It was a day of devastation. And it came just one week after a similar situation.
On March 25, 2021, parts of Regions’ footprint – many of the same areas that experienced a round of severe weather on March 17 – saw another day full of weather threats as tornadoes, wind, rain and hail rolled across the southeast, leaving heavy damage behind.
The wave of tornadic terror left at least five people dead in Alabama. At one point, at least 10 million people in the southeast were under tornado watches. Residents in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky spent the afternoon and evening trying to keep safe as numerous long-track tornadoes and widespread, damaging winds tore through.
In the wake of it all, Regions was not only there for its customers, but for its associates, too.
“Decisions were made to close branches and corporate facilities early ahead of these storms in not just the greater Birmingham area, but also in Mississippi and Tennessee, to protect our associates and customers,” explained Kyle Puchta, incident response manager for Regions Corporate Security. “We closely monitored the forecast for almost a week in advance, so our market and corporate leadership were informed days prior and prepared to respond pre- and post-storm.”
We know many managers and teams were in touch with each other throughout the storm, which speaks to the strength of our culture and how we really are a family.
Janel Taylor, HR Fulfillment Manager
As the storms died down, Regions Human Resources (HR) put Regions’ mission to make life better into action by sending a wave of associate welfare check notifications through the bank’s internal Regions Alert notification system to the roughly 6,900 associates living across central Alabama, where most of the initial impact was reported. Recipients were asked to respond that they were safe and did not need assistance or that they need outreach from HR.
The morning after the storms, HR immediately contacted the associates that responded they needed outreach, to see how Regions could help. Additionally, HR continued trying to reach the associates who had not responded to the initial welfare check notifications.
“We know many managers and teams were in touch with each other throughout the storm, which speaks to the strength of our culture and how we really are a family,” said HR Fulfillment Manager Janel Taylor. “But the welfare check notifications we are able to send through Regions Alert help us track and assess the overall associate impact and where we need to focus our efforts to help those associates who need it.”
While many initial safety and damage assessments are still underway, Regions knows it will have opportunities to help its associates in impacted areas in the near future. To help associates recover, Regions offers the Associate Relief Fund. Associates across the Regions footprint regularly contribute to the fund to help co-workers in times such as these.