Judy Wozniak

Training is in Judy Wozniak’s blood.

“Every place I’ve worked at, I’ve always done training,” says Judy, the branch operations service manager at our Southridge office. “OfficeMax, U.S. Cellular, Bank One, Chase — I would always be the go-to person.”

Judy became part of North Shore Bank when we acquired Maritime Savings in 2010. She had been a branch operations coordinator at Maritime since January 2007. She formally sponsored one employee this summer, but before that trained three others. “I thought it was about time I was officially trained the NSB way,” she jokes. “I was just doing it because it’s natural for me.”

Even at her first job, at McDonald’s — coincidentally, the restaurant right across the street from the Southridge branch — training mattered to her. After she was hired, she watched a video and then got a stack of cards to read, to learn how to run the fryer.

“No one showed you how to do it,” Judy says. “I did not like that.”

So she worked her way up, hoping to change things. Eventually, she took classes at McDonald’s famous Hamburger University in Oak Brook, Ill., where she graduated with 13 college credits. “You learn a lot,” she says. “They take pride in their people.” Judy was the general manager of four McDonald’s stores after 12 years. She left the job when the individual owner-operator she worked for retired and started selling his franchises back to the corporation.

Now she enjoys training at North Shore Bank, which offers a more practical, relaxed environment than she’s experienced elsewhere. “Here, I can be myself,” she says. “I can be fun and make learning conducive to the employee. It’s more comfortable, more ‘real life.'”

“Judy is a very patient and intelligent sponsor,” says Branch Manager Jennelle Bettinger. “She strives to ensure that her trainees get the right information the first time. She is a great mentor and is adored by her co-workers and customers. She has an infectious smile that is hard not to reciprocate.”

Judy agrees that patience is a strength of hers. Where does she get it? She laughs. “I’m married.”