Social: Workforce
Our more than 4,700 team members are the bedrock of our success. We succeed through their diligence and support, collaboration and innovation. Ours is a culture that celebrates the individuality of each of our team members, but fosters a collective spirit of tenacity, inspired action, ambition to win the right way and collaboration in everything we do.
Talent recruitment
We are committed to recruiting a rich pool of diverse candidates for open roles. We participate in and sponsor recruitment events focused on diversity, including those for individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ+, veterans and more. We work with leading organizations and institutions—including Circa, Divergence Academy, Hispanic chambers of commerce, women’s professional networks and others—that promote and support the development of talent from underrepresented groups.
Our recruiting organization is fully AIRS® (Advanced Internet Recruitment Strategies) Certified and held accountable to monthly recruitment outreach efforts to diverse organizations, including HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).
In 2021, we completed an outreach effort to all previous diverse applicants from the prior two years who had minimum qualifications to highlight newly opened positions. In 2021, the company finished updating all job postings to be gender neutral, free of gender pronouns and bias, and implemented an “AI assistant” to provide 24/7 customer service to prospective candidates and applicants. Our AI assistant is multilingual and is able to engage prospective candidates in more than 100 languages.
We also implemented a website accessibility checker on our career site. This digital tool scans for on-page and technical accessibility issues and errors. These insights help to ensure our websites comply with recognized accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Website accessibility checkers are also a useful tool for preventing violations of U.S. accessibility legislation, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
As positions open across the organization, our recruiting team seeks to present hiring managers with a slate of candidates that is at least 30% diverse. All managers are assigned training on recognizing and mitigating unconscious bias.
The company’s early career program—the Accelerated Career Track (ACT)—attracts high-potential college graduates, assists with their transition from college to professional working life and jump-starts their career with BOK Financial. This program includes a rotational development program and a summer internship program. With an increased emphasis on recruiting from HBCUs and smaller institutions, we have significantly improved the diversity of recent ACT and intern classes, with the 2021 ACT class comprising 42% people of color, compared to 11% just five years ago.
Training and Development
Recognizing and developing the talent within our workforce helps ensure employees at all levels experience meaningful career journeys. Learning opportunities are identified through a formalized intake framework focused on capability, performance and intended outcomes of the course. All learning opportunities are evaluated for effectiveness by the employee and their manager, assessing the level of knowledge gained, application of concepts on the job and impact of the learning to the organization.
We provide learning opportunities that allow employees to deepen their understanding of diverse skills and knowledge. The company uses four distinct strategies to accomplish this, including:
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Direct Learning Experiences
Live and virtual courses focus on a variety of diversity and inclusion topics taught by our Talent and Organizational Development Consultants.
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Embedded Concepts
Inclusion topics are intentionally woven into formal learning opportunities allowing employees to engage with D&I concepts in multiple ways.
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Digital Resources
Custom-built digital resources provide tools for employees to learn and practice inclusion strategies from any place at any time.
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Online Learning Portal
All employees have access to on-demand learning including more than 300 courses on diversity and inclusion.
All employees have access to an online learning tool that provides more than 16,000 courses including custom content based on need. In 2021, our employees completed nearly 7,000 courses and viewed over 150,000 videos on a variety of technical and soft skill topics, devoting more than 8,000 hours to personal and professional development.
All employees are encouraged to create and document a Career Development Plan outlining goals for short- and long-term career aspirations including social learning, experiential learning, and formal coursework. We also offer a variety of mentoring and leadership development opportunities giving all employees exposure to leaders and the opportunity to develop personally and professionally.
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Our “Achieving More Together” mentor program is open to all employees with more than one year of employment at BOK Financial. In 2021, 256 mentors/mentees participated in the program: 36% of mentees were people of color and 60% were female.
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Our new hire mentor program, RISE (Retention, Inclusion, Support and Empowerment), pairs new employees with a culture ambassador to assist with the goal of reducing first-year turnover.
