Libertyville Savings Bank

How Jill Burnett and her team at Libertyville Savings Bank are redefining the game of banking... chosen as Best Place to Work three years in a row

ROXANNE EMMERICH: Jill, tell us a little bit about who you are and your bank.

JILL BURNETT: We’re about a $340 million community bank located in the southern portion of Iowa. We have five locations and are very ag oriented. I have about 50 employees—a great group of people. We’ve been blessed that our employee satisfaction rating is 6.36 out of 7 on our culture survey.

RE: Which is amazing. That’s one of the highest in the country.

JB: Yes, and run very efficiently. Our asset per employee is typically over $8 million.

RE: We’ve had a great partnership for a decade, and the transformation you’ve had is profound. I’m really interested in understanding what life was like before you started your transformation.

JB: We did not have a strong direction. We weren’t future-oriented. We weren’t looking ahead, and I would say we were transaction-based.…

In early 2016, I, along with several other LSB team members, became a Hospice Volunteer.We completed an all day, Saturday training session, passed a background check, received our badges and were ready for service.I can’t tell you for sure what compelled me to want to do this.In my earlier years, it would’ve scared me to death, but it has been extremely rewarding and very instrumental in my development as a human being.

I’ve enjoyed a variety of patients from my own age to my parent’s age, both men and women and at various stages of their end of life.I will say, that most families wait too long to get Hospice involved.If on my first visit my patient is unable to communicate with me, I’m happy to sit with them, talk to them and I usually read to them, but that is the extent of my abilities to help or comfort.If we can get to know each other better before they reach that stage, I feel like my visits mean more because at least they know who I am and what I am there for….to try and make so…