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With COVID-19 cases rising in Massachusetts this fall and branches continuing to service customers, a local community bank has set up a regular testing program to fight the spread of the virus.
Watertown Savings Bank has partnered with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to conduct weekly coronavirus testing for employees working in the bank branches.
Brett Dean, Watertown Savings Bank’s president and CEO, said staff members have appreciated the testing program.
“We try to take all the protections we possibly can, but they’re out there dealing with customers on a daily basis,” Dean said.
While testing is voluntarily, almost all of the 107 employees currently working onsite at Watertown Savings Bank have decided to participate. Staff members working from home are not part of the program.
Testing, which has been going on for about a month, is done at the bank. Half the staff is tested each week on a rotating basis.
“Stopping asymptomatic transmission – really the only way to do that is to test,” Dean said. “It’s a significant financial investment, but I think it’s viewed extremely positively by our staff and gives them some peace of mind.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Dean said, Watertown Savings Bank has also communicated to employees that those who are feeling sick will still get paid even if they don’t go into work, another effort to discourage staff from possibly spreading the virus. The bank also invested in permanent glass enclosures and barriers and optimized ventilation systems at all locations.
Dean said operating as a mutual bank has helped facilitate his decisions during the pandemic.
“Particularly during a pandemic, where there’s so much focus on the day-to-day, keeping people healthy and keeping people safe, to be able to take a very long view of the institution and its strategy is extremely helpful,” Dean said.