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Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of employees that share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. CoP at BOK Financial focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance our strategic and business goals. CoP also offer an inclusive environment to encourage the engagement of employees at all levels to better harness the collective power of diverse skills, styles, strengths and experiences across the company. At the end of 2021, we had grown to 16 communities of practice with employee membership at 1,520.
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- The Certified Performance & Development Manager Program focuses on a core set of performance and development principles expected of all BOK Financial managers. Course curriculum includes connecting and communicating in the workplace, energizing employee development, engagement, retention, and a focus on situational adaptability. Managers demonstrate mastery through knowledge gained and on-the-job application of core principles.
- In partnership with Harvard School of Business, our leadership development programs for high-potential employees utilize best-in-class curriculum. Participants gain new leadership skills and personal insights that advance their knowledge, abilities and experience, preparing them for their next opportunity. Curriculum includes a focus on leading self, leading others and leading the business. Participants gain insight from a variety of learning modalities including case studies, simulations, group discussion, and live classroom interaction with Harvard thought leaders.
Performance management
The company’s performance management program helps employees perform their jobs to the best of their ability, and includes a strategic alignment of an employee’s work to team and organizational goals. The company’s performance management process includes setting and reviewing goals, assessing employee performance, and having and documenting a discussion about performance in relation to goals. Managers conduct performance check-ins at least two times a year.
Employee engagement
The company’s focus on the importance of a highly engaged workforce allows us to attract and retain the finest talent in the industry. We leverage an engagement survey tool every 18 months to measure engagement, inclusion and empowerment within our organization with a continual eye for improvement. In addition to our engagement survey tool, we leverage a pulse tool throughout the year to understand employee sentiment on important topics. We believe that a highly engaged and empowered workforce operating in an inclusive environment is a key differentiator that enables our company to achieve its long-term strategic goals.
Turnover rate
BOK Financial values an environment where each employee’s unique gifts and differences are recognized, respected and utilized. That environment has kept employee turnover below industry levels: 17.8% in 2021 as compared to 26.3% as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Benefits and wellness
We seek to offer inclusive policies, benefits and programs that holistically meet the diverse needs of our employees, including:
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Up to 64 hours of sick leave per year, up to 32 hours of personal leave and eight hours of volunteer time are granted each year. The company provides full-time employees two to four weeks of vacation annually to rest and recharge.
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Work/life balance and flexibility are top priorities to ensure we are meeting employees where they are. This is why we offer options such as hybrid, remote and shift arrangements.
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We offer two medical plans, two dental plans and vision coverage to full and part-time (20+ hours) employees. Also offered at no cost to full-time employees are life and long-term disability coverage.
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Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for participants in the company’s consumer-driven health plan are seeded by the company to assist in paying for out-of-pocket medical expenses.
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Offered at no cost to employees, the myWellness program promotes wellness in all aspects of life for employees and their families. The program consists of:
- Free biometric screenings for employees and spouses to provide information around health status.
- Lifestyle and tobacco cessation coaching.
- Physical wellness programs.
- Educational information and resources.
- Discounts on premiums.
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As a financial institution, ensuring our employees have a financially stable future is paramount. That’s why we offer an industry-leading employer match and an additional contribution for lower-income employees.
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Supporting the mental health of our employees is crucial, especially in current times. We offer:
- An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with free counseling sessions and referrals for employees and their families as well as online tools and resources.
- A telehealth program that provides free or reduced cost visits with board-certified behavioral health professionals to all employees and their dependents.
- Training, webinars and toolkits for managers to ensure they are educated on how to support employees and their mental health.
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Employees can use a flexible spending account to use pre-tax dollars for payment of dependent care expenses. The company also offers assistance in locating child care services.
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The company offers a phased retirement program allowing qualified employees to transition from full-time employment to full retirement by working a flexible or reduced schedule. In addition, STAR participants are offered additional financial planning resources.
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The company understands that roles within a family are unique, which is why we provide paid parental leave to our employees.
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Assistance is provided to all BOK Financial employees after six months of service, reflecting our commitment to employee education and personal development.
