Many credit unions are upping the amount of time off available to staff as the coronavirus forces employees to juggle work — often remotely — with family and physical and mental health.
“One thing we've noticed as we've transformed ourself with COVID is we need to have more emphasis and more resources around mental health,” said Dave Larson, president and CEO of Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union in St. Paul, Minn. “Not that we didn't see it, but we've seen it more prevalent with COVID-19. The speed of which it arrived, parents who now are working but also were teaching until the summer months, and now looks like that could be the case here in the fall as well. Juggling family, loved ones who maybe are in a long-term care facility, there were a lot of mental health challenges that we saw.”
Larson’s remarks came during a panel discussion of CEOs held during CUNA Mutual Group’s annual Discovery conference on Thursday.
Affinity Plus gave all of its 550 employees 40 hours of “COVID-19 time” that can be used at any time for any reason with no questions asked, from taking care of kids to taking someone to a doctor’s appointment or just taking a mental health day.
“We knew that this was a lot of change, we knew that it came on fast and we wanted to be an employer that demonstrated care,” he said. “We rolled that out and I would say that was extremely well received by our employees, and about half of our employees have used their COVID-19 care around mental health wellness, and we're pretty proud of that.”
Other credit unions haven’t formally given employees that much time off but have still increased their flexibility for staff who need it.
“Whenever someone needs time off, we're letting them have it,” said Jeff Benson, CEO of CASE Credit Union in Lansing, Mich., which employs about 100 people. “I haven’t given them 40 hours yet…but I really like that idea. We're trying to be as empathetic as possible.”
The $347 million-asset CASE has also taken measures to lift up employee morale, including “Zoom walks” in the morning for remote staff, online yoga and aerobics and a Zoom lunch room so employees can get together with coworkers they used to see regularly before the outbreak began.
Maria Martinez, CEO of Border FCU in south Texas, said her credit union’s board approved two additional personal days for her 100 staffers but said many employees who have the option to work remotely are still coming into the office because they miss the camaraderie.
The pandemic has also increased adoption of digital services, including from many members who may have avoided those options in the past.
“The speed with which COVID arrived in our lives has certainly pushed us to hit the accelerator on digital,” Larson said.
The $2.9 billion-asset Affinity Plus in recent years has revamped its digital banking platforms and moved to a new core banking system.
“I don't envision us going back to how we were the week before we closed,” he added. “Does that mean we won't have branches? No, I don't think that. But I could see us running without teller lines any more, and running cash transactions through drive through, or ATMs, or what have you.”
Martinez said new-account openings at her credit union continue to be lower than normal. And while loan volumes have gone up, she said, that was primarily because of participation in the Paycheck Protection Program, the $193 million-asset Border FCU’s first foray into commercial lending. Because of that, new investments in technology are on the horizon, she said.
The panel also touched briefly on issues of race and diversity, which along with the pandemic and recession has been the dominant topic of American life this summer.
Martinez noted that serving Hispanic communities is a natural part of life for businesses in Texas. But further north in Michigan, Benson, who is Black, said he has begun holding “rap sessions” with staff at all levels to gauge employee and management’s feelings on all of those topics. Diversity has been a significant one, and he said more than 40% of CASE’s employee base is non-white, and the credit union is focused on increasing that figure.
“I'll tell any CEO…[when hiring at any level] to make sure there's a diverse applicant pool, and that you are intentional as far as having diversity,” he said. “It's amazing what it does for your culture, and it's amazing how the members feel. Every member that walks into our doors, no matter how they walk in, they feel comfortable, because there's someone that looks like them, sounds like them, that understands them.”
