Credit unions: People helping employees

By Sarah Snell Cooke, Cooke Consulting Solutions

Our frontline employees have had a lot thrown at them, certainly since COVID, but before that member service has been evolving to include more technology, new techniques and needs for compliance and a million other things. Credit unions put the most trust in their frontline teams, yet they are hardly compensated in a way that is commensurate with the value they provide our members and our credit unions.

Call center team members, member service representative and tellers are often the lowest paid employees at the credit union, and their role is to manage and build our most valuable brand proposition: trust. Now I ask, are they compensated adequately?

And that compensation doesn’t have to always be in the form of money. It includes various aspects, like paving a career path, offering benefits that are actually useful in their lives and simple recognition. That’s a branch culture that can help recruit and retain employees.

Recognizing employees in 2023

Click to watch the full interview at the bottom of this page!

“If we think about what's happened over the last several years in the branches, our branch employees, they didn't stop going to work,” Cultivate Results Co-Owner Chary Krout explained. “They continued serving members and didn’t have as much flexibility. In the work we do, I think they’re not always feeling a lot of appreciation for that or how valued they were.

“Fast forward, now, they're addressing a lot of member concerns: The markets are challenging people and inflation, and how all of those things are affecting them. They're addressing them as part of their day to day. With the evolution that branches already under underway, changing to more service centers and transaction centers, skill set changes that were needed, as far as being able to be more problem solving and have more empathy in the work that they were doing, and even providing financial education for members.”

Click to watch the full interview at the bottom of this page!

The interface of employee recognition is changing, too. “When you're thinking about a branch footprint, most of the time, there's multiple locations, you might have your support teams, and different corporate locations are working remotely from home,” Molly Lehrsch, Cultivate Results co-owner, outlined. “Finding a way that's digital in nature but doesn't lose that sense of personal feeling. So, we see branch managers recognizing people individually or maybe during a team meeting, but then sharing it in some sort of system that allows them to broadcast it and share it with the rest of the credit union. The best ones even have the ability, where there's really social recognition happening where other employees are able to say, thank you so much for doing that, or that's an amazing story you shared, so it creates more of an engaging experience for everyone.”

Succession planning

I’ve been pushing for years that credit unions should be an employer of choice, yet I fear the same number of people coming out of school declaring, ‘I want to work at a credit union.’ And that number is not many.

Succession planning must become a strategic objective for credit unions. It’s certainly a critical aspect of credit unions’ human resources management. As experienced professionals retire or move on to other positions, credit unions must ensure a smooth transition of leadership and maintain institutional knowledge. Developing a robust succession planning program that identifies high-potential employees, provides training and development opportunities, and facilitates knowledge transfer is crucial for credit unions to maintain stability and continuity in leadership positions. If we can’t demonstrate to employees that they have anywhere to go – whether that means investing in their abilities to be the best dang marketer possible or to be running the shop someday – we must invest in them. Some will suggest that offering training only prepares them to leave, but not providing job skills and career development opportunities will stunt their growth and your credit union’s success. Forge a career path for those who want to succeed in credit unions.

Lehrsch added, “I hope boards continue to ask about succession planning, because there are a lot of talented people in organizations, and they might just have a few gaps. If they're able to identify those while the CEO is currently sitting in that role, they're able to start to set up the pipeline. And I hope leaders continue to think about succession planning internally for different leadership roles throughout the credit union.”

Technology, AI and communication

From video tellers to cash handlers to AI, the way credit unions serve members has changed drastically over the last decade and it seems to only be accelerating. Krout advised, “As leaders in a credit union space, if you haven't been to a contact center recently, you should go. Because you'll really understand how, including in a branch, right, how that technology is disconnected. Employees are using multiple systems; they're trying to search information on an ever-changing marketplace. It's really challenging. We think about the technology that we're expecting to provide to our members; how are we then really coming back to how are we thinking about the technology for our people?”

Obviously, AI is the big tech in the media right now, and people are concerned about where its heading – might this tool someday replace our frontline employees?

“I imagine there's a little fear. How would there not be fear,” Lehrsch pondered, “when you look at some of the headlines in the news that we know branch employees are reading and absorbing? Our hope is that that fear is quickly subsided, that leaders are talking about how AI is going to help improve their jobs by making things feel less laborious use it to save time and invest in that personal relationship with a member. That's something we know AI isn't going to be able to master.”

Chary added, “AI, too, doesn't ask the question behind the question. When we talk about service team members, sometimes what we think members come in for isn't what they really need. And, and the best employees are committed to the relationship, to the member’s financial wellbeing, and they're asking deeper questions.”

“The worst thing leaders could do right now is not talk about it,” Lehrsch concluded.

The HR issues faced by credit unions require a proactive and strategic approach to ensure long-term success, including addressing talent acquisition and retention, succession planning, employee engagement and training and development.

All of these lead to employee engagement and improved morale, which are drivers of productivity, satisfaction, and overall organizational success. Recognition programs, organization-wide succession planning and open discussion and feedback regarding technology and other workplace concerns can help make credit unions an employer of choice.

Through these efforts, credit unions can attract and retain top talent, build a strong organizational culture, and continue to provide valuable financial services to their members and communities in line with the credit union community’s mission.