Working apart together: A pandemic response for credit unions

Credit unions, just like many other types of businesses, recently found themselves with the need to quickly implement a work-from-home strategy for their employees. This pandemic brought social distancing requirements, which included closing offices and branch lobbies, forcing most employees to work remotely. While many were evaluating the work-from-home model, few had the systems in place to allow 70-80% of their staff, including call centers, to be completely untethered from their brick-and-mortar components.

Customers or members provide the measurement of the success of any business. Since members expect an excellent level of service, credit unions face a significant business challenge. How will they cope with the current need for immediate virtualization across all stakeholders in the organization, from staff to membership service? How will credit unions maintain the level of service and financial offerings over a new virtual platform and prepare to increase that service as market conditions require further financial help in our struggling communities? How can we empower staff for productivity to decrease the interruption of “business as usual”?

This is advanced mobility — shifting the traffic flow from inbound to outbound service and reaching members on their devices and empowering employees to conduct necessary work functions from their homes. With likely increases in membership needs based on future indications of higher demand for financial services (economic implications), remote capacity will be a long-term business requirement. Successful remote deployments require aligning a strategy that adheres to business continuity plans and pandemic disaster recovery efforts while moving along a roadmap across temporary to long-term initiatives.

 

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