Kathi Bates
was nominated and selected by their co-workers to be this edition's SMART employees for the Second Quarter 2024.
SMART Employee 2024 V3
SMART is the Credit Union’s quality service motto. It stands for “Sharp, Motivated, Aware, Responsible, Team-Player.”
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Kathi Bates is one of our longest tenured employees, beginning her UMassFive career as a part-time Teller in January 2003. She’s been based out of our Worcester Branch continuously for the past 20+ years, becoming a Member Service Specialist in 2016, a Senior Member Service Specialist in 2018, and finally moving into her current role as Branch Manager in December 2020. While the branch has gone through many different iterations over the years, the staff hasn’t. Kathi’s direct reports are some of the longest tenured in the company, with an average length in service of 17 years! Here’s what everyone had to say about Kathi:
“When it comes to an employee that demonstrates the meaning of SMART, the first person who comes to mind is Kathi. She is always willing to go over and beyond for both the branch and her team. Kathi has been a rock star though the entire renovation process, making sure the branch and team had what they needed to function. Need someone to talk to, Kathi has an open door policy. It doesn’t matter if it is work related or you just need to talk about life, she is there. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have Kathi as my manager, she is a true inspiration.”
“Kathi has demonstrated what a SMART employee should be. She takes her responsibilities very seriously. During the Worcester office renovation, Kathi would come in early, stay late, clean and move equipment, make sure her staff had the ability to stay working, and wait on members. She’s aware of the needs of her staff and branch, which motivates her to assist with their personal and professional needs. This shows what a team-player is all about. A sharp employee of the Credit Union, and a great leader and role model all in one.”
“Once again Kathi has led the Worcester branch through a major renovation. Besides managing the branch, she also managed the renovation. Kathi was very hands-on with this project always making sure everything was running smoothly. We switched from a teller line to a pod and Kathi coordinated the moving of the pod from Hadley also making sure we had plenty of time for training. She handled every change and challenge with a professional can-do attitude, always making sure we had everything we needed to run the branch with as little inconvenience to our members as possible.”
Congratulations to Kathi for this well-deserved award! We are fortunate to have such dedicated employees.
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