Tenured Talent

It’s rare to stay with one organization throughout the course of a career. Carol Heim, Jim Stock and Phyllis Grant have each worked for their organizations for 31 to 45 years. During that time, they’ve seen changes in landscape, technology and company size. They have grown and advanced alongside their companies. But what hasn’t changed — and what has caused them to stay — is a passion for the people and culture of their organizations.

Phyllis Grant, Columbia College
31 Years

Phyllis Grant’s name is widely known on the Columbia College campus. Having been with the college since 1984, she is a welcoming smile who has worked for many departments during the course of her career.

Grant started working for Columbia College as the campus visitor coordinator in November 1984. Since then, she has worked as an administrative assistant and director of student activities in the student affairs department and worked as administrative assistant and accounts payable coordinator in the adult higher education department. In July 1999, Grant joined the payroll department, and she was promoted to payroll manager a year later.

“The position I’m currently in as the payroll manager is where I feel most fulfilled in my entire career,” says Grant. “I feel like I can help people. I like working with people that might find it hard to talk about the situations they’re currently in. Whether it be their taxes, retirement, garnishments — those are all difficult subjects — I want someone to feel that they can come talk to me about those kinds of questions.”

In this role, Grant works with two colleagues processing a biweekly payroll and two adjunct payrolls. There are 1,049 biweekly employees, which include faculty, staff and students. There are 836 adjuncts, paid monthly, which include online, nationwide and evening campuses. Grant’s department is also responsible for paying taxes, filing quarterly reports and producing W-2 forms annually.

“There have been a lot of changes over the years,” Grant says. “I’ve worked for four presidents. I would have to say the biggest change is the growth of the college, not only in the number of employees, but also in the landscape. In my years, I feel like we have really grown physically.”

Columbia College now has 36 campuses in 13 states, and the day campus, in Columbia, has grown to 72 full-time faculty members. Student enrollment has also grown over this time. Grant was at Columbia College when the online campus was created, a huge undertaking for the school.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you have to be open and willing to change … everything changes all the time, which is great,” Grant says. “It means that things are moving forward and improving.”

Columbia College employees have the ability to take courses and complete their bachelor’s degree at no cost. In 1990, Grant received her Bachelor of Science in business administration by taking evening courses. “I just love Columbia College and the employees. I completed my bachelor’s degree and just never left. I cannot tell you the passion I feel for Columbia College,” she says.

Grant is also involved in several extracurricular activities with the college. She works with the school’s Relay for Life team, which has been the highest generating team in Boone County for several years. Grant also serves on the sustainability committee, and she was instrumental in starting the campus’s recycling movement.

With 31 years of service already done, Grant plans to stick around. “I would love to stay here until I retire, and I would be very, very proud to say that I retired from the place where I began my career.”

Jim Stock, Landmark Bank
40 Years

Jim Stock is a career banker. He started with Landmark Bank just over 40 years ago, when the bank was much smaller. Throughout his career, he has either worked in or managed every department in the bank.

Stock went to college at the University of Central Missouri. After graduating, he went into the Army and served in the finance corps as a disbursing officer. Stock then came to Landmark Bank (then called First National Bank) to manage the Garth Avenue location, as the bank had added a new location downtown.

Today, Stock is senior vice president and head of enterprise risk management. “We were doing a lot of things to manage risk all across the organization, but this whole idea of enterprise risk management was to bring that together under one management function and to better coordinate what we were doing,” Stock says.

When discussions about creating this new department began, Stock was considering retirement. Instead, he agreed to give up his role in operations and technologies to oversee the new risk management operation. Stock finds this function fulfilling because it’s integral in evaluating and managing risk in all areas of the organization.

But Stock says it’s more about the people than any job function. “I can look back on a number of people that I was either involved in hiring or training or mentoring to help them develop and become successful employees, managers and, in some cases, senior managers of the organization,” Stock says. “And so over time, that’s certainly been the most fulfilling — to see those people develop.”

Stock has seen changes throughout his time at the bank. The Landrum family owns the largest percentage of the organization, and during the past 40 years, the eight banks they own have merged. The bank became known as Landmark Bank in 2009, after the merger of the final three banks, in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. When Stock started, the Columbia bank had $37 million in total assets and 50 employees. Today, after all the banks merged, the total assets are $2.3 billion, with roughly 700 employees combined.

