How M&T bank is keeping employees uplifted amid change, uncertainty and transformation

The challenge of telling stories in a unique way each day as a communicator is a challenge that suits Kevin Berchou, a former golf journalist and branch manager who now heads up internal communication for M&T Bank.

And boy does he have a lot on his plate these days. Aside from the ongoing challenges of keeping north of 18,000 employees feeling informed, engaged and energized during an ongoing pandemic, the bank is in the final stages of a $7.6 billion merger.

“You can’t assume you have all the answers,” Berchou says, adding that nobody knows what this “new normal” is supposed to look like.

About 4,000 of the bank’s frontline employees have continued commuting into work throughout the pandemic, he says, although a good portion of folks whose work isn’t customer facing are still working from home. That remains the plan into the new year, though the bank plans to call a majority of employees back into work (in a hybrid capacity) whenever it’s safe to do so.