COVID-19 forced banks and credit unions to improvise for remote work and then they settled into technology and tools to see their operations through the pandemic. But having had a taste of working from home, many employees like the idea and could defect to rivals who will at least partially accommodate this new expectation.

A client at a large financial institution asked, “Post-pandemic if we can safely bring our employees back to the office, should we?”

This is a question that leaders at banks and credit unions of all sizes are pondering amid an uncertain future and wondering how it will affect the future of work.

Though the shift to many people working at home has challenged many organizations, somehow, results have not suffered. Many have not faced any significant decrease in productivity or threat to security as a result. While the urgency of the COVID crisis so far hasn’t made what we have today a true test of remote working, financial institutions have had months now to see how remote working can succeed. The future holds more options to consider, many of which were deemed impossible in prior years or even prior months.

In answering the question I posed above, there are dimensions many financial institution executives may not be thinking about yet. But they need to.

An original version of this article was published on The Financial Brand, to view it, click here.