Bank leaders say creativity, flexibility and giving employees support have 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 some banks and credit unions to once again limit lobby access.

The Commercial Record spoke last March with branch managers from PeoplesBank about how front-line employees were managing sudden changes to the ways a community bank operates. A year later, these managers report good morale among front-line employees as they have adjusted to practices and behaviors that were once considered novel but now are standard practice.

“We’re not just managing our own morale and the morale of our teams,” said Daniel Malkin, banking center manager at PeoplesBank in East Granby. “In a way, we do manage the morale of customers as well, because our ability to be consistent and deliver for them is so important right now more than ever.”

After the Holyoke, Massachusetts-based PeoplesBank closed its lobbies in March 2020, most of the branches continued to take transactions through drive-up windows, including at the branch in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut border.

Steven Gardner, an assistant vice president and East Longmeadow’s banking center manager, said branch employees last spring 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. He credits senior leaders for 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.”

Addressing Staff Concerns

Unlike East Longmeadow, the branch in East Granby, one of four First Suffield offices acquired by PeoplesBank in 2018, did not have a drive-up option.

The branch had relocated just a few months before the pandemic started, and staff members had already undertaken an initiative to introduce customers to the new VideoBanker ITM, Malkin said, which became a key service option once the lobby closed.

“We had spent so much time pre-COVID showing customers how the ITM works that the migration was pretty seamless,” Malkin said.

Not all customers wanted to use the ITM, though, and while the branch did offer limited lobby access, some customers wanted to remain outside during the shutdown. In these instances, the East Granby staff would go outside to meet customers in the parking lot, even during the winter months.

“Our job has not changed at all,” Malkin said. “We’re always looking for creative ways to offer solutions, whether that be from a service standpoint or a product standpoint, and if that means that we’re going out to people’s cars in the parking lot to do that, then that’s what we do.”

Branch staff gave input on when they felt safe letting customers back into the lobby. The East Granby lobby reopened on Feb. 8, and Malkin said the decision was one of the biggest challenges his team faced during the pandemic.

Employees were concerned about customers being in the banking center and not following social distancing guidelines or wearing personal protective equipment, Malkin said. He added that his team had several conversations about customer needs and associate safety.

“Ultimately, we all came to the same conclusion,” Malkin said, “which was that the best way we can support our community was by opening back up in a safe way.”

With branches in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, PeoplesBank had to consider the situations in each community and region when reopening lobbies, a process that Malkin said was a powerful tool for meeting the needs of employees and customers.

“Our ability to pivot and serve our communities no matter what the circumstances – I think we’ve really set the example for our area on how you can accomplish both taking care of your customer and also providing safety for them and for associates,” Malkin said.

The East Longmeadow lobby reopened March 1. Gardner said both staff and customers have become conditioned to adhering to measures to keep one another safe after a year of pandemic restrictions.

The branch staff has grown closer throughout the pandemic, Gardner said, 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.”