How The Callaway Bank’s Forward-Thinking Approach Helped Them During COVID-19

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the J-Mark business innovation technology experience.

Tom:

Okay, well, thank you, Kim and Mike, for joining us today to talk about the remote experience at the Callaway bank. Would you both be able to just introduce yourselves real quick and then talk a little bit about your transition to the remote environment and how that has worked for you.

Mike Hill:

Great. Kim.

Kim Barnes:

I’m Kim Barnes, president and CEO of the Callaway bank in Fulton, Missouri.

Mike Hill:

I’m Mike Hill, I’m the chief operating officer and the chief financial officer at Callaway bank right here in Fulton, Missouri.

Kim Barnes:

So this challenge has been fun, and I say that sarcastically and honestly both, because this transition to go to a remote work environment, I think has gone remarkably well, given the circumstances in which it was presented to us. People are naturally stressed and have anxiety and at the same time, we’re asking them to uproot their whole working environment and adapt to something new. I think our transition has gone really, really well. We have about, at this point, 65% of our workforce working remotely. 30% working still because we’re an essential business. 30% of our workforce is working in our branches, keeping those services functional for clients and about 5% of our work force is on standby at any given time. So I’m really proud of our team and I’m really proud of the resources and the technology partners that got us to this point where we could do this so well.

Tom:

That’s wonderful. So Mike, from the operation side, what were some of the challenges that you guys had in getting the transition to happen?

Mike Hill:

I think the first thing for us was trying to understand what kind of connectivity each individual employee had at their house, because that really determined what kind of hardware we needed. Then the second issue was what kind of hardware did we need? There were some people whose first thought was, “Okay, I need a laptop, I need this.” We simply didn’t have the kind of resources to be able to give everybody a completely brand new machine. For 65% of our employees, we just said, we don’t have that kind of inventory and as we were talking about earlier, it’s difficult to find. A lot of businesses were going through the same struggles we were. So we had to be very creative about how we had our resources allocated. We went through, we talked to each employee and as Kim said, it was a very nerve wracking time for the employees because they wanted to continue to serve the clients and get the work done at the same time.

Mike Hill:

I’m asking them a lot of questions about what their environment’s like and things like that. But a lot of our IT staff really helped, including J-Mark, really designed a situation for each employee and we’ve been very creative and we’ve been very successful in being able to get that many people out. Really the only thing that we’ve really purchased were 10 new laptops. So to be able to make that kind of a move from just maybe 30 to 35% of our employees being able to work remotely to 65%, with just an increase of only 10 laptops, was pretty remarkable. So we were very fortunate to have laid the foundation. A lot of our sales staff, we were really focused on getting them deployed mobily anyway and so we already had really the base infrastructure to allow remote connectivity already which J-Mark’s did. So this was just a matter of adding more people to that mix. It’s gone, as Kim said very smoothly.

Tom:

So if you had to have people access the company resources from their own computers, is that part of the solution, or have you been able to keep it all onto corporate owned devices?

Mike Hill:

We’ve been able to keep all to corporate owned devices, whether or not somebody connected wirelessly versus being able to plug directly into their router, working with J-Mark to get those folks set up with VPN capability, with multifactor, all the additional security controls. We’ve still been able to use all corporate owned devices. There are things like Office 365, for example, where somebody may be getting email on their phone, that would be the only thing that would be not corporately owned.

Kim Barnes:

I think we were fortunate in the timing. If you can ever say that you’re fortunate to have something like this happen. I think we were fortunate in the timing. Our company had, as Mike said, laid the framework, the groundwork, but we were at the cusp of really taking that next step to have more remote and cloud and more enabled communication tools and things like that. So we were at the cusp of rolling out Office 365. We were at the cusp of having some digital communication tools like DocuSign and other things and man, we were far enough along that we could just escalate those things like crazy and really solve needs in very short time, two or three days.

Kim Barnes:

That was very pleasing to me. Now, would the rollout have been the way we wanted it to be? No, but then I’m so very proud of everybody in the equation because everybody has taken it in the spirit that it needs to be. They’re willing and they’re listening and they’re adapting and they’re really doing things. The people in the equation are doing things the way we want them to do and so that’s our safety net control mechanism. We don’t have all the nooks and crannies the way we want them, but the people are the way we want them. So that makes a huge world of difference for us.

Tom:

That’s wonderful.

Mike Hill:

I think another challenge we had too with, we can sometimes be a pretty paper intensive company and sometimes we shift some…

Tom:

The ink?