BOK Financial works hard to ensure our employees can be their best selves at work. Here are a few of the milestones on the wellness journey we’ve taken with our employees:
- Added salary-banded medical premiums to ensure affordability at all salary levels.
- Added coverage for domestic partners.
- Introduced myWellness, a free “outcome-based” wellness program.
- Increased employer contribution to the HSA for employees earning less than $51,000.
- Implemented telehealth to deliver physical and mental healthcare remotely.
- Launched free program supporting physical wellness by nationally recognized vendors, resulting in weight loss of 17,000 pounds over five years.
- Launched student loan modeling tools to provide education on student loan management and refinancing where practical.
- Introduced free nationally recognized diabetes management program for employees and spouses.
- Launched at-home biometric screening option to ensure equitable access in obtaining medical-premium-reducing wellness credits.
- Deliver financial wellness education through an online resource that provides articles, interactive calculators and step-by-step tutorials on all aspects of financial planning.
Diversity and inclusion
Recognizing, respecting and leveraging diversity is central to our company. We view this approach not only as a good business practice but simply as the right thing to do for all employers. The company’s CEO-led Diversity & Inclusion Council was launched in early 2019, helping to bring into focus the considerable efforts already occurring across the company.
The company’s D&I education strategy is focused on fostering a collaborative culture that attracts diverse customers and employees that grow and succeed together. In 2021, we achieved the following:
- Evolved inclusion education for all employees.
- Grew mentor programs.
- Grew Communities of Practice.
- Continued to leverage data to measure D&I progress.
- Expanded communication initiatives.
- Grew awareness of our diverse supplier program.
- Grew and supported our diverse communities.
BOK Financial supports the CEO Action Pledge for Diversity and Inclusion, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The pledge outlines actions signatory CEOs will take to cultivate an environment where all ideas are welcomed, and employees feel comfortable and empowered to have discussions about diversity and inclusion.
The company also became one of the first employers to take the Mayor’s Pay Equity Pledge, a voluntary employer-led initiative created in participation with the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women with a goal of closing the gender pay gap in Tulsa. For the second consecutive year, we were recognized as a 2021 Top Inclusive Workplace by Mosaic, the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s diversity business council. This award recognizes the company’s strength in community outreach, CEO commitment, internal policy, diverse suppliers and diverse people.
In 2021, the company broadened our definition of diversity and inclusion to look beyond race, ethnicity, and gender to reflect the value of all diverse perspectives. Employees were invited to self-identify their sexual orientation.
The company was recognized by DiversityInc® as one of the nation’s top 20 regional companies for diversity and inclusion. The DiversityInc survey is one of the most comprehensive data-driven D&I analyses of some of the largest U.S. employers. The rankings are based on company-submitted data in the areas of: leadership accountability, human capital diversity metrics, talent programs, workforce practices, supplier diversity and philanthropy. The company also received the 2021 Veteran Employer Champion award which recognizes employers creating veteran ready cultures by hitting benchmarks including hiring and recruiting, onboarding, and community support of veterans.
In 2021, we joined DiversityJobs which allows us to promote 100% of our jobs to diverse groups of more than 15,000 community-based organizations and niche diversity sites. This membership will allow us to connect directly with all people of color—including Black and African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans—as well as women, veterans, people with disabilities, older workers and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Recent Recognition
Workforce demographics
At BOK Financial, our goal is to foster a work environment where employees can be themselves, fit in and feel compelled to help others fit in. Fostering a collaborative culture that attracts diverse customers and employees allows us to grow and succeed together. We continually research, assess and measure our workforce demographics as we drive toward being representative of our communities.
Pay equity
BOK Financial’s commitment to gender pay equity is central to our comprehensive compensation practices and policies. We evaluate our workforce to ensure that employees performing similar work at the same level have equitable compensation opportunities. The company performs an annual pay equity analysis to monitor and manage pay equity across the company to include base salary, commissions and incentive pay. The company participates in compensation market surveys on an annual basis to ensure we are paying market competitive rates.
