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Credit Union Times

AUGUS T 12, 2020 | VOL. 31 | NO. 15 | CUTIMES.COM

Must Reads

REMOTE WORK

WFH Policies Take ShapeDuring the past few months, millions of Americans have beenrelegated to work from home.For many of these employees,it has been their (and their employers’) first meaningful experience with teleworking. In manyinstances, the experience hasdemonstrated that teleworkingcan be a feasible alternative foroffice employees. Even as concerns about COVID- 19 for somemay be abating, many employersmay still be considering adopting more permanent teleworkpolicies or expanding currentlyexisting telework policies.

Whether as an accommodation, perquisite, or simply asa way for employers to reducespace requirements and associated costs, telework may likelybecome increasingly commonplace. Accordingly, employerswho permit their employees totelework should develop detailed policies and follow applicable laws in order to avoid potential legal risk.

Increased Prevalence of
Telework

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately25% of workers worked at homeat least occasionally from 2017-2018, and 15% of wage and salaryworkers had days they workedonly at home during that sameperiod. Between 2005 and 2015,the number of U.S. employeesworking remotely at Y15

Bots Help
Meet
Mortgage
Demand
JASON GRANT
jgrant@alm.com

ast December, as Chief
Information Officer Raj
Bandaru watched Gesa
For years, Ban-
daru and fellow
executives at the $4
billion, Richland,
Wash.-based credit
union struggled
to hire enough
people to keep up
with the repeti-
tive and mundane tasks required
to process mortgage loans. But,
Bandaru said, little did he know
in December that his desire to
streamline Gesa’s loan processing
was about to morph from a note-
worthy goal into an immediate,
vital need.
In March, the COVID- 19 pan-
demic put a stranglehold on the
U.S. economy and the Federal
Reserve, in a bid to save it, cut the
nation’s short-term interest rate
by 1.5%. It was an immense cut
that had never been made before
in such a short time frame. Y18
LENDING

Looking Aheadto 5G

CUs can expect new
service delivery
platforms. Y12
Sale
Leaseback
Transactions
Leverage their
potential. Y8
FOCUSREPORT:
LENDING CRISIS

The current economic downturn has left many consumersand businesses in a financial bind. In this Focus Report,find out how CUs are preparing for an inevitable wave ofloan losses, delinquencies and bankruptcies. Y6

Lay
ublished in May, James
Robert Lay’s book,

Banking on DigitalGrowth, may have arrived just in time.

If anything, the COVID- 19
health and economic crisis has
clearly demonstrated how criti-
cally important digital banking
is after credit unions were forced
to close or partially close their
branches. Sure,
there will always
be a place for the
branch, but while
many employees
are still working
from home, credit
union executives
have been rethink-
ing their branch positions. Some
of them have already decided to
permanently close a portion of
their branches and invest more
resources into digital banking to
drive growth now and into the
future.

Lay’s book focuses on howfinancial brands can leveragetheir digital banking channelsto execute short-term and long-term digital marketing strategies. As the founder of the DigitalGrowth Institute in Houston, Layholds 18 years of professionalexperience working on manydigital marketing projects withmore than 520 credit unions andbanks.