近距离内射合集

Pioneer Bank has been serving southern New Mexico since 1901 鈥� before New Mexico was even a state. This year, it turns 125. And this year, it鈥檚 ranked No. 1 among midsize companies in the Top Workplaces list.

鈥淥ur employees, I think that makes them feel good to work at a place that gets recognized like this,鈥� said Christopher Palmer, the bank鈥檚 president and CEO.

Pioneer is headquartered in Roswell and operates 11 branches across six southern New Mexico communities: Roswell, Las Cruces, Hobbs, Carlsbad, Ruidoso and Alamogordo. The bank serves around 40,000 customers and is one of the few financial institutions in the state that remains independently operated.

Employees receive health, dental and vision insurance, FSA accounts, paid time off and a 401(k). The bank also offers an employee stock ownership plan 鈥� which gives every employee a share in the bank鈥檚 annual earnings 鈥� that Palmer said is likely the best investment his staff has.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Palmer. It has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Pioneer鈥檚 vision is 鈥渢o be the standard by which all other community banks measure themselves.鈥� How do you translate that into something employees feel every day?

That鈥檚 the big goal 鈥� the highest goal that we鈥檙e after. Our mission statement is how we do that, which is making 鈥渁 positive difference in the lives of those who work, bank, invest at Pioneer.鈥� When we give talks about that and when we bring people in and talk about Pioneer, we talk about the order that we list that:  We鈥檙e first concerned with taking care of the people that work here, and if we do that, those people will take care of the people that bank here, and if we do that, that鈥檒l take care of the people who invest here. All of our employees are all three of those things:  They work here, they bank here, they invest here, because we have a pretty large employee stock ownership plan, and every employee is an owner of the bank. We have signs all over the bank that say 鈥渨e act like we own the place, because we do.鈥� One of my mantras is, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not so much what we do, but how we do it.鈥� At the end of the day, banking is kind of a commodity, and we don鈥檛 do anything that any other bank doesn鈥檛 do, but we鈥檙e trying to do it our way.

This year Pioneer is celebrating its 125th anniversary. How did you mark that with the team?

We had, in all six of our markets, what you might want to call a business after hours, where we invited the community into the bank for a reception. Every five years we do an anniversary coin, so we did a 125th anniversary coin. We did giveaways, and we鈥檙e really celebrating all year long. 鈥� But really what we鈥檝e done is inside the bank, we鈥檝e celebrated with our team, and one of the fun things our team got to do this year is we asked each person that works at Pioneer Bank to pick a project 鈥� something that wouldn鈥檛 have gotten done in the ordinary course of their business. We have about 150 projects going on, and they cover the whole gamut, from financial education to spay and neuter clinics to lending libraries.

You recently celebrated two employees who retired with a combined 47 years of service. What does that kind of longevity say about the bank?

I mean, it says something about the culture of the bank. Sometimes when I give my talk to new employees, I say, 鈥淟ook, a bank is maybe not the cornerstone of a community, but it鈥檚 one of them.鈥� In Chaves County, Pioneer has been that cornerstone for 125 years. We鈥檙e one of the larger employers; we鈥檙e definitely one of the more stable employers; we鈥檝e been around, our people are everywhere, involved in everything, and that鈥檚 important to people. And sometimes it embarrasses me, but people will say, 鈥淧ioneer feels like a family.鈥� I鈥檝e been here for 22 years, but the people that we replaced had been here for 35 years, and when I leave, it鈥檒l be 30 years.

Pioneer does a lot of community volunteer work through Team Pioneer. Can you give some examples?

We have literally hundreds of activities and thousands of hours that get logged. We volunteer at the homeless shelter in Roswell, at the community kitchen. 鈥� As you go to different markets, we鈥檙e involved with Christmas on the Pecos in Carlsbad; we鈥檙e involved with (New Mexico State University) in Las Cruces. We give each employee $100 at the beginning of the year to make a contribution to a charity of their choice. Sometimes employees will get together and pool their money for one, sometimes they鈥檒l do an individual thing. 鈥� This last year we paid all the library fines for the kids at one of the schools, and I guess it turned out there weren鈥檛 library fines, but there were missing books, so we made a donation to replace the books that had gone missing. One of the things that鈥檚 challenging about a community bank is some banks will pick one thing and direct all their money and time to that. We鈥檙e asked by everybody, and we鈥檙e involved in everything, so we don鈥檛 make huge donations in time or money, but we do it across the whole gamut of everything that goes on. It used to be the case that somebody like me would be on the board of all the charities, and I鈥檝e had my turn at that, but I always take my turn and then put one of my people on the team, so they can have that same experience. We literally have people throughout the whole bank who serve on community nonprofit boards, whether they鈥檙e the president of the bank or whether they鈥檙e a teller.

Matthew Narvaiz is the Journal鈥檚 business editor. You can reach him at mnarvaiz@abqjournal.com.