Five Star Bank’s Lisa Perillo on Rebuilding the Entry-Level Job for AI
Five Star Bank’s senior director of people explains how she would decide whether an entry-level role gets redesigned or reduced, and what new hires need to build judgment once routine tasks go away.
Much of everyday banking has already moved off the branch counter and onto email, text and phone, and AI is taking on more of the routine work that remains. That creates a practical problem for the people who manage talent.
Entry-level work has long been the training ground for future lenders and managers. When the routine tasks disappear, much of the on-the-job learning that came with them can disappear too.
Lisa Perillo, senior director of people at Five Star Bank, started her career as a teller. Five Star now runs a rotational program for recent graduates with little or no banking experience, and Perillo has drawn clear lessons from it about what early-career employees need before they take on more responsibility.
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She argues that removing manual work from a job doesn’t settle whether the job should exist. In this interview, she describes the evidence she would use to make that call and how leaders can deliberately replace the experiences technology takes away.
Q&A
When you look at the work someone entering banking today does compared with five or 10 years ago, what has changed most — and what do you think is changing next?
Technology has changed banking work more than anything else. Five or 10 years ago, clients visited branches more frequently and conducted more of their banking in person.
Today, many clients still want a relationship with their banker, but they expect to connect remotely by email, text or phone. As a result, a banker's responsiveness and availability have become important measures of that relationship.
Looking ahead, bankers will need the resources and foundational knowledge to answer questions when clients reach out, along with a comprehensive understanding of each client's relationship with the bank. Increasingly, clients will expect their banker to serve as a one-stop resource.
A lot of early-career development has historically happened by doing relatively junior work and gradually taking on more complexity. If technology removes some of those tasks, how do you make sure employees still get the experiences they need to develop judgment?
This will require a significant shift in day-to-day management and in learning and development. When technology removes routine tasks that once built foundational knowledge, we have to intentionally replace those experiences with structured learning, hands-on practice, mentoring and opportunities to observe how decisions are made.
Employees also need to understand that using technology to work more efficiently does not eliminate their responsibility to validate the accuracy of the result. By creating these connections deliberately, leaders can help employees develop the judgment they will need to become the future of banking.
Five Star has built a rotational program specifically for recent graduates with little or no banking experience. What have you learned from that program about the experiences early-career employees need before they're ready to take on greater responsibility?
The biggest lesson I have learned is that early-career employees need broad exposure to the bank and strong relationships within the workplace. Mentors and colleagues who model our internal culture help recent graduates build confidence, strengthen their interpersonal skills and feel connected and included.
Rotational experiences also help them understand how different parts of the bank work together. Before employees take on greater responsibility, they need opportunities to apply that knowledge, ask questions, receive feedback and demonstrate sound judgment in a supportive environment.
You started your own banking career at the teller level. Looking back, which parts of that early experience turned out to matter later in your career in ways that wouldn't necessarily have been obvious at the time?
My teller experience taught me what clients value in a banking relationship, which is connection, careful listening and confidence that their needs will be met. At the time, I did not realize I was building skills that would remain relevant long after I left a client-facing role.
That foundation now helps me support employees who serve clients directly and shape HR practices around the behaviors that create a strong client experience.
As AI changes what work needs to be done, what evidence would you use to decide that an entry-level role should be redesigned rather than simply reduced or eliminated?
I would look at whether the role still creates value in three areas: client relationships, operational judgment and the development of future leaders. AI can reduce the manual work in an entry-level position, but that does not necessarily eliminate the need for the role.
For example, as teller work becomes less transaction-focused, the position can be redesigned to build stronger product knowledge, deeper processing expertise and a broader understanding of the client’s relationship with the bank. If the remaining work strengthens the client experience and gives employees the foundation to take on more complex responsibilities, that is evidence to redesign the role rather than reduce or eliminate it.
