At INB, everyone is working for the good of the whole.

That was evident from the beginning to Charlie Kerwin.

“I had been part of a group of layoffs at a technology consulting group three months before our oldest daughter was born. I was hired on by INB two months before she was born, and INB was very flexible in letting me take time when she was born. I hadn’t even proved myself yet and had obviously not earned the time yet, but that was not a problem for the bank,” Charlie recalls.

Charlie, SVP, information security officer, is now celebrating 15 years of his career at INB, alongside Larry Buske, deposit operations officer. Evan Westlake, SVP, commercial lending; Lisa West, remittance coordinator; and Emily Francis, treasury services associate, are commemorating 10 years with the bank, while Adam Lofgren, AVP, mortgage lending for INB Peoria, celebrates his five-year service anniversary during third quarter 2018.

“I have been with Deposit Operations since I started at INB; as the department has changed with different coworkers over time, the ‘team’ environment has always been there,” noted Larry.

Positivity Drives Culture

That kind of positive culture drives INB’s staff.

“The culture is probably my favorite thing about working at INB,” Adam said. “I love being trusted to grow in our market as we see fit and the appreciation shown by corporate and upper management when we succeed.

“The culture that upper management instills is one that I would have never thought I would see or be a part of working in the banking industry. We have a very progressive culture here and it reflects in our success; I can’t imagine any other competitor has the same experience our INB employees enjoy.”

Adam said he has been thrilled to see tremendous growth, particularly in the Peoria market where he works, over his five years at INB.

“When I first started just over five years ago, not many people knew who or what INB was, and we had essentially zero market share in mortgage. Now we are nearly a household name, and we are consistently one of the top three mortgage lenders in market share!” he said. “It’s been a true pleasure being a part of a growing team with so many positive people. We went from a very small mortgage team to now having the same kind of software some of the big national players have that will allow us to grow into previously untapped markets.”

Growth in More than Size

Evan pointed out that the size of the bank has more than doubled since he first started 10 years ago – but there have also been other exciting advancements as well.

“The growth that is more intriguing to me is the growth of our people, our systems and our culture,” he said. “INB has always been a great place to work, but these last several years have been really fun. We generally work really hard to do what’s right for our customers, but also love to pause and have a good time to celebrate when good things happen.”

“The people I work with are what make INB such a great job,” Emily agreed. “I had a few friends who got me to join on at INB and have made some more friends in the process.”

INB’s culture also promotes and encourages innovation and autonomy – something that bank employees applaud.

“The bank has a very innovative mindset,” Charlie said. “This manifests itself not just in our product offerings and how we work with our customers, but also in how the bank handles IT and Information Security. This mindset allows all of us in IT to continue to be challenged to learn new skills. It would be hard to stay in IT at one business for this long and not be challenged to grow.”

INB employees are certainly being challenged to grow, and because of that, the bank continues to thrive as its staff looks forward to providing valuable contributions for the benefit of the whole company.

“INB is a fantastic place to work. We’re encouraged to ask questions and bring big ideas to the table,” Evan said. “We are held accountable for doing our job well, but we are also allowed to do everything we can to make it an even better place for our customers, our employees and our shareholders.”