talent planning.
The bank has established an executive-led Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Opportunity Council, which guides and sponsors initiatives, sets goals designed to increase diversity of thought and access to leadership, evaluates organizational and best practice D&I strategies, and creates subcommittees to activate goals. One aspect of this work is the active support of Business Resource Groups, including those for women, veterans and LGBTQIA+. Among the groups’ activities are opportunities to engage in programs, network with peers and connect with bank leadership. Overall, the Opportunity Council is focused on accelerating D&I activities and results.
Creating Opportunities and a Talent Pipeline
Two early talent identification programs at Western Alliance – our college internship program and Commercial Banking Development Program (CBDP) – enhance our ability to hire outstanding people. Our campus recruitment initiatives and partnerships also fuel our pipeline of talent, and provide other ways for us to heighten diversity.
Within our internship program, college students and recent graduates are paired with leaders across the Company to create a valuable, immersive experience. Our objective is to retain the most promising interns from year to year and eventually bring this talent into the bank through the CBDP or other appropriate positions. The CBDP is an 18-month, on-the-job development program to train successful credit analysts that offers progressive assignments, mentoring, opportunities to learn the business and various aspects of leadership. The objective is for these individuals to grow into future leaders at Western Alliance. Additionally, we are expanding our sales training and mentoring efforts to foster diversity within our commercial lending teams.
Overcoming Unconscious Bias
With the understanding that bias is a larger societal issue, Western Alliance offers training to create awareness and understanding of everyday biases and micro-behaviors, and helps individuals to implement solutions to create a more inclusive workplace. Training is required for all employees and additional, focused trainings are required for all managers, including one specifically promoting inclusion.
BENEFITS & EMPLOYEE RETENTION INVESTMENTS
Striving for Active Engagement
We know team members who are highly engaged are more likely to be committed to our organization and motivated to accomplish their best work. We have implemented an AI engagement tool to encourage real-time feedback. On an ongoing basis, our people can request to meet with members of the HR team to discuss any matter. Together with regular annual reviews, these feedback avenues enable us to respond to issues in a timely manner and maintain a high level of engagement.
Sharing Success with Our People
Throughout our organization, 99% of our people participate in the Annual Bonus Plan and everyone, except executive management, is eligible to receive business incentives. Our Company works hard to create a “winning team environment” and reward our people in meaningful ways.