First National Community Bank
First National Community Bank, located in northeastern Pennsylvania, was first chartered in 1910. The bank currently manages $1.7 billion in assets and operates 16 retail branch facilities across four counties.
Tom Lunney, Vice President, speaks with Ted Jackson, ClearPoint co-founder about goal-setting, organizational buy-in, and adaptability.
Watch the full conversation here!
Performance Management at FNCB
FNCB’s strategic planning process begins with a meeting between executive and middle management. On a quarterly basis, the managers discuss long-range options to accomplish in the next two to three years. The fourth quarter of the year is spent building goals and specifying metrics. However, the bank strives to remain fluid, as the industry is both highly regulated and constantly changing.
FNCB’s goals have evolved tremendously over time. In the last year, FNCB has gone from 155 long-term goals to 35, prioritizing quality over quantity and making their strategic plan more manageable. These goals highlight items that will bring the bank forward. Lunney asks: “Is the goal going to move the needle?” and emphasizes the importance of linking the budget to the strategic plan: “they have to be married.”
These goals are centered around the bank’s six pillars, among them Customer Experience and Growth, Enhancing the Banking Experience, and Enterprise Risk and Compliance. FNCB’s 35 goals stem from each pillar to ensure that improvement of each is achieved. An executive management member is assigned to a particular pillar and is in charge of reporting status at quarterly strategy meetings.
Prior to ClearPoint, this cycle was managed in Excel spreadsheets in a shared drive. Lunney recounts that it was not the most efficient way to operate. Members manually updated their specific goals, and the process was overseen by two strategic plan managers. FNCB now leverages automatic workflows for monthly reporting reminders, and uses ClearPoint to house high-level overviews for 12, 24, and 36-month goals. Reminders go out on the first of each month, and members have 15 days to update their goal progress in ClearPoint. The time savings for the administration team are significant, the entire process can now be managed by Lunney alone.
“ClearPoint saves me days per quarter.”
FNCB is led by a progressive management team with lots of legacy - Lunney himself has been with the bank for 37 years! Buy-in from the top was easy to secure. Leadership feels ClearPoint is a tool that helps everyone at the bank do their jobs, and has without question made them more efficient. The platform has helped improve internal communication by promoting collaboration across the entire organization, and this cross-departmental perspective has ensured that there are never any surprises.
The banking industry is constantly evolving, and there’s been an emphasis throughout the last several years regarding the digital sphere - around 95% of FNCB’s operations are online. The bank's mission: "to make your banking experience simply better." Lunney hopes to maintain that the bank provides the latest and greatest services to its clients. As circumstances change, ClearPoint allows the bank to be flexible in a dynamic environment.
Struggling to start up strategy reporting at your organization? Lunney’s advice: Don't put too much pressure on yourself to master it, let it evolve over time. Be intentional in figuring out where you want to be, how you're going to get there, and putting the components in order for you to achieve your goals. "The system itself is open-ended, it does what I want it to do." And, don't forget to take advantage of your ClearPoint Account Executive's software knowledge and learn as much as possible!
“We've survived since 1910 without ClearPoint. But with ClearPoint, it certainly helps us moving forward for the next 100 years. I hope it's that long with you guys!"