From Disengaged to Driven: Strategies to Energize Your Credit Union Team
Lydia Wedlock, editorial assistant, The Credit Union Connection
The main goal of credit unions is to serve their members, and they can’t do that without the help of a strong, enthusiastic team. It takes quite a bit of effort on everyone’s part to keep employees engaged, but there are ways to go about that are constructive and help employees make the most of their careers.
The Credit Union Connection hosted a roundtable, From Disengaged to Driven: Strategies to Energize Your Credit Union Team, sharing strategies to increase engagement among credit union employees. The Credit Union Connection Founder/CEO Sarah Snell Cooke moderated the event with guest experts Chief Culture Officer at Blupact Strategy Group Lynn Heckler, President and Founder of Wooden Consulting Corlinda Wooden, and Mid-Career Coach Jackie Brown, founder of Shifting Success.
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To Watch the Recording of the Presentations, Click Here. The breakout rooms and Q&A segments were not recorded to ensure participant anonymity.
Organizations and understanding employee needs with Lynn Heckler
There’s only so much that the amount of money in a paycheck and benefits can do when it comes to motivating employees. There are also psychological factors to take into consideration. Are your employees actually to engage in a particular moment or not? By having an understanding of those needs, you will be able to create the right environment to help your employees be better engaged and help them achieve satisfaction in their work.
Additionally, many of the tools out there that are supposed to help with employee engagement don’t actually measure the amount of engagement in an organization. Managers need to take the time to figure out what success means for their credit union and how best to keep track of it.
What managers can do to engage their teams with Corlinda Wooden
When it comes to employee retention, people don’t leave companies; people leave managers. This means that managers have a great responsibility when it comes to developing and engaging employees. One way that managers can check in with their staff is through having one-on-one meetings with them. However, simply having the meetings is not enough. Those conversations need to be purposeful and help provide guidance to help employees reach their full potential.
Another thing to keep in mind when having these one-on-one meetings is to not make it about yourself. Instead of just talking about your experiences, ask your employees about what they hope to achieve and what challenges they have been facing.
How credit union employees take ownership of their engagement with Jackie Brown
Alongside the needs of employees, the needs of the credit union also need to be met. Of course, it shouldn’t just be about climbing the corporate ladder. That alone won’t help your staff feel as if they are satisfied and successful. It’s more of a matter of finding one’s strengths and using them in a way that has meaning and aligns with one’s values. When managers take the time to help employees grow, the credit union will grow along with your staff. In turn, employees will be able to own their impact and be better engaged with their work.
If there’s at least one thread that goes through the whole conversation of employee engagement, it’s communication. Talking with your staff in order to learn what their needs are and what’s most important to them are crucial in ensuring that your credit union’s employees remain engaged and energized. It’s also important that those conversations help give managers and employees a better understanding of themselves and how a person’s unique strengths can help improve the credit union and make an employee’s work more meaningful to themselves. It’s not easy for credit union staff to stay engaged, but through listening to others and keeping an open mind, the process can be made much easier and more rewarding for everyone.