As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, leaders at Sound Community Bank did not want to force employees back into the office, even if just a few days a week. But they did not want to lose what they feel is the Seattle bank's unique culture.
In seeking a solution, Sound President and CEO Laura Lee "Laurie" Stewart drew inspiration from the bank's self-image as a pod, a term for a female-led group of orca whales.
Last year, the $1.1 billion-asset bank — which has an orca in its logo — introduced geo-pods. Each geo-pod consists of employees who work in a specific branch, as well as employees who work from home in surrounding neighborhoods. The leader of each geo-pod is tasked with including all its members in volunteer events, company parties and other functions.
"It will never be perfect, because we have a handful of out-of-state employees that we're not going to get engaged in the Saturday park cleanup or a quarterly 'let's have pizza and listen to who the award winners are this quarter,'" Stewart said. "But it really helped strengthen the culture. And that was the idea."
Like most banks, Sound has seen its culture tested by a period of prolonged high interest rates and inflation, which have shrunk net interest margins. But when the bank needed to cut costs over the last year, it shied away from across-the-board layoffs, said Stewart, who has led Sound for more than three decades.
"That idea of saying, 'OK, we're going to manage expenses with [layoffs], I believe, is a lose-lose situation," she said. "It's a lose for the organization, it's a lose for the employees and often it's a lose for the investors."
Instead, Sound Community looked to achieve the same results through attrition and leaving jobs open. The end result was a cut of just five full-time equivalents.
"And, in fact, those five [eliminated jobs] tended to be more senior folks than folks waiting on customers or approving loans or that type of thing," Stewart said. "And if we'd done an RIF [reduction in force], it would've gone the other way."
The approach allowed the bank to create new roles. Sound, for example, decided to double down on lending for manufactured housing and hired a dedicated lender for the business, which had been overseen by a residential mortgage officer. While often considered riskier than traditional mortgage lending, Sound already had significant experience.
The bank saw a growing need for manufactured-housing loans as high rates priced first-time homebuyers and others out of stick-built homes. "That philosophical commitment to housing of all types is really important for our board," Stewart said.
Just as important to Stewart is her mentorship of the next generation of C-suite leaders. Women comprise half the executive leadership team at Sound, she noted.
"It really is, especially at this point in my career, more about the journey than it is about the destination," she said.
