Business View Magazine | Volume 9, Issue 1

77 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1 them between $250 and $1000 in scholarship funds. Last year we had 32 participants, and this year we have 42, so there’s a lot of demand for this kind of training.” As the COVID-19 pandemic spread in late 2019 and into 2020 and 2021, NebraskaLand Bank braced for impact by empowering its workers to work from home using remote working technologies like remote desktop access and virtual conferencing. “We undertook measures like remote working and in-office safety protocols to ensure all our workers were safe,” says Jacobson. “One of the things we wanted to ensure is that our people could work from wherever they wanted to work from, whether that would be from home or the office. One interesting thing that came out of this arrangement is that our employees decided to support each other based on their work needs. For example, several older tellers who did not have small kids at home volunteered to come in and work in place of those with younger kids, who stayed home while still on the payroll, knowing their jobs were secure. Because of this and our overarching commitment to supporting our workers, no one was laid off, neither did we lower salaries.” Another factor that helped the bank pull through the pandemic was the various government programs issued to support businesses, with Jacobson singling out the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as the central pillar that supported most of their clients. “Ty Lucas, our Chief Credit Officer, was instrumental in developing a comprehensive PPP application process, plus other protocols and procedures to train our loan officers,” shares Jacobson. “Unlike most other banks that went online with an app, we wanted to work with clients one-on-one to ensure they understood the program, were qualified for the loan, and knew what to do to get forgiveness.” To date, NebraskaLand Bank has issued over 500 NEBRASKALAND BANK