By Ray Birch
SPOKANE, Wash.–STCU here recently did something it has never done before: it paused one morning, set aside everyday business and checked in with all of its employees via videoconference—not only to see how everyone has been faring during the pandemic but also to pass along some needed reassurance.
The decision led to the 86-year-old STCU opening its offices late—10 a.m.—on a Wednesday morning following an all-staff event. The meeting marked the first time most of STCU’s 734 employees have been together—even virtually—since March, when the credit union’s staff started working remotely.
Chief Marketing Officer Marty Dickinson said the event helped employees feel more confident in the credit union and in their jobs and to feel better prepared to address another statewide lockdown, if that happens.
“I think it's human nature in times of this kind of stress that everyone is looking for some sense of comfort—wondering, ‘Am I OK? We were able to provide that sense of comfort,” said Dickinson. “That’s important, as we could be moving here in Washington into another shutdown. Not every employer gets to say, ‘Yes, we’re OK and you’re OK.’ It was very important for us to convey that message to everyone and give everybody a moment to exhale and say, ‘I can get it together. Here we go again. We can do this this.’”
An Effort to ‘Validate’
Dickinson said the $3.7-billion STCU wanted to let employees know how they were performing during the tough times and how the credit union was faring financially.
“We wanted to make staff feel good about their jobs and the credit union—and how well they're serving members…In general we wanted to validate the efforts and the work that people have been putting in day in and day out since this pandemic began,” Dickinson told CUToday.info. “And with that, validate the impact employees are having on the credit union and the membership. Our employees know that during these difficult times we recognize them, we see and hear them, and what they are doing is making a difference.”
Dickinson said attendance was strong, with more than 94% of staff participating.
“Based on the sheer volume of employees who attended, we knew people needed this,” said Dickinson. “People needed some means of coming back together and touching base, even if it was virtually. And the engagement level during the meeting…you knew employees were hungry for this, hungry for some sense of connection.”
The Focus of Meeting
The meeting’s content was focused on “celebrating and connecting,” said Dickinson.
“We shared a ton of information about all the ways STCU has helped the community and members during the pandemic, with guest speakers talking about specific ways that other departments had been crucial to the success in their own department,” she said. “ We quantified, as much as possible, volunteer hours, home loans funded, calls taken by our contact center. We honored a colleague who recently died of cancer. We gave away gift cards to local businesses…”
Marty Dickinson
STCU also contacted business members and community leaders, asking them to create 30-second selfie videos for the meeting in which they discussed how STCU has helped them during the pandemic.
Putting together and producing the large video meeting took signficant effort, said Dickinson.
“It required a lot of advance work, particularly for IT, human resources, administration and brand marketing,” she said. “Even pre-COVID it was growing increasingly hard to connect with a team that’s spread across 26 locations in two states. Our IT team spent time getting to know GoTo Webinar, and all of the speakers and other key people participated in a run-through the day before the event. That helped identify and correct some bugs, like reverberating audio, and lag time.”
Feedback Gathered
While STCU presented a fair amount of information about the credit union itself, Dickinson emphasized the meeting was designed to gather feedback on how staff were doing, physically and mentally.
“We solicited staff questions in advance, and answered the ones that were asked the most,” said Dickinson.
The CU dedicated a half-hour to those answers, and is answering questions not addressed during the meeting via its standard employee communications channels.
“Many of the questions were about how is STCU doing from a viability and sustainability standpoint—our financial health. Fortunately, we have good answers for those,” she said.
Things Get ‘Heavy’
In terms of employees’ mental outlook, Dickinson said that feedback during the meeting indicates they are still engaged with the credit union, but that an element of fatigue has set in.
“Things are just a bit heavy now,” she acknowledged.
If the pandemic persists well into next year, Dickinson said STCU will likely hold another check-in event with its staff.
“This is an interesting thing for us, a new way to convene and connect,” said Dickinson. “And coming out of this pandemic, maybe this is an event we fine tune and continue to hold.”