Since taking over at the end of last year, Berkshire Bank’s President and CEO Richard Marotta has made it clear he wants to focus on workplace culture, diversity and inclusion.
Those changes may now be starting to play out.
Berkshire announced in a regulatory filing on Friday that the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer Linda Johnston has resigned, effectively immediately, and entered into a separation agreement with the bank.
As part of the agreement, Johnston will receive a lump sum payment of $785,000. The separation agreement also includes confidentiality, non-solicitation and non-competition provisions and a release of claims. The payment made to Johnston under the separation agreement is subject to forfeiture if Johnston breaches certain obligations, including the confidentiality, non-solicitation and non-competition provisions.
Johnston will stay on in a consulting capacity for up to 20 hours per week with Berkshire for the next 14 months and receive a monthly consulting fee of close to $30,000 for the duration of her term.
According to Berkshire’s investor relations website, Johnston had been with the company for more than 27 years. She was responsible for overseeing and directing the company’s human resources functions including compensation and benefits, performance and talent management, training, recruitment, development, executive compensation and initiatives and practices that support the company’s strategic direction. Johnston also served as a key advisor to the Compensation Committee of the company’s board of directors.
Johnston’s resignation comes less than four months after Berkshire’s longtime CEO Michael Daly
abruptly resigned. A
research report from Piper Jaffray shortly after Daly’s resignation suggested that the departure might have been related to a “toxic” workplace culture.
Piper Jaffray analysts in their report cited an anonymous letter from Berkshire employees that said workplace culture was in dire need of change.
Piper Jaffray analysts then went one step further and analyzed Berkshire Bank employee reviews on Glassdoor.com. They found that only 25 percent of employees would recommend working at Berkshire to a friend, well below the 62 percent median within Piper’s coverage universe. CEO approval was around 35 percent, compared to Piper’s 84 percent median.