Mike Hill:

Yeah, exactly. So sometimes we shuffle that around. So we’ve challenged our folks to think of ways that they could use, like Kim said, DocuSign, but even internally, whenever we’re used to printing a report, maybe documenting something on a physical piece of paper, rethinking that, and our employees have done a really good job. Some of the workarounds that we’re developing today are probably going to stay with us going forward because ultimately that’s what we want to get to. We want to get to a paperless environment and this kind of forced us to really think harder and more quickly on that process.

Todd:

So you guys have mentioned employees a number of times, how are they handled? You had some employees, leadership is my understanding, working remotely off and on, but now that a big portion of doing it, how did they handle it? Were their fears? Were their concerns? Were their challenges?

Kim Barnes:

Actually we had, Mike mentioned 30 to 35%, we had all of the executive team was remotely enabled and all of our sales force I’ll say, but maybe about two were remotely enabled. All of our retail team leaders were mobily enabled. All of our operational team as in, or most of them… Or maybe say that a different way, a portion of the critical parts of HR and risk management and data processing and accounting and bookkeeping and lone operations. A portion of all of those people were mobily enabled already too and so we have the framework and we have the first steps. So let’s get those folks moved off site and let’s get them working and then that gives us room to work on the next wave and they can help the others, because one of their team was already remote. The concept wasn’t new and so people were not as afraid of it, I don’t think, and their coworkers could help them through it.

Kim Barnes:

Our team of Mike and Alison and Angela and the executive team for the, whatever division the person was in, did a phenomenal job of communicating with the people and talking and customizing it to their individual situation and being calm and reassuring and answering questions for them. Let’s not worry about getting a remote work agreement signed and in place before you take this thing out to your office. Well, we trust you, we know you, we’ll work on that tomorrow, okay. Let’s just get you up and running. Let’s not worry about a stress layer on top of that. That’s unnecessary. Let’s just work through the practical things that we can do, and then we’ll worry about the next thing that we can do, and then we’ll worry about the next thing that we can do.

Kim Barnes:

She’ll be calm, be patient and that test team, along with J-Mark, will move mountains. You guys, Mike and Alison and J-Mark, I can’t begin to say enough about the things that were accomplished, but you had a willing audience. You had people saying, “I will. I can, what can I do?” I think that helped a huge amount, but it’s been amazing.

Tom:

Kim, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I think one of the cool things about your organization is that you’re always leading, you’re always out in front trying to find new and creative ways to deliver value to your customers, deliver value to your team. I think that your transitions, as they were, were probably easier than a lot of organizations, because you are so forward thinking as an organization, and you had put some of the tools in place in order to do that. Where we have other organizations, and sometimes we come across banks who are really nervous and conservative about that. Would you mind to share just a little bit about how you lead the company into a new way of banking, the new way of dealing with the workforce and some of those challenges, because I think your attitude is more mature, progressive in a very positive way than a lot of organizations, and there’s a lot of value that you could share in terms of how you’ve had to help an old industry transition into a new time.

Kim Barnes:

That’s a deep question, and honestly, I’ll tell you this. It started 160-some years ago, 1857. We’re an old company. We are an old company, but the standards that have been set throughout our history are, you appreciate your history and you learn from it, but you don’t look back all the time. You always look forward and you’re driving towards the next thing that you need to do, or that you can do. We take being a community bank seriously. It’s not just a label we live in every day, we are the heart of our community and we know that that responsibility is key to us. So we have a responsibility to be forward thinking and to do the things that we must to help everybody in this equation. We want to be a good investment for a shareholder. We want to be a good place of employment for the staff and we want to be a good community partner for all of our clients and the communities that need us in other ways like civic organizations and just the fabric of the community.

Kim Barnes:

So we start there with, we are going to be forward thinking, no matter what, and then you make it client centric and human centric. Okay. If we do the right things for people in the equation, then we’ll succeed. It’ll be okay. We want to empower the person in the equation to think about, how can I make this better? How can I solve this for somebody? How can I do the right thing in the right way, but in the most caring and easy, comfortable way that I can, it doesn’t have to be uptight and harsh and all focused on, “I got to follow the rule.” We can follow the rule and be people too. It’s okay. There’s enough latitude there that we can be good at what we do and be good people in the equation, too.

Tom:

The culture empowered the ability to handle a lot of these challenges. There’s a fundamental culture that’s built into your organization that’s been there for a long time. That is the foundation that you were able to build on as you transitioned into this.

Kim Barnes:

And a whole lot of good, good, good people in the equation, too.

Tom:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Todd:

I think you’ve struck on something that a lot of people don’t realize with remote work and a lot of people are focusing on the tools and the systems and the blinking lights and everything that has to happen. But the most important thing is that you have good leadership and that you have leaders that care and that you have employees that care. I mean, employees are going home to stressful situations and when you have leaders that understand that those employees just want to do the best I can, great things can happen.

