Bank leaders say communication, flexibility and giving employees support has helped branch staff keep their morale up over the last year.
A year ago, community banks and credit unions, like other businesses, had to figure out how to continue to provide essential services amid the spread of what was then a new coronavirus.
From drive-up only service to meeting customers in parking lots, front-line staff continued to assist customers. While many reopened again late last spring or in the summer, surging infections in the fall led many banks and credit unions to once again limit lobby access.
Banker & Tradesman spoke last March with bankers at The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, East Cambridge Savings Bank and Holyoke-based PeoplesBank about how front-line employees were managing the sudden changes to how community banks operate. A year later, these banks report generally good morale as they have adjusted to practices and behaviors that were once considered novel but now are standard practice.
“Now that we’re a year out, I look back and I can’t believe how quickly it went by,” said Jim Tierney, a banking center manager with East Cambridge Savings Bank. “I’ve learned a lot about my team and about myself. … I think we’ve all learned a lot about ourselves and what we can do when we put our minds to it.”
Communication Brought Staff Together
Communication has been key to keeping staff morale up during the pandemic, said Lisa Oliver, president and CEO of The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod. The Coop had originally kept its lobbies open for appointments when COVID-19 arrived in March, but then shut them after a business customer who had visited a branch learned one of his employees had the virus. Drive-up windows remained open.
Oliver began holding a virtual meeting with employees every Friday morning at the end of last March, at first to discuss the pandemic and how the bank planned to approach being an essential service. Nearly a year later, the weekly meetings continue, and though optional, more than 100 employees attend each session.
“I just think the communication piece has probably been the biggest thing in helping people manage through and to help keep the morale higher,” Oliver said.
Many of the precautions that were novelties last year have become standard, including plexiglass partitions in branches – fully reopened as of March 1 – masks for both customers and employees and regularly cleaning drive-up tubes and ATMs.
After debating how to approach monitoring employee health, Oliver said The Coop selected a mobile app offered by its payroll provider that allows each employee to certify whether they have symptoms and track whether they have traveled and might need to quarantine. While at first some employees resisted having to use the tool, Oliver said, everyone now enters their information on a daily basis.
The bank has also provided bonus pay to front-line employees, offered flexible hours and work structures and reimbursed workers for resources, such as meditation apps or webinars, that help deal with stress. Morale has mostly remained solid, Oliver said, with employees feeling supported and safe.
“Having a job to get up and go to, even if it did not look the way it did before, I think gave people some grounded footing to create some normalcy,” Oliver said.
Teams Given Say in Safety
Steven Gardner, an assistant vice president and banking center manager at PeoplesBank’s East Longmeadow branch, credits senior leaders with supporting front-line staff throughout the pandemic.
“I can’t say enough about the bank and what they’ve done to make sure that the employees are safe, as well as our customers, and that we’re still here to service them and their needs,” Gardner said. “I think they’ve really done a fantastic job.”
Last March, an employee would meet customers at the door and direct them to the drive-up window or the interactive teller machine. After reopening in the summer, the lobby closed again when infections started to surge in the fall, a move Gardner said branch staff supported.
Branch staff were also given say in when they felt safe letting customers back into the lobby, which reopened March 1. Both staff and customers have become conditioned to adhering to measures to keep one another safe after a year of pandemic restrictions, he said.
Gardner said the branch staff have rallied together and grown closer throughout the pandemic, adding that customers were happy to be able to return.
“The team here has rallied together; we’ve become very close over the past year,” Gardner said. “As a small community bank, we do have a specific group of customers that really come in day–to–day to do their banking, which is surprising to see in this day and age with all the technology that’s out there, but they’re really coming for the people.”
Flexibility and Patience Needed
When the pandemic started a year ago, the front–line staff at East Cambridge Savings Bank’s busy Inman Square branch had to figure out how to assist customers without a drive-up window. They came up with a plan to meet customers at the door, process the transaction inside and then bring the receipt to the customer waiting in the parking lot.
When infections started to rise in fall Tierney, the branch manager, said employees decided to keep the lobby open. While other East Cambridge Savings Bank branches decided to close lobbies, Tierney said the team decided that their customer demographics, which included many long-time residents, and the types of transactions processed there, often involving cash, would be better served by keeping lobbies open.
Diane McLaughlin
Focusing on safety, flexibility and patience – both for employees and customers – has been key to adapting to the pandemic, Tierney said, especially as guidelines and procedures changed.
He added that leading by example has helped him keep up morale for the front-line staff, describing himself as their “biggest cheerleader.” He said support from East Cambridge Savings management, open communication and employees’ focus on caring for customers have helped them adapt over the past year.
“It’s been a learning experience, and I’ve said this from the beginning since all of this started that out of adversity comes opportunity,” Tierney said. “And I still feel that way, because we’re obviously still dealing with adversity in different capacities.”
