COVID R&R: Recovery and Reinvention

By: Tom Senecal, PeoplesBank President and CEO 

HOLYOKE, MA (February 16, 2021) – In a year unlike any other, PeoplesBank also experienced events we have never seen before. For instance, in the span of just a few days in April, we processed loans as part of the national Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with total values that would represent many months worth of work in ordinary circumstances. Our frontline associates were deemed Essential Workers, and each day, they put themselves at risk in order to help our customers with their pressing financial needs. In fact, so strange was the year that we even found ourselves insisting that our customers wear masks into the bank, and who would ever thought we’d see that day?

As we look to 2021, we look forward to better days and better times ahead. One of those things we are looking forward to is a little R&R – Rest and Relaxation.  However, in the meantime we are also now focused, along with many others, on a different type of R & R – Recovery and Reinvention, as this issue details. 

In many ways, a local bank rises and falls along with the local economy, and we all share a strong desire to have an economic recovery that is solid, sustained, and lifts all segments of our society. We remain committed to playing our part in that recovery, with support for local businesses and customers, and also as an employer and workplace of choice in the communities we serve. Part of our own recovery process will come with a hoped for ‘return to normalcy’ for our associates, with an easing of the additional pressures and stresses created by the pandemic. While they have performed heroically, that has not come without a cost.

As for reinvention, when we pivoted our business in March to quickly enable a remote workforce, at a time when customer demand for information and access was at the highest point I can ever recall, we learned many things about ourselves as a workplace and company. We were already committed to process improvement, but the opportunities presented to us as a result of the current environment were unexpected and numerous. We have already learned how to be more efficient in several operational areas, and also using technology like our VideoBankerITMs to serve customers in a contactless manner, seven days a week, which we can manage from a remote location.  

It is ironic that our last strategic plan, covering 2016 -2020, was titled “Vision 2020”. Had we known what visions 2020 would bring, we likely would have approached several areas within that plan differently. As we complete our current plan, we are more aware than ever of the need to be two very different organizations at the same time – continuing to be a stable, trusted and secure financial institution; while also continuously challenging ourselves to innovate, evolve and reinvent ourselves in the pursuit of being better. A better place to bank, a better place to work, a better corporate citizen in our communities.  

We do not know what the future holds, but we do know we have to be prepared for whatever may come. We are fortunate and proud to be independent and mutual, and plan to remain so. This structure allows us to be nimble and responsive, with local decision making to support local businesses, and it also allows us to exist solely to serve our depositors.  As we move forward in the new decade, while returning to a new normal, our pledge is that we will continue to be there for you.  

Here’s to a better 2021 and beyond, when no one has to wear a mask in our bank.

This article originally appeared in the Republican's 2021 Outlook section.

About: PeoplesBank is a leader in innovation, corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability, and employee engagement. Our three LEED® certified offices are environmentally friendly, and we have financed more than $188 million in wind, hydroelectric, and solar energy projects.

As the largest community bank in the market, we have a unique ability to help the communities we serve through volunteer efforts and millions of dollars in donations to charitable and civic causes. Our associates devote an average of 10,000 hours to volunteer work each year, and 48 of the bank’s officers serve on the boards of directors and committees of 115 nonprofit organizations in the area.

PeoplesBank is a mutual bank and therefore responsible to our depositors, employees, and the community. This organizational structure allows us to focus on the long-term viability of the bank and the best interests of our customers. We currently have 20 banking centers located in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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