The little banks that could BY Gregg Fields (Miami Herald, Sunday August 15, 2004) spotlights the challenges and opportunities facing community banks in southern Florida. Here's a clip relevant to the telework discussion (my emphasis added):

'Uniformly, community bank say their biggest challenge is attracting and retaining talent. And longtimers say it has become particularly tough since the demise of Southeast Bank, which had a highly regarded internal training program that inevitably produced managers for other area institutions.

[Sid] Spiro [president of Regent Bank] said one solution is to empower managers, so they get to make decisions that a bigger institution might decide by loan committee.

And he'll go to great lengths to keep key employees. When senior vice president Pam Brownlee said she wanted to move to North Carolina so her children could be near grandparents, Spiro let her telecommute.

''I halfway expected it to be temporary, but it has worked out beautifully,'' said Brownlee, who's been telecommuting now for several years.'

9:48:39 AM