When wildfires and mudslides ravaged some local communities, Montecito Bank & Trust in Santa Barbara, Calif., sprung into action with a carefully crafted incident response plan.
Its employees — including those who had been affected themselves — embraced the opportunity to help others.
"As a community bank it's our job to know the needs of our community and, when the unexpected happens, we take our role even more seriously," said Janet Garufis, the $1.4 billion-asset bank's chairman and CEO.
Over a four-month period from late 2017 to early 2018, California's Ventura and Santa Barbara counties were hit with multiple disasters. The December 2017 Thomas Fire and subsequent mudslides caused five evacuations in Montecito, a town nestled between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles west of Los Angeles.
A 23-member incident management team at the bank engaged in a near-continuous routine of "meet, plan, act, repeat" as conditions changed and new areas were impacted.
The team would conduct twice-daily calls for weeks after each event, sometimes scheduling calls as early as 5 a.m. or as late as 10 p.m. Thanks to the coordination, branches were able to remain open during the voluntary evacuations, helping many customers who needed cash as they fled the area.
Like Garufis, many bankers around the country contend with natural disasters, including earthquakes, tornadoes and blizzards. Hurricane season in particular can bring repeated disruptions to banks along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Coast.
Strategies to make sure customers and employees are well taken care of during an emergency tend to be a priority — but especially so for the Best Banks to Work For.
Throughout those crisis months, Montecito Bank's incident team had declared a disaster event within 24 hours of each one and went to work managing sporadic power outages and employee absences due to school closures, evacuation orders and illness. The team also handled required regulatory notifications and found alternative work locations for those whose commutes were affected.
At the height of the mudslides, more than a quarter of employees were absent because of road closures and mandatory evacuations. More than a tenth of employees were out during the peak of the Thomas Fire. With roads closed and commute options limited, that number would have been a lot worse if the bank didn't use telework software.
Montecito Bank used Facebook, emails and its website to alert as many customers as possible about branch closings and other disruptions.
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More than 2,300 miles away, in Tallahassee, Fla., Capital City Bank has been forced to become somewhat of an expert on dealing with severe weather. The $2.9 billion-asset bank has 60 branches spread across Alabama, Georgia and the Gulf Coast region of Florida, so its operations can be disrupted by numerous hurricanes in any given year.
A bank can play a major role in helping a community through a disaster, and Capital City has put some policies in place to try to keep branches open as much as possible.
In response to seeing its employees fretting about lost perishables after a storm knocked power out, the bank initiated a program four years ago that provides reimbursements of up to $125 per person to restock the fridge following 24 hours without electricity. Employees without power for more than 48 hours can be reimbursed for hotel stays of up to three days.
There is also assistance available for gas money or lodging in the event of a mandatory evacuation.
The bank's objective is twofold: The reimbursement program is a way to show workers that Capital City cares; and an employee is likely to be able to come back to work sooner, and with less weighing on their minds, if they know that their family has food and shelter after a storm.
Hurricane Irma, which caused more than $60 billion in damage last fall as it made its way up Florida's Gulf Coast, was a huge test to Capital City's system recovery ability and the reimbursement program. About 90% of Capital City's branches were affected by the storm. Bethany Corum, Capital City's co-chief operating officer, said all but five branches opened the day after the storm passed, and every office was opened within 48 hours.
"We are able to do that because we had associates who were able to come to work and get the bank open," Corum said.
Overall, Capital City spent roughly $35,000 to assist about 600 employees with food and lodging following Irma. The program has also been used after a smaller hurricane and some tornadoes. Capital City even applied the policies to help an employee who lost everything in a house fire.
Montecito Bank also recommends trying to address employees' needs immediately. One possibility is providing emergency relief pay to cover unexpected child care costs and other expenses. A vacation donation policy can help prevent lost wages due to disasters.
Corum suggested that banks implement a companywide alert system in order to reach every employee in the event of an emergency. Not long before Irma hit, her bank put a system in place that tries to contact every employee at their numbers on file until it gets a response. That allows the bank to ensure all of its workers are safe and starts the conversation about how quickly they will be able to return to work after a storm has passed.
"Knowing your people are OK, and being able to communicate with them and follow through with assistance, is pretty significant to your ability to get back up and running," Corum said. "It's the first step towards getting things back to normal."
