As one of the largest privately held banks in Indiana, Centier Bank takes pride in elevating customers and businesses to help them reach their financial goals. Centier is able to cover anything from a simple business account to treasury management. The bank is able to help a wide array of people through a large selection of services because it understands that everyone has a different goal and no two are identical.
Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager, and Community Coordinator for Centier Bank in La Porte County Michael Bober shared that people are like fingerprints and their financial needs and wants to reflect that. Therefore, addressing their unique needs is a necessity.
Bober appreciates the attention Centier gives to the individual and how its values serve as the foundation for a positive, people-minded work culture.
“The beauty is, I remember when I first came on a few years ago; they talked about the importance of adding fun as one of the values,” Bober said. “Coming from a more of a corporate world into privately held world, I was taken aback a little bit in a good way because of the leadership from the top living out these core values. They show they care, and they show they're compassionate and giving an example about caring.”
This care was definite through the COVID-19 pandemic as the CEO made it clear to employees that they belonged at Centier despite the fear and uncertainty flooding people’s minds.
“Everybody here has a place, and it was reassuring to the over 1,000 employees that we weren't going to be without a job. That's that caring the loyalty,” Bober said. “The same thing goes for our day-in and day-out work. Numerous services come in, and we do everything we can to help both our clients and our peers have the best experience possible.”
To make this atmosphere of care tangible, Centier has a care program that provides employee support via money and time. This program allows employees to volunteer vacation days to people who need emergency time off, and it has a care fund to help associates who are struggling with finances. Centier comes up with fun ways to raise money and has an annual Christmas party where it raises between $15,000-$24,000 to finance its care fund.
Centier also has a program of support called CentierGives that goes beyond its offices’ walls and into its communities. Every year, CentierGives participates in a United Way campaign because Centier is passionate about getting involved with schools and local organizations.
With so many staff members serving the community through CentierGives and on an individual basis, Centier makes sure to celebrate employees’ acts of service.
“One of the internal rewards that Centier gives one associate a year is the Heart of the Community Award, and I'm very honored to have been the inaugural winner,” Bober said. “It really shows what individuals in the bank are able to do and shows their passion for their community. We can show that care without the teams that we have around us and different organizations within the communities.”
Centier recently received the Commitment to Community Award from the Indiana Bankers Association at a Mega Conference in recognition of its community outreach and philanthropic efforts.
To learn more about Centier Bank, visit https://www.centier.com/. For more information about the businesses that are making a difference in La Porte, visit La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership's website at https://laportepartnership.com/.
