Credit Unions Work to Keep Branches Open in Omicron Surge

This month’s surge in COVID-19 cases has been affecting communities from Seattle to Raleigh, N.C., and forcing credit unions to redeploy their adaptive skills honed since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The case surge, which health officials tied to the Omicron variant, has forced a few branch closures at large credit unions, including BECU based in Tukwila, Wash. ($29.6 billion in assets, 1.3 million members) and Mountain America Federal Credit Union based in Salt Lake City,  ($13.8 billion in assets, one million members).

Sterling Nielsen, president/CEO of Mountain America, said it had to close two branch lobbies in the first week of January, but they were back open in a week. Cases in its six-state area are expected to continue to rise through the end of the month, which he said is likely to trigger more branch closures.

“I don’t think we’re done with this surge, whether it’s COVID or other illnesses,” Nielsen said. “Once again, we’re in the rapid-adapt mode, which we’ve been used to for the last few years.”

“I would never have guessed last week would have transpired the way it did with so many cases coming online,” he said. “Who would have thought two years ago we would have been talking about closures of branch lobbies.”

Nielsen said the credit union is usually able to keep the minimum crew of four to six employees needed to keep a branch lobby open along with its drive-thru lanes by deploying members of its team of floating member service representatives or reassigning other employees to the branch.

However, the branches closed in early January were in more remote locations — one in southern Utah and the other in Arizona — where temporary reassignments weren’t practical.

BECU also had to close two branches this month because COVID-19 created staff shortages (and a third in the Puget Sound area because of an outbreak of snow).

“We are abiding by the five-day quarantine and continue to follow other safety requirements at the federal and state levels, and the (Center for Disease Control)’s guidance,” BECU said in a statement emailed to CU Times.

“The majority of our headquarters employees continue to work remotely,” it said.

The credit union said it is continuing to assess its work model, and expects it to further develop as a hybrid model where remote is allowed based on the type of work and employee preference.

Wright-Patt Credit Union of Dayton, Ohio ($6.8 billion in assets, 443,603 members) is not counting days to determine when workers who test positive for COVID-19 can return to work.

“We are doing this a bit different,” it said in an email response. “We are erroring on the side of caution by asking our employees who have tested negative or are living with someone who is testing positive to get a physician’s note that they can return to work. “

This is the specific language Wright-Patt has been using:

1. “COVID-positive employees are not to return to WPCU facilities until HR receives a return to work note with a specific release date listed from a physician and the Partner is symptom-free, or until a negative COVID-19 test result can be provided.
2. “If an employee is living with a COVID-positive family member, the employee must present a note to HR directly from a physician indicating they are cleared to work (i.e. that no quarantine is necessary).”

Since Jan. 6, Wright-Patt has required all employees to wear a mask if they are working in a credit union facility, including its myCUmortgage CUSO facility. “We have not asked members to wear a mask at this time.”

Wright-Patt limits in-person meetings to no more than seven people in a room, and in those cases masks are worn and social distancing is maintained. “We are using Teams for a lot of virtual meetings at this time,” it said.

COVID-19 cases have led to no branch lobby closings at either Wright-Patt or Coastal Federal Credit Union of Raleigh, N.C. ($4.4 billion in assets, 294,166 members).

“We’ve certainly been adapting as cases have surged here,” Coastal spokesman Joe Mecca said. “HR is continuing to monitor potential and actual cases, and we have plans in place to guide us depending on the scenario.”

While no branch lobby has had a prolonged closure in the recent wave, he said some have been closed early for cleaning after an exposure has been identified.

Coastal was one of the earliest adopters of interactive teller machines, converting all its teller transactions to a person on a screen more than 11 years ago. That heavy investment has paid off in the pandemic by allowing the credit union’s teller staff to maintain services at all its locations.

Yet its branches are still vulnerable to staff shortages for those who open accounts, service accounts, originate loans or provide specialized services like realty, mortgage or wealth management.

“But even with them, we’ve implemented a scheduling system that enables members to choose a phone or Webex meeting in lieu of face-to-face,” Mecca said.

The credit union responses this week arrived before the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Biden’s plan to require vaccinations among workers at large employers. Those who voiced an opinion said they were ready to follow whatever the law required.

Polled by CU Times last August, none of the nation’s 11 largest credit unions said it was considering a vaccine mandate. In October, the largest, Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va. ($151 billion in assets, 10.9 million members) announced it would require employees to be either vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

Mountain America, the nation’s 12th-largest credit union by assets, also has not required employees to be vaccinated, instead relying on mandating masks for employees.

“There are many who hold strongly held beliefs regarding the vaccine, so we have not been one to say it is mandated. At the same time we’re trying to make that balance between the need to protect coworkers,” Nielsen said.