Todd:

So what we’re, from a leadership side, have you had any challenges in how or changes I should say, in how you go about leading a remote team versus meeting in the office? How is it different now versus a few weeks ago?

Kim Barnes:

A lot of figuring it out on the fly. So I will say this, most of our supervisors have some element of thinking about remote workers already, right? So it wasn’t a foreign concept to them. They didn’t start from zero. They started from just a few paces forward. Managers have had to learn how to communicate differently, is probably the biggest thing that I see. It’s requiring a lot more effort on the manager’s part to make contacts and stay engaged with their staff. So they’re having to pull together meetings that they wouldn’t normally do. Like let’s just have a call at 10 o’clock every day. Let’s touch in at three o’clock every day, whatever we need to do. Then individual reach outs on top of that, just to hear that voice, you need to have a touch point.

Kim Barnes:

You need to see somebody, you need to hear them in order to have a center to your purpose of remembering what you’re there to do. Right? People can be self sustaining a lot. People are strong and they can find their own motivation, and they can find a way to do the things that they need to do, but they still need reassurance and they still need to know that they’re part of a bigger purpose. So that takes the touch points and takes communication. There was a point last week where somebody called me out because I hadn’t done a communication timely, like I should have. I really appreciated that because I get wrapped up in my own world and my own priorities and my own things I have to get done, but I had to stop and think there are other people in this equation that need this more than I do. So I have to make it happen. Every manager is facing that same question. I don’t know from a manager standpoint, chime in and talk about what you’ve done.

Mike Hill:

You know, it’s different for each one. There’s some people where I’ll jump on, say a FaceTime call, just to see a person. Some people are texters or some other kind of chat. I do know that, as Kim said, kind of learning on the fly. We had teams deployed, I’d say level one, just basic, basic stuff, but it’s been important. That’s a program that’s been important for us because when we get together as a group, management group, sometimes we’ll use PowerPoint presentations, things like that. How do we share quick information that we’ve got to make pretty quick decisions on, in this kind of an environment? I’ll say, “Okay, we’re going to screen share and teams.”

Mike Hill:

Maybe not everybody has done that before. So we’ll just take a little bit extra time and we just play with it, try this, try that. That experience has been, that’s been good and we’ve been trying to keep the information flowing so we can make decisions timely. In terms of culture, motivation, things like that, we’ve got a group that is really kind of in charge of the culture of the organization and it’s made up of a pretty diverse group of people. We’re trying to do business as usual, even though we’re not in the same place. So this week we’ve been doing a spirit week and just by continuing to do that, we would’ve done that anyway, had we been on site.

Mike Hill:

Well, it’s important that we continue to do that and it was also an opportunity for us to kind of bridge the people that may be working remotely with the people that maybe still be working on site. I know that’s a challenge that you guys face too, is how do you bring that group together? We were thrown apart in a very short period of time. So it’s very important that you bring it all back. So, you know what? We turned the camera on ourselves and “Hey, show me where you’re at, what you’re doing?” Today is your, not favorite team, but you know, it’s spirit week. So what are you passionate about? We’re getting pictures of animals. We’re getting pictures of kids, we’re getting inspirational quotes, things like that go a long way towards keeping everybody connected together.

Todd:

That’s wonderful.

Kim Barnes:

I really wish… We’ve been talking about deploying Facebook workplace and man, we were about two weeks too late in getting that started because right about now that would be such a powerful tool for us. I know it would be and I’m really looking forward to getting that in a rudimentary way usable, because I think it will make a big difference. As Mike said, we got to be normal, even though we’re not right now and we got to remember that the person I used to see walking by in their office or meeting in the lunch room or whatever, is still there and they’re still doing their job. I still appreciate what they do as a coworker, but I need to also have that fulfillment of the chat that I used to have with them about what they had for dinner last night or whatever. We still got to be people.

Mike Hill:

Definitely.

Tom:

Absolutely. I love it. So I’m super excited to get workplace deployed for yeah. We’re already planning things on the back end, so we’re going to make it awesome. You guys will love it. It has made all the difference in the world to us. In fact, I’m going to have to drop off the call a little bit early. I apologize. In 10 minutes, we’re having an all company, we call it a rally, where we’re going to get the whole company on a call like this and it streams directly into workplace. So everybody can go back and watch it and build those things. I’ve got a couple of conversations and a little prep work I’ve got to have done before the meeting starts here in about 10 minutes. So I apologize. I’ve got to drop off. It was certainly good to see you and look forward to getting engaged with you guys and helping workplace be amazing for you and appreciate your partnership. You guys are so awesome. Great to work with great people.

