Commerce Bank's Total Rewards program helps team members live well.

“But we think career development is such an important part of our team members’ overall well-being that it’s a necessary piece of the overall program.”

With health and wellness as such a focal point, the Total Rewards team has built incentives called Wellness Points into the program. Team members who accumulate enough Wellness Points gain access to perks such as discounts on their health insurance premiums.

“We want to provide lots of options for earning points, so we try to have something for everybody,” says Denno. “Lots of people earn points by putting on a tracker and walking 7,000 steps a day. But not everybody wants to do that. So we built in all kinds of other options that can be done instead—other forms of exercise, for example. There are other ways, too. Team members can earn points simply by reading health tips each day, joining webinars, and participating in community service.”

For those who do enjoy earning their points by walking, the Total Rewards team tries to make it more fun to keep team members motivated. “In our online portal, which can be accessed on a computer or via an app, we have step challenges twice a year. Teams can track their steps on a map of the world that tracks your imaginary progress as you walk,” says Denno. “If you go far enough, you unlock content—for example, images and information about architecture in Greece, or recipes for dishes that are native to Spain. As you keep walking, you unlock content about various countries. You can also create a team of up to five people so together you can unlock new destinations faster. It encourages teamwork and it’s fun.”

In the area of financial well-being, the program provides resources through an online hub that offers information about a wide variety of personal finance topics. “Sometimes people think that anyone who works at a bank knows everything about finance, but that’s not always the case,” says Michelle Peters, a Total Rewards senior analyst. “We have people in a wide variety of roles, and not everyone’s job involves mortgages, or retirement accounts, or credit. So we have resources available that can help people learn and improve the way they manage their own finances. Team members can take a money personality quiz that gives a lot of information and provides insight into money habits. It then provides suggestions of articles and videos that are helpful for that team member’s financial personality type.”

Peters adds that the online hub also offers financial wellness checkups. “It asks questions about your goals, where you are in life and what’s important to you,” she says. “From there, it recommends topics that would be most helpful to you based on your responses. It helps you narrow things down so you can focus on the information you need the most.”

Team members also have the option of being connected with Commerce specialists on various financial services.

Denno notes that Commerce’s Healthy Returns wellness program also offers one-on-one coaching for team members. “There are all kinds of things people can sign up for—coaching around nutrition, goal setting, finance, you name it,” he says. “There’s a huge variety of different programs, all with certified coaches who will set up time to talk to the team member and help them track their progress. You can talk about what’s working and what’s not, and you can get new ideas as well.”

The key to making the Total Rewards program as robust as possible, says Denno, is feedback. “We’re constantly listening and trying to understand the needs of our team members,” he says. “We want to know how we can best support them. We try to make it easy for people to find and use the programs that best fit their needs. Everyone has different needs, so we try to have as broad a base of programs as we can.”

Peters says that surveys of team members are very useful in this regard. “The surveys help inform us as to what our team members are looking for and what matters to them the most,” she says. “We do deep dives on that information, and it helps us create programs that are relevant to them.

All of these programs are rooted in Commerce’s values. The company wants all team members to live healthy, balanced lives, with careers that are meaningful to them and access to resources that can help make life outside of work more fulfilling.

Ultimately, says Denno, what’s most important is that team members at Commerce feel valued. “Our team members are our greatest assets,” he says. “People can achieve so much more in their professional lives when the work experience is geared toward helping them achieve their personal well-being goals. That’s what we’re striving for.”

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