Fall is here! You can practically smell the pumpkin spice lattes, see the auburn leaves tumbling to the ground…and feel the tension of busy season heading toward you and your staff like a speeding locomotive (if it’s not already here). This fact might spark fears of employee burnout, a sensitive issue in a complex labor market.
But while busy season may be unavoidable, burnout is not.
Here are some ways to keep up community bank or credit union staff morale during the dreaded busy season.
Get Personal
According to Gallup, only 25% of U.S. workers think their employer cares about them. That’s a pretty dismal number to start, and those feelings likely heighten during stressful seasons at work.
Make sure your bank or credit union staff experience your emphasis on service as much as your consumers do. Ask them what’s going on in their lives. Try to understand their struggles. Let them know you care about those personal matters that have a very real effect on workplace performance.
There are always things your bank or credit union staff won’t want to discuss, and that’s ok! You can still care for their personal well-being with some innovative resources.
The Community Impact Fund is one organization partnering with financial institutions to improve employees’ lives. Their Impact Loan has the potential to help team members experiencing financial difficulty during busy season.
Find Bandwidth-Preserving Friends
Community bank and credit union staff wear many hats. Your COO may oversee operations as well as cleaning litter out of the parking lot. Your CMO could be subbing in on the teller line.
Needless to say, these employees (as well as others) are overwhelmed with all they must do. They can sustain this pace for a little bit, but not forever. A long-term move to prevent burnout is finding friends to help lighten the load.
Bank and credit union consultants help institutions in a variety of areas:
- Lending
- Marketing
- Training
- Technology
- Compliance
Taking marketing as an example, a bank or credit union marketing agency can remove the small things (newsletters, social media posts, blog posts, flyers, etc.) from your plate so you can focus on high priority work. The best agencies even help you with ideation and communication, going above and beyond to hit a home run for you.
Never Forget the Fun
Having fun is important to keeping bank or credit union staff engaged and healthy during busy season. The Harvard Business Review reports 81% of employees at great companies said they had fun work environments. And an older study showed that 62% of employees with no sick days over three months believed their office was fun.
How do you incorporate fun into your credit union or community bank?
You can:
- Have team lunches or nights out after work
- Get an office pet
- Host friendly competitions for prizes
- Make tasks into games and offer rewards for completion
- Allow listening to music (where appropriate)
With these tips, your bank or credit union staff is ready to survive the fall. Well…almost. Enlist On The Mark Strategies today as your marketing team to maximize your bandwidth while raising brand awareness in your communities.