Mike Hill:

Thank you.

Kim Barnes:

Thank you Tom, it’s good to see you too. Take care of yourself.

Mike Hill:

Yeah, have a good weekend.

Tom:

Thanks to you as well. Be safe.

Mike Hill:

Thanks Tom.

Kim Barnes:

You too.

Todd:

So as we get close to wrapping up here, what would you say to a… You guys had a lot of the controls in place, and so it wasn’t as big of a transition to the organization that this is, we just got to do this now, they didn’t have all these controls in place. What would you say to the manager who’s struggling with this diverse remote workforce? How are they going to take care of their people and support them?

Kim Barnes:

From like a data security and privacy thing, is that what you’re going at?

Todd:

Could be data security, could just be from leadership culture, keeping the motivation up. There’s a lot of challenges with working remote. What is your advice to the manager? That’s been thrust into that situation?

Kim Barnes:

I guess my word of advice is you can’t get hung up on structure and formality in this kind of environment. You got to roll with the punches and you got to be okay that some things aren’t the way you might normally have done them. It’s okay. You just got to keep remembering the purpose is to keep your business functional and to keep the services flowing for your client base. As an essential business, we feel that really, really strongly. We’ve got to be there and not only do we have to accomplish the tangible thing of getting their transactional activity done, getting their new account, getting their loan booked, whatever.

Kim Barnes:

But we have to also be aware that we bring a degree of confidence and calm to our environment too. So not only do we have to be there to take your deposit, but we have to do it with a smile and in a very calm way, we can’t seem frantic or fear ridden or full of anxiety when we interact with that client. We have to be steady and reliable and certain. We’re going to be here no matter what, we’ve got your back, it’s okay. We’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about it.

Todd:

Perfect.

Mike Hill:

Don’t let perfection get in your way of starting. In this whole process, what’s the expression, you’re going to break a few eggs. That’s okay. It’s not going to be perfect and you’re not going to get, it’s not going to be 100% the same, but life today isn’t 100% the same as it was. So just give yourself the room to make a mistake and then own it, adjust and move onto the next challenge.

Todd:

Perfect.

Kim Barnes:

Yeah. Perfect [crosstalk 00:24:40] every time.

Todd:

The last question. What are you guys doing and what have you seen happening in the community? How has the Callaway bank helping the community and what are some examples you’ve seen of the community kind of coming together through this situation?

Kim Barnes:

We’ve seen a lot of positivity. A lot of groups, a lot of organizations are, as a way to keep their members or their group of people together. They’re picking a cause or they’re supporting a positive effort in some kind of way. Of course we can support all those things with our social media presence or with the organizations that we’re affiliated with on a routine basis. We can keep those affiliations going. We can also do tangible banking work. Right now, if you have a mortgage, it’s a great time to refinance because rates are low, and so our mortgage volume is more than double what it normally is. So our people are in their homes and in their workplaces, wherever they are, home or onsite, cranking out loans for people and helping them improve their financial situation. The stimulus programs that ended up providing funds for business loans.

Kim Barnes:

Well, those things have had to be stood up in a very, very short period of time and I had an entire team. We had an entire team of people who were really digging in, no matter where they are, figuring out what needed to happen, collaborating together, solving problems and delivering loan products in less than a week to the business community that is frantic and really desperate for them. We couldn’t fail in that and we haven’t. We’re ready. Some of the big banks are aligning about date. Didn’t have enough time. They’re not ready. Well, we are.

Mike Hill:

I think Todd too, some of the other things that, not only is Kim shouldering a lot of responsibility in our organization, but come Monday, she’s going to be participating in a panel, a webinar for our community to kind of help our businesses. Even the people that aren’t affiliated with Callaway bank, help them sort through the difficulty of trying to determine what’s the best program for you. Because there’s a lot of programs out there to support the clients and she’s out there as a resource. The other thing I want to bring up too is, for the last pandemic, we actually had some supplies that we found and it included not only some of the face masks, but gloves as well. As you heard on the news, there’s just a great need in the community. We reached out to some local healthcare providers and said, “Here. Here’s some extra.” So between the volunteerism and things like that, I’m really proud of the way our team continues to interact with the community because we’re all in it together.

Todd:

Wonderful. [crosstalk 00:28:00]

Todd:

Well, thank you for taking the time to talk with us, Tom and I today and you guys have a wonderful weekend and keep up the great work.

Kim Barnes:

Thank you, Todd.

Mike Hill:

See you Todd.

Todd:

Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.

Kim Barnes:

See you Mike.

Mike Hill:

See you Kim.

Kim Barnes:

Bye.

Speaker 1:

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