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Executive Insights
First Place CEO Believes in Rewarding Employees' Exceptional PerformancesSteve Lewis advocates making public examples when work force surpasses goals.Banking should be fun, the president and chief executive officer of First Place Financial Corp., Steven R. Lewis, believes. And when First Place employees exceed their goals, they should be publicly recognized for their performances.Which three teams in First Place's human resources department do quarterly, says its senior vice president for human resources, Dominique Stoeber. They visit every branch and every department that surpasses the goals and celebrate their accomplishments.A team will visit a branch and, with customers watching, perform skits that recognize First Place employees' accomplishments."Customers applaud," Stoeber says, "and sometimes join in the singing. They know the people waiting on them and they love it."Once a year First Place holds a corporatewide Recognition Bash to which the 700-plus employees from all the subsidiaries are invited. Last year's bash, held at Powers Auditorium, had a rock 'n' roll theme. There employees, including all senior officers, dressed as famous rock bands -- The Beatles, Kiss, the Partridge Family, among others -- and lip-synced the songs' lyrics between brief presentations recognizing "those who do superior jobs," Stoeber says. "We do some fun, wild things. It's all part of our STP culture -- service to people."This year the bash will have a baseball theme and be held May 18 at Eastwood Field, Niles.In addition to the quarterly and annual recognition events, supervisors are encouraged to be on the lookout for individual instances where employees go beyond the routine and have "spot recognition," as Stoeber calls it. A supervisor will produce "a treasure chest full of goodies" and have the employee reach into the bag and pick out his or her reward, she explains. Exactly what prompted Lewis six years ago to come up with such visual and public recognition Stoeber can't say. She can vouch for its success and its building and sustaining employee morale.That Lewis (left) says he makes it a point to meet with all First Place employees, both at recognition events and in their offices, to learn their concerns and progress shouldn't surprise.He joined First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Warren almost by accident Dec. 1, 1983, "just out of graduate school and broke," he recalls. He had accepted a job in Columbus with a waste management firm and agreed to interview with First Federal out of respect and courtesy for "Dick Francis, Jeff's dad, who said they needed an assistant treasurer."Jeff Francis was the chief executive officer of FFY Financial Corp. when it merged with First Place in 2000. After the merger he became president and chief operating officer of First Place Bank; illness forced him to take early retirement not too long afterward.At the time, Lewis had just earned his M.B.A. in finance at Cleveland State University. He had worked briefly for one of the Big 8 accounting firms in Cleveland and got his C.P.A. license after earning his baccalaureate in accounting at the University of Akron. He discovered, however, "accounting was not what I wanted to do."He was driving his motorcycle to East Liverpool, where he was born, to meet his family before beginning the job in Columbus when he stopped in Warren."I interviewed all five of senior management at the same time in this room [his office]," Lewis says. What impressed him was "their downright honesty and integrity." Shortly afterward, "they made me an offer, a third less than what I'd agreed to in Columbus. They really impressed me."He was so short of cash, he remembers, that he had to borrow $50 from Francis to rent a trailer to move his possessions to Warren. At the time he was 27 years old, and he has been with First Federal and its successors since. When he was named chief financial officer in the early '90s, he says, "Two-thirds of our balance sheet were in my desk drawer," meaning government investments. First Federal was following a risk-averse strategy that was willing to settle for lower profits in exchange for the safety of government paper.Since succeeding Paul Watson as chief executive officer in January 1997, Lewis has adopted "a growth and diversification mentality." The first step was taking his company public in 1998, "not an easy transition for a thrift to make," Lewis remarks. The difficulties were concealed by the success First Place enjoyed and its experience promoted unrealistic expectations when other thrifts in the Mahoning Valley followed suit.Going public allowed First Place to acquire Ravenna Savings Bank, which added nearly $200 million in assets, and FFY, which added $668 million in assets. A merger with Franklin Bancorp Inc., Southfield, Mich., announced last November, is pending.Lewis made First Place Bank a source of one-stop shopping for those buying residences, developing what he calls "a rationalized mortgage lending program." Through First Place subsidiaries, home buyers can place their houses on the market, have the title work taken care of on their new homes, and buy homeowners and mortgage insurance.Lewis did this creating a partnership with Coldwell Banker, acquiring insurance agencies and a title agency, and most recently having First Place Insurance Agency Ltd. agree to acquire the Weigel, Lackey & Ross agency in Poland, to meet all insurance needs. "This solidifies our capabilities of offering a full spectrum of insurance services which include home, auto, life and disability and business insurance, says Dan Landers, president of First Place Insurance.Lewis has recruited and hired seasoned bankers -- among them, Tim Beaumont, Al Blank, Kirk Brugler, Bob Kemp and Kenton Thompson -- as First Place entered commercial lending, consumer lending, investment services and serving individuals with a high net worth. Blank, now chief operating officer, came from Republic Bank in Michigan where he ran its mortgage operations in Indiana and Ohio and had built a reputation "as a good, strong competitor. We wanted him," Lewis says. Blank's abilities led to his promotion from head of mortgage lending to chief operating officer when Francis retired.When a bank is growing, Lewis notes, "It's easier to attract talent, not just achieve economies of scale."Reflecting employee satisfaction, he says, is the low turnover, "below 5%," Stoeber reports. Those who leave, Lewis says, rarely go to another financial institution.Setting service standards, encouraging employees to meet them and encouraging employees to discuss among themselves how to best achieve goals and standards -- these are what lead to better-than-average if not great results, Lewis says."You're accountable to someone else in the company beyond your boss," Lewis says. Lending officers, customer service representatives and tellers depend on support staff and backroom employees. "Everything about us is antiparental," he emphasizes. As CEO he has encouraged a culturewhere initiative, not just good performance, is rewarded and recognized.What constitutes and contributes to good performance is discussed in employee meetings. "We discuss issues. We sit down in these forums and publish the results [internally]," Lewis says. "Are you delivering on our promise? That's always the [underlying] question. Are we encouraging [customer] loyalty?"Mystery shoppers help keep employees sharp as they strive to give customers a reason to return, Stoeber says. "I get letters every week from customers telling me how well they were treated," Lewis says. First Place Bank offices open five minutes before they're scheduled to open and remain open five minutes beyond the posted close of business, Stoeber says. It reflects First Place's attitude of trying to provide that little bit extra."