Prime Bank to prioritise health safety in post shutdown operations

The Prime Bank has geared up efforts to ensure the health safety of its staff and clients as the coronavirus cases are rising in the country after the government ended the nearly three-month-long countrywide shutdown from May 31.

To this respect, the bank has taken the policy of having minimum staff at offices with maximum safety to foster the social distancing guidelines during this pandemic time, said a media statement issued on Tuesday.

Despite the rise in infection trend of the deadly virus in the country, the government ended the shutdown to resume the business activities so that the country could avoid the worst economic backlash due to the pandemic. 

Although the bank has opened all of its 146 branches from May 31, it is running the branches with minimum staff but maximum health security in care of the safety and wellbeing of the employees, the press statement read.

The bank is running branches with a skeleton staff while the rest officials have been asked to work from home even though the government holiday is over. 

Moreover, the bank has asked its non-frontline employees to continue working from home to minimise exposure risks to the virus, while the female staff with pregnancy, employees having chronic health complications and old-aged employees are strictly asked to work from home. 

This gesture shows the care and compassion of the bank towards its employees. 

According to the press release, the bank has also undertaken large scale health and safety initiatives, including disinfection drives across the country, protective gears for employees, and strict hygiene guidelines. 

High exposure risk staffs are given personal protective equipment like gowns, face shield, headcover, and others are provided with masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc. 

The bank has also been strictly implementing the 'no mask, no entry' policy at all its branches. 

The employees are advised to maintain social distancing by ensuring 6-feet distance from each other. They are also advised to bring home-cooked food and avoid group lunch and tea-breaks. 

Besides, its Quick Response Team remains alert round the clock to assist any employee in case of any coronavirus issues.  

The bank has also expanded the extent of services of alternate delivery channels, including state-of-the-art Internet Banking Platform - Altitude, 170 ATMs, and 24/7 Contact Center (16218). 

The customers are encouraged to use Cards (Debit and Credit) and e-commerce platforms more to maintain the social distancing. 

This alternate delivery channels would enable the customers to avail banking services without visiting branch minimizing exposure risk, the media statement said.

The bank has provided its employees who are doing work from home are provided with most advanced technology solutions for virtual meetings and video conferencing with ensuring the utmost cyber security. 

The bank, in no way, will compromise on customer service even though the presence of minimum staff at branch and support function staff doing work from home. 

The media statement said the bank's proactive approach to effectively implement the Business Continuity Plan at the very beginning of the outbreak has enabled it to provide seamless services to the customers even during the government holidays. 

As the banking sector and economic activities start returning to normalcy, the bank has focused on business process reengineering for operational efficiency for sustaining business keeping exposure risk in control. 

Commenting on the issue, Rahel Ahmed, managing director, and chief executive officer of the bank said, "The health and well-being of customers and employees are the top priorities to us. That's why we have undertaken this health and safety measures from the very onset of the pandemic." 

"We have intensified our safety and security efforts as we have resumed operations of all our branches following the end of the government-announced holiday," he added.

"We believe we have to strictly maintain social distancing and extend care and compassion to people and community to fight the pandemic. If we care for each other and spread the message of awareness and remain always vigilant, we can overcome this crisis," he further said. 

"We will continue to fight the virus together and will emerge through this unprecedented crisis stronger together," Rahel Ahmed continued.