Robert Mrlik, CEO of Central Bank, has a deceptively simple philosophy on company culture: “You take care of people, people take care of you.”
Putting that theory into practice is more complicated, or at least more time-consuming. Every other week, Mrlik makes time for a lengthy, confidential feedback session with a small group of employees, held via Microsoft Teams.
“We literally have yet to end a meeting short,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “They all last about an hour and a half, and we get a wealth of knowledge.”
According to Mrlik, now in his 15th year helming the 160-employee bank, it’s initiatives like these that explain why Central Bank was named this year’s top midsize workplace in Houston for the second consecutive year. Feedback from the informal brown bag lunches has spurred the firm to make changes, like adding flexibility to its PTO policy and preserving a hybrid work policy even as some major banks have mandated a full return to office, he said.
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In hiring and onboarding, Central Bank, which was founded in Houston in 1956 and now operates five locations, tries to “lead with culture,” Mrlik said. That means beginning interviews with a culture fit screening, and introducing new hires to the executive team within their first two days on the job. A company-wide screensaver sums up Central Bank’s values: “commit, contribute, collaborate, and have some fun along the way.”
Mrlik is serious about fun – he believes employees don’t want their bosses to be “a bunch of stiff shirts.” The company regularly holds competitions like a fantasy football league, and quarterly staff meetings always include a game. At a recent meeting, Mrlik and other members of the executive team competed in musical chairs – “so the workforce can see us stumble and bumble around (…) and they’re seeing that we’re real human beings,” he said.
Central Bank tries to engage employees in the process of any major changes, from AI adoption to an upcoming renovation project that will expand the bank’s headquarters by 50%, Mrlik said. The executive team compiled a wishlist of employee asks for that renovation, which is expected to start in November and take about a year. One odd request: a specialty ice machine, like the ones at fast food chain Sonic Drive-In.
“They say, ‘We want a Sonic ice machine,'” Mrlik said. “Guess what we’re going to have?”
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Mrlik sees investing in his employees as integral to Central Bank’s strategic plan, which sets a long-term goal of growing its assets from $1.3 billion to $2 billion, while maintaining a 2% rate of return. Meeting that goal means building a workforce that’s bought-in for the long haul. “When we hire someone, we’re hiring you hoping that this is the last place you work,” Mrlik said.
The investments seem to be paying off. In survey results, one employee wrote that Central Bank “has allowed me to grow and reach the potential I knew I always had.” Another said: “I feel supported and truly feel we are a family at Central Bank.”
Central Bank’s employee turnover rate is below 5% a year, and the bank is ahead of its benchmarks for this year, Mrlik said. “I don’t think we’d have the results,” he said, “if we weren’t generous in investing in our people.”
This article originally published at Central Bank named Houston’s top midsize workplace in 2025 for culture-first strategy.