Empowering Growth: Huntington’s Proactive Approach to Professional Development
Huntington Business Credit, the asset-based lending division of Huntington National Bank, takes a proactive approach to professional development for its team members, a philosophy that permeates the entire bank. To Doug Winget, president of Huntington Business Credit, being committed to the career progression of employees is how the bank fuels and maintains a strong culture.
“It’s very important that a bank has a culture that shines through the retainment of employees,” Winget says. “The way to retain people is to develop them, train them, and establish a culture that they care about.”
Winget describes Huntington as “an old school relationship bank,” and while relationships with clients are critical, the bank is also laser-focused on its relationship with its employees. In many ways, the twofold focus is symbiotic.
“When people are comfortable and progressing in their career, they’re more engaged employees, which benefits not just the Huntington organization but the people and the clients that they’re supporting,” Joe Kwasny, managing director of business development at Huntington Business Credit, says.
To ensure employees have the best tools to succeed and grow in their careers, Huntington provides a holistic suite of professional development programs and initiatives. Whether a new retail associate or a senior vice president in the commercial bank, a litany of opportunities are available, including continuing education courses, a robust leadership development program and a dedicated “credit college.” The leadership program has become a major focus for the bank in the last 10 years, according to Winget, who says company executives take an active role in identifying and nominating candidates for the program.
“It’s incumbent in all of our managers’ goals to identify high performers and to have a consistent dialogue with our employees about what their skills are and what their career aspirations are,” Kwasny says.
Many of Huntington’s professional development activities are colleague-initiated through the bank’s dedicated online career hub, a platform that provides employees opportunities to build their careers. For example, through “gig” assignments, employees can apply for short-term projects outside their current roles or departments to expand their skill sets. The hub also provides a list of potential mentors who employees can contact directly to forge relationships.
Although professional development is important at all levels within the bank, Huntington puts in great effort to ensure young talent has a strong foundation from which to build, especially through its internship program, which was named of the 100 best in the U.S. in 2023 by Vault, a provider of employer rankings. The program provides interns with assignments across multiple teams, mentors within the organization and opportunities for community service. Winget notes that the bank has had a solid success rate of hiring interns after graduation, a must for an industry like ABL already feeling the effects of an aging workforce.
“Talent is getting older, and we need younger developed talent in our industry,” Winget says. “There is a real need to hire young individuals out of college or young in their career and then develop them through the group.”
In addition to confronting the aging of the ABL industry, Huntington is also in growth mode, particularly in the ABL industry verticals of retail, healthcare and metals and a geographic expansion with the commercial bank, in the Carolinas and Texas. As Winget explains, such an expansion is centered on hiring, building and developing teams directly in those markets rather than acquisitions, making the bank’s robust professional development capabilities a key component in its overall growth plans. •
