Credit Unions Create Return-to-Work Plans

At his home in Virginia, David Reed is reminded frequently of a quote by the famed writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

The phrase has long resonated with his wife, so much so that it is featured in their home’s decor. But lately, Reed said he has found himself becoming a similar proponent of Emerson’s words of wisdom – and not just because he sees them almost around the clock working from home.

For Reed, a lawyer who specializes in counseling credit unions, the phrase has proven oddly applicable to the advice he’s given clients about bringing employees back after months of teleworking amid the coronavirus outbreak. In calls and virtual training sessions, the partner at Reed & Jolly has laid out a host of new considerations for credit unions, all of them underscoring how the pandemic has perhaps forever changed work life.

“Once you’ve allowed your mind to be expanded, you’re not going to go back to the way you were before,” Reed told CU Times.

Gone are the days of casual mingling in close quarters, of using office restrooms or break areas without a second thought. For credit unions, Reed said, the coronavirus has provided a crash-course on functioning with an almost entirely remote workforce, raising fundamental questions about the need for certain employees and departments to perform their duties in an office setting.

Angela Culbertson, EVP of human resources at the $125 billion, Vienna, Va.-based Navy Federal Credit Union, said, “We are working diligently to monitor all applicable regulatory, national, state and local requirements, and ensure that we are taking all relevant considerations into account.”

“Throughout the pandemic, our primary focus has been the health and safety of our employees and members. At the onset of the pandemic, we transitioned 85% of our campus-based employees to work from home,” Culbertson told CU Times. “Our post-pandemic work patterns will likely be quite different: More telework, differently configured workspaces, and new health and safety measures on campuses and in branches.”

Navy Federal’s return-to-work plan, she said, “is thoughtfully being developed. This plan will be phased in over the next several months, as we continue to follow all CDC and local health guidelines.”

Broadly speaking, employees who do make a return to the office are likely to find an environment reformed for the coronavirus era, lawyers and other officials said. Hallways might feature arrows directing employees to walk in only one direction, with the goal of avoiding face-to-face encounters in narrow spaces. Elevator capacity is likely to be lowered to limit social contact, and entire areas of an office might be cordoned off. Doors will remain propped open when possible, removing the need to touch a handle, and hand sanitizer will be prominently displayed.

And masks, a typically unwelcome accessory in a credit union or other financial institution, are likely to be strongly encouraged or even required.

Indeed, the pandemic has brought a number of new considerations to the fore. A mix of federal, state and local health guidelines have come with a separate set of questions for how to handle employees deemed to be at a high risk of serious illness, along with those who are apprehensive about making a return to the office amid fears of a surge in coronavirus cases and the lack of a vaccine.

For credit unions, reopening plans can vary based on whether back-office employees work in a branch building or separate office.

“When you throw the branches into the mix, it adds more complexity to it. You have people from the public coming in and out. Some of it you can control, some of it you can’t control,” said Hal Scoggins, a partner at Farleigh Wada Witt in Portland, Ore., who advises credit unions on regulatory compliance.

Some credit unions will face the added complexity of having employees in offices in multiple counties that, even with shared borders, have differing guidelines.

Scoggins said he has advised credit unions eyeing a reopening of their offices to anticipate a range of responses from employees. For instance, some employees might be eager to return to an office environment, while others might prefer to remain at home even with the option of reuniting with co-workers.

Scoggins’ recommended attitude: “Be flexible, be sympathetic and be creative.”

“But also be fair and be consistent. The more sympathetic you are with employees and flexible with them and accommodate them, the fewer problems you’re going to have,” he said.

Michael Barnsback, a partner at the law firm O’Hagan Meyer in Alexandria, Va., said credit union workplaces frequently have a “family” atmosphere. Barnsback said he could envision that environment creating pitfalls, perhaps with a credit union asking an older employee to remain home rather than work at the office over concerns about coronavirus.

“In the credit union world, because of the member system – they’re not customers, they’re members – it creates more of a tight community. We have to avoid that. We can’t be paternalistic to keep them out for their own good, because that would violate the law. We really have to avoid that even though our intentions are good,” he said.

Credit unions, he said, should craft safety policies, communicate them clearly and apply them consistently. Among other considerations, Barnsback said credit unions should weigh taking employees’ temperatures or asking them a series of questions upon their arrival at the office to determine whether they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“Each branch is going to have to have this playbook in place, and follow it each and every day. You’re going to have to do it each and every time they come into the branch,” he said.

In a recent webinar, Reed and Carlos Molina, a senior consultant at CUNA Mutual Group, stressed the need for credit unions to develop policies mandating safe practices at work. Molina said credit unions might need to relax policies for cell phone use to help employees avoid close contact with colleagues and also separate departments to avoid the “cross-contamination of work areas.”

“The fluidity of this situation is going to require you to be agile, to communicate readily and at times you may have to say we don’t know right now, or we’re thinking about this. What’s true on a Monday might not be true at the end of the week,” he said.

Molina advised credit unions to develop policies for handling papers, such as loan documents, and said it will be “very important” to provide employees with gloves. Hand sanitizer, he added, “should be plentiful and [at] as many high-touch locations as possible.”

For credit unions with unionized staff, he recommended reviewing contracts for language concerning the ability of organized employees to refuse to work or come to the office over concerns of suffering serious physical harm. That language, which frequently appears in union contracts, might have been overlooked previously as irrelevant to a credit union.

“Now, generally we probably didn’t think about these clauses in contracts, because we’re credit unions. A financial institution. We’re not a machine shop, we’re not engaging in the type of work that lends itself to catastrophic injuries. But what does that mean now for things like a pandemic, for these types of infections that we’re seeing? These are questions that those types of credit unions are going to need to ask. It’s very important,” he said.

When offices are reopened, even on a limited scale, Molina suggested that credit unions review prominent online message boards, such as Glassdoor, to see how employees are responding to their return to the office.

“It’s ultimately going to be about protecting the safety of your employees but also considering how it could affect the reputation of the credit union not only as a financial institution but as an employer going forward,” he said. “I would want to know about how individuals are communicating or how they feel about the credit union as an employer, as a respondent to the pandemic issue, how they’ve addressed any employee concerns.”

Reed said as credit unions reformat office spaces for social distancing, they must remain mindful of the message they send to employees. Crime-scene tape, while attention-grabbing, can be a “little bit jarring,” he said. He recently counseled one client against using tape featuring a skull and crossbones. He suggests using ribbon to mark the boundaries of a closed-off section.

“The staff should anticipate that the space that they left is going to be transformed,” Reed said on the webinar. “There are so many habits that are going to have to be broken.”