Here for the Harvest

Header photo: Ashly Halley showing her empty cash box after a busy day of cashing checks.

For Choice Bank, who has many locations in farming communities, harvest season isn’t just a busy time for farmers. It also means there will be a series of days with no farmworkers visiting the bank, followed by a very busy paycheck day; the one window of time where local farmworkers come to cash their checks for the long hours spent in the field. Sometimes cars and trucks with four or five workers inside will come through the drive-thru, each with large checks to cash.

For the bank employees, it can almost be overwhelming — but they understand.

“I grew up in a farming community,” said Ashly Halley, a Frontline Specialist at Choice Bank in Grafton, ND. “So I know how crazy harvest season can be.”

During the days of peak craziness, Ashly’s “light at the end of the tunnel” is clocking out and heading home to a cozy night in. That’s exactly what she had on her mind during one of the busiest days, when she had a never-ending flow of customer after customer coming through the drive-thru.

“I didn’t have a chance to catch up on anything,” she said. In fact, she was counting and transferring so much money in paychecks that she had to call in Sara Gullickson, Personal Banker, to get money from the vault to restock.

Even for harvest season, this day was particularly busy. An unexpected rain had come through, forcing the beet and potato farmers off the field for the afternoon. In their short amount of free time, many farmworkers chose to head to Choice Bank to cash their checks. Ashly was there, with a smile and a warm welcome, to help get them with what they needed so they could get back to work.

But by the time 5 o’clock rolled around, she was exhausted. And that’s when the phone call came in. Sara answered.

“What time do you close?” it was a group of farmworkers, on their way home from the field.

“We close at 5,” Sara said.

“Is there any possibility you could stay open a few more minutes?” the man asked, sounding frazzled. “We’re just leaving the farm. We’re the last crew.”

Sara glanced over at Ashly. Ashly nodded.

“Definitely,” Sara said.

“Thank you!” the relief was audible in his voice.

Turns out it wasn’t the only crew caught working late; another car of three workers drove up soon after the phone call, and then the two men who talked to Sara arrived around 5:15 PM.

“Thank you very much,” they said, explaining that their next payday was a while away.

Sara was impressed. She’d seen how hard Ashly worked all day, and yet still agreed to stay late — all with a smile on her face.

“I saw how crazy it was,” Sara said. “At closing time, you’re ready to call it a day. The fact that Ashly had no problem staying later and wasn’t grumbling under her breath, shows that she understands the PeopleFirst philosophy that Choice stands for.”

To Ashly, it’s about being empathetic with the customer.

“We know how it is in the farming community. Those checks are often their money for a couple weeks. I felt for them, knowing how they must feel,” she said. “That’s what PeopleFirst is all about. It’s looking at it from their point of view and seeing what they need.”

To top it all off, after a day of handling large amounts of checks and money — everything was balanced perfectly.

“One of our Choice core values is Complete your work timely and accurately,” Sara said. “Ashly did that like a rock star that day. You’re flipping through cash all day, and at the end of the day, the money is all balanced. That’s amazing.”

Our People First values are at the heart of everything we do. Learn more about our passion for putting People First here.