Supporting the Front Lines From Behind the Scenes

I’ve worked for a credit union for just over five years. When I learned at the beginning of this global crisis that we would remain open, that we are considered “essential business,” it made me think a little deeper about what that really means, and why that is the case.

To be transparent, I am a “behind the scenes” person at my credit union. I work with my team to build, implement and maintain a data structure to support our production operations, and to (hopefully!) provide analytics that allow our leaders to make data-driven decisions. It’s interesting and exciting work, especially as the industry so quickly evolves with respect to the volume of data and the tools available to analyze that data.

However, as we enter this unprecedented time of chaos and disruption, I find myself wanting to jump from behind the scenes to the forefront of the need. Our organization must react carefully but quickly, ensuring that it maintains excellent service to our membership. The front lines spring to action.  Leadership shuffles staff to ensure safety measures are taken. Team leaders juggle responsibilities to handle the influx of refinance requests. Branch staff expands support at our drive-up teller station to maintain member support while our branch lobbies are closed. Our IT department works long hours to set up a virtual work environment for our contact center representatives, as well as other key essential personnel.

But how can my team help? We can offer leadership and support, work to keep morale where it needs to be and ensure that our hard-working staff feel appreciated and respected. And while this is certainly not nothing, we want to do more.

Let me back up a little …

For the past five years, working with a dedicated technology partner and a supportive management team, St. Mary’s Bank has been building and deploying a robust enterprise data warehouse and enforcing our version of a “single source of truth.” We’ve built dashboards and reports (some well received, some not) and we’ve centralized the delivery of data requests and access. It’s been a productive five years.

What does this mean in a time of crisis? It means that when our departments need to make critical decisions – quickly – we are able to provide objective, meaningful data – quickly – to help guide those decisions. As we operate with a reduced staff and closed lobbies, it’s essential that we optimally determine how to staff each of our drive-up locations. With our “single source of truth” data warehouse, our analysts are able to deliver an hour-by-hour transaction dashboard, using already-conformed data made available by our data governance process. We can not only see how many transactions are performed, at what times and at which locations – but we can also see the types of transactions our members require. (We can also offer trending by age group, geography, product, mix, etc.) This allows leadership to make data-driven decisions by anticipating member needs.

In addition to our frontline member services, our back-office processors need to modify their internal processes to adapt not only to the increased volumes, but also to the changes in regulatory requirements. When our director of mortgage lending requested workload prioritization support for processors, underwriters and management teams, we were able to meet the need. Again, leveraging our data warehouse and previously built Tableau dashboards, our data team is able to provide individual data extracts (combining conformed data from multiple data sources). Departments are able to sort and filter these extracts based on their specific workflow requirements, allowing them to work as efficiently as possible.

In a time like this, when quick, accurate decisions can have both an immediate and lasting impact, I’m glad we’ve made the investment in our data solution and our data culture. Mostly, I’m proud to be part of an organization that comes together during a challenging time, and remains committed to providing excellent service to our valued membership.

Melissa Pomeroy is Vice President and Director, Business Analytics and Project Management for St. Mary’s Bank in Manchester, N.H.