When Quontic Bank shuttered its brick-and-mortar presence in August 2021 to become fully digital, the shift opened the door for broader business, and required a larger staff who thrives in a remote environment.

As a result, the $1 billion bank grew from a staff of 130 in April 2020 based mostly in New York State to a team of about 350 spread across 35 states. That runs counter to a common expectation among bank workforces that automation and digitization will lead to job reductions.

Closing physical branches has been a trend in banking for years as digital banking has boomed in use, including pre-pandemic closures at U.S. Bancorp and closures during COVID-19 lockdowns by Truist and Wells Fargo.

“We were able to keep all of our branch staff,” Casey Christopher, chief empowerment officer at Quontic, told Bank Automation News, noting that those employees’ workflows and processes have changed.

The switch to a fully digital environment can bring productivity gains, such as the ability to virtually meet with and advise more clients than might be possible at a physical bank branch.

“They’re providing the same services and customer service — just via email, video chat, phone calls and so on,” Christopher noted. “It’s the same tasks; they’re just not doing them in person.”

With a much wider pool of potential hires, the bank has come to terms with the fact that “you could be the perfect underwriter for us and live in Kansas City. We’re OK with that,” Christopher said. She shared with BAN some lessons learned as Quontic built out its team in the transition from hybrid brick-and-mortar to a fully digital environment.

1. Embrace the reality of work from home

Remote work entails video conferencing for connectivity and people working from their homes, as many businesses have found. That means doorbells, unexpected interruptions, children at home and a host of other potential distractions, so it’s essential to find workers who can power through the chaos.

“We have hiring interviews where we have folks with their babies, with dogs barking, with doorbells ringing, with kids screaming and everything you can think of in between,” Christopher said. “Everyone’s personal lives have intersected with their professional lives, and we embrace that.”

2. Set values — and look for matches

The bank looks to progress over perfection and strives for iterative change and improvement, she told BAN.

“‘Try it on,’ I always say — be adaptive and unafraid to embrace change,” Christopher added.

The digital banking environment and remote workplace require realistic goal-setting and key performance indicators, or KPIs, Quontic found. KPIs vary from employee to employee, but are set up in three categories: “minimum” as a baseline, “primary” as a target and “visionary” as an attainable reach.

“Know the goal, be intentional to understand the needed outcome, then measure and beat it,” Christopher said. Look for people who “embrace conflict respectfully, because conflict brings us to collaboration.”

“If our core values don’t resonate with you, perhaps we’re not the best employer for you,” she said.

3. Keep it positive

The remote format can be isolating, requiring team building, human interaction and people who will be active contributors in that regard, Christopher said. Like other employers have since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quontic holds regular staff Zoom meetings to connect.

“We start every meeting with a positive focus,” Christopher said. “We go around and everyone tells us something positive that’s happened in their personal and professional lives.”

In addition, Quontic encourages employees to participate in team-building events that help instill the bank’s New York City culture — such as a video meeting where a NYC chef teaches cooking classes.

“We want employees who will embrace a little of what our culture is and stands for — but remotely, from the comfort of their dining room,” Christopher said.

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