Stock has also seen big changes in technology, which has helped serve customers in a changing industry. “Over that 40 years, we went from no computers to computers on every desk today,” Stock says. “We went from a banking environment with a fairly minimal amount of regulation to just an incredible, overly burdensome amount of regulations today.”

Throughout his career, Stock learned three big lessons: patience, listening and appreciation. “I’ve really tried to be, along with being patient, a better listener, and I’ve tried to get more people actively engaged. It certainly helps in their development and you get more ideas out on the table,” Stock says. “People respond much better to appreciation and positive feedback, and that applies whether it’s at work or at home — just be more appreciative.”

Stock has been able to progress in responsibilities and authority over the course of his career. “If you feel like you’re making a contribution, you’re recognized for that, you have the opportunity for more responsibilities and you’re advancing in your career. If all of that is going fine, and if there’s the right kind of culture and the right kind of people that you work with and you have a good boss, then you want to stay there. And that’s been the case for me.”

Stock says that his three pieces of career advice would be to develop a career plan, ask questions and be flexible. “Sometimes you’ll get thrown a curve that may be a problem, but sometimes you may be thrown something that you didn’t really realize would be such an opportunity to try something new, to work with some different people,” he adds.

Employees need to sit down and think about how their goals align with the organization, which is why a career plan is key. “If I was going to give advice to someone about their career, it wouldn’t necessarily be to stay at the same place for 40 years,” Stock says. “I don’t know if that’s the right thing for most people, but it worked out for me.”

Carol Heim, Shelter Insurance
45 Years

Carol Heim has worked for Shelter Insurance for 45 years, starting as a typist and moving her way up to advertising supervisor. Heim handles various things, including compliance, software maintenance,  advertising and branding.

Heim started as a typist in the Word Processing Center and was then promoted to a typesetter. In 1983, she transferred to the marketing department as a sales promotion assistant. Heim was promoted to advertising supervisor in 1997.When Heim started at Shelter in 1970, four other young women started alongside her. Of the women hired that summer, Heim and three others still work at Shelter, having advanced in different areas of the company throughout the years. “As one of the group remarked, we walked in these doors 45 years ago as strangers, we became friends quickly and have remained friends throughout the years,” Heim says. “We now know each other’s family members, celebrate milestone events together and support each other through tough times.”

“We manage the co-op program for the Shelter agents,” Heim says. “There’s roughly 1,300 agents and they can do any type of advertising: radio, newspaper, TV, Internet, billboards — we work with them on whatever type they want to do.”

Insurance is a highly regulated industry, and Heim handles all compliance elements and helps protect the brand for all of the advertising templates. She also oversees all advertising forms and the proprietary computer software program. In her work, Heim can go from designing an ad to working in a database.

Heim finds the most fulfillment in assisting Shelter agents with their advertising programs. “It’s always rewarding to talk through advertising strategies with an agent and help them develop an affordable marketing plan to promote the agency and Shelter,” Heim says.

Throughout her 45 years at Shelter Insurance, Heim says the most dramatic changes stem from technology advancements. “In the early ’70s, every transaction was completed and recorded with paper copies — no email, no faxes, no electronic fund transfers, no FTP sites,” says Heim. “That’s the big thing: how fast you can communicate with clients and agents.”

Heim says the most valuable lessons she has learned over the course of her career involve taking time to step back and analyze before rushing in. “Never react until you’ve taken time to investigate the entire situation. There are always two sides to a situation. Many times, people simply want someone to listen and acknowledge their feelings.”

“I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent at Shelter,” Heim says. “What makes Shelter a great place to work is the people. Everyone is devoted to customer service, whether your customer is an insured, a claimant, a vendor or a co-worker.”

Heim offers this advice to those starting out or thinking of switching careers: “Look beyond the paycheck and look at the benefits and stability of the company. The amount you’ll make is the big hook, but the character of the company is also important. Ask yourself: is this somewhere you can proudly say you work?”

This mentality is part of what makes Heim a valued employee at Shelter and one who has received numerous staff awards during her tenure. She works hard to do a thorough job and doesn’t rush things — so the end results are always something she is proud of.