Building a Culture in the New Normal

I’ve always said culture is what makes Sharonview special. It’s why people want to work here and why members want to do business with us.

It’s so important to us that we have what we call “the culture talk” with every potential new hire – before the first interview.

There was a time – pre-pandemic – when I thought maintaining our culture required us to all be in the same physical space. COVID-19 proved me wrong, and I was happy to admit it. About 95% of our team worked from home for most of last year, and we had a record year by nearly any measure. We expanded into new territory when we bought two branches in coastal South Carolina.

So, when we began thinking about our return-to-work plan, we couldn’t pretend the previous year hadn’t happened. We had to acknowledge that our “secret sauce” didn’t depend on everyone being present and accounted for in the office. Some jobs – most jobs, really – can be done effectively from home. And some employees feel they’re more productive at home.

Survey Says …

Our employees are the cornerstone of our success, and they deserve to have a voice.

We began the “return to a new normal” by surveying every team member at corporate about where they’d like to work. (Our retail staff needs to be in their branch; those jobs can’t be done remotely.)

Out of the 180 corporate staff surveyed, 140 people said they wanted to work three days a week at corporate and from home two days.

About 30 people said they wanted to come back full-time. And, 10 people said they needed to work from home full-time due to a special circumstance. We’re evaluating each of those with an eye toward being as accommodating as possible.

This new hybrid work model – still a work in progress – is already popular with employees, and we think it’s going to help with talent acquisition. We’ll be able to hire highly qualified folks who don’t live in the immediate area. We’ve never had that ability.

We’re getting really intentional about staying in touch. Before COVID, I could just stand up, walk out of my office, make the rounds. When part of your team is at home, you can’t do that.

We’ve established virtual “Coffee with the ELT” (Executive Leadership Team) where a couple of ELT members will talk for 15 minutes of a virtual 60-minute team meeting and then open up the floor for questions.

People are getting creative – and we’re encouraging that – with virtual gatherings, including lunches and happy hours. We’re still trying to make those personal connections. It’s one of our core values: We build relationships through genuine care and concern.

That level of care and concern doesn’t change because we’re not together. We have built a culture of taking care of each other, and that won’t change either.

One way we take care of each other is through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP). We’ve always had it, but we may not have always done a good job of promoting it. Given what the pandemic did to a lot of people – making them feel isolated and uncertain – we’re putting employee mental health front and center now.

People were under a lot of stress last year, and that hasn’t let up. Parents had to become their children’s teachers, or teaching assistants, in many cases. We’re reminding employees – often – that they can pick up the phone and call a professional. It’s all confidential – and needing and asking for help is normal.

But What About the New Building?

It could have been easy for us to think about the beautiful, new headquarters building we had just moved into days before COVID hit – and simply mandate that everybody return.

We had configured the space for the company we are today and the company we want to be 10, 15 years down the road.

We were literally down to our very last cube in our old building. We joked that if we hired one more person, they’d have to sit in the parking lot. So, we felt lucky that we moved in what felt like the nick of time.

Then, the pandemic hit, and we literally had nine people working in 180,000 square feet. I wanted us all to get back here. We had built a gym. We had a lake with a trail around it. We created an oasis room with a ping-pong table, Dave & Buster shuffleboard, pool table, foosball, a couple of big flat-screen TVs and some couches. We built a state-of-the-art training facility – back when we thought in-person training was the gold standard.

We could’ve said: C’mon back, guys. This headquarters of ours has all the bells and whistles. But again, employees had gotten a taste of a hybrid work arrangement and many liked it. We couldn’t un-know that.

So, we’re starting to look at how to reconfigure the space. We may do shared workspace – the hoteling concept. Employees understand they won’t necessarily have the same cube or office each day. We may sublet more space. We’re on two floors right now and could always consolidate to just one.

These changes will be seamless to members. Our goal will always be to serve people the way they want to be served – whether that’s inside a branch, on the telephone or over a laptop or smartphone.

We had a high mobile adoption when the pandemic hit since in-person banking was a challenge. We’re probably getting as much as $11 million a month coming through deposits through our mobile channel right now. But, as soon as the branches reopened, the people who love in-person service started coming back in droves. And our people were there to welcome them back.

That all comes back to the culture we’ve created. It’s a culture so friendly that a number of members still choose to do their banking in-person even though they know how to use mobile deposit.

I’m proud to say our culture withstood the pandemic. And I’m confident it will remain strong as we implement our new hybrid work model. It puts employees first, and that’s always a good place to start.

Bill Partin is CEO of the $1.7 billion Sharonview Federal Credit Union in Indian Land, S.C.