Velera didn’t stumble into being named one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Gen Z; it was the result of intentional culture-building. When Sarah Snell Cooke sat down with Chief People Officer Cheryl Middleton Jones and Chief Culture Officer Michael Summers, it quickly became clear: this isn’t a company dabbling in generational trends. It’s redesigning its entire employee experience with Gen Z in mind, from internships and early wage access to embedding purpose and belonging at the heart of the business.
Cheryl and Michael don’t operate in silos. Their partnership is foundational to Velera’s strategy, blending people-first HR practices with culture initiatives that actually stick. Gen Z isn’t being handed a script; they’re helping write it.
“We joke that Michael’s the peanut butter to my jelly,” Cheryl said. “That’s how tightly we work together to make sure our people and culture strategies move in the same direction.”
From leadership programs to how jobs are marketed, Velera is creating space for younger voices to shape what the workplace looks like now and in the future.
That intentionality is paying off. Hundreds of applicants vie for just a few intern spots. Departments ask for interns months in advance. And some of those interns? They come back again, hungry for more, not because of flashy perks, but because Velera is offering what Gen Z values most: purpose, autonomy, and the chance to grow without being boxed in.
Credit unions everywhere are trying to figure out how to connect with younger generations. Velera’s message is simple: start with your culture. Make it real, make it inclusive, and make it something worth staying for. That’s how you attract Gen Z and keep them.
Disclosure: Transcript below is automatically generated
Sarah Cooke
Okay, hello and welcome everybody. I am Sarah Snell Cooke your host at The Credit Union Connection. I’m here today with two Velera outstanding employees. I have on my right is Cheryl Middleton Jones, the Chief People Officer. Welcome.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
Thank you. Nice to be here. Sarah, thank you.
Sarah Cooke
Yes, thank you for your time. And Michael Summers, who is the Chief Culture Officer at Velera, welcome.
Michael Summers
Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Sarah Cooke
Yes, I love having people on who can share experiences. And I think you know, culture and HR are so important within any business, but particularly with credit union instance, we are so member focused. And being member focused means we have to be employee focused so they can take care of our members. So with that, I’m going to let you all talk a little bit more about Velera and Cheryl. Why don’t you kick it off about the chief people officer? Sure. Well,
Cheryl Middleton Jones
First of all, nice to be here, and I’ve been the Chief People Officer since PSCU and Co-Op solutions merged January of 2024, and in my role, I’m responsible for many elements of the employee life cycle. So thinking about it, from how we attract talent to, how do we retain and grow talent to, how do we off board folks once their cycle here is done? And so you know this, this topic is right up my alley. So I’m excited to be here today to talk to you about what we do with respect to Gen Z
Sarah Cooke
and Michael go for it
Michael Summers
Sure. Well, I again, thank you for having us here. It’s always a pleasure to engage with folks out in the credit union industry and give us this opportunity to share what our experiences are, hopefully, hopefully we can all learn from each other. And I’ve been with the Lara legacy PSCU now for over 24 years. I’ve been the Chief Culture Officer since April of last year, and it’s exciting that our president, CEO Chuck Fagan, put a strong focus on culture. I don’t think many organizations do it in such a such a meaningful way. So very honored to be in this role that has a pretty big scope around the cultural levers that you know pair really, really well with Cheryl’s people organization and most much of most of the HR centers of excellence. But under my organization, we’ve got all the learning and development functions, whether it’s employee learning or client learning, knowledge management, leadership development, employee engagement, all those, all those things that, when paired really strongly with the people org, we deliver some very impactful programs, as Cheryl indicated, across the whole employee experience, across a whole talent lifecycle at Velera. So really honored to be a partner of Cheryl and be here with her in the space. So thank you
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely. You know, I think it’s I was really curious about the two different positions, and so I’m glad you kind of showcased that, because I’ve never heard of having two separate people for people, I guess. But
Cheryl Middleton Jones
I think if I could, I would just say, you know, Michael hit it right out of the park. I think that was really Chuck Fagan’s focus as we came together as one organization. And Michael and I joke that, you know, he’s, he’s the peanut butter to my jelly, and vice versa, in terms of how we work together to make sure that, you know, not just are we covering our talent, but how are we creating the culture of the organization that reflects what we want it to in terms of how we service and support credit unions. So it’s actually a really nice partnership.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, sounds like absolutely. And then, as part of that, you all were named America’s greatest workplaces for Gen Z in 2025 which you alluded to, Cheryl by Newsweek and plant a insights group was, I guess, who they partnered with. So how did that come about?
Cheryl Middleton Jones
Honestly, I don’t know how the actual nomination came about. That’s actually a really good question, but I can tell you, you know, a little bit more about how we think about talent and how we think about, in particular, Gen Z, you know, Michael and I really for Velera partnered together to kind of create a vision for the organization around people, and it’s really all about creating a workplace culture where excellence and belonging are an area of focus in order to make sure that the company is delivering on its strategic objectives. And just from a how we acquire talent standpoint, our purpose is to be the employer of choice and the best. Best Place to Work in our industry and community. So that just really aligns with multi generational talent acquisition. And Gen Z is very special, because, as you know, that’s kind of the up and coming, you know, generation that we want to make sure that we attract and retain. And I can talk a little bit about, you know, how we do that, and how we operationalize it, and have had some success here at Velera, but just in terms of our philosophy, we embrace talent wherever it comes from, and we want to just make sure that we as an organization, are a place that everyone wants to work and can do their best work every day.
Sarah Cooke
Michael, would you like to add on to that?
Michael Summers
Sure? I’m I think that even though Velera hasn’t celebrated its second birthday yet, we still we have a lot of factors, a lot of things in place that factor into the reason Gen Z years are attracted to our organization, and it does really start with that hiring strategy and Cheryl and team have been super intentional about including, you know, Gen Z years and like, how do we, how do we shape our programs? How do we shape their language around them? How do we, how do we position Velera well, for all audiences, and I think we all know on this call that that the credit union space needs to figure out, how do you bring Gen Z if you’re seeking members to have your credit union, how do you how do you bring them in to be members of the credit union, let alone Velera, is not seeking them to be employees of Velera. So that’s something that we’ve been really intentionally working on. I think Chuck Fagan, our president, CEO, well, when he says something to the effect that we believe our employees are our greatest asset, that really is our culture, North Star, but really like not just saying it, but we believe it, and we our goal is for them to feel like that is a true statement, that is their lived experience. And our industry is really driven by people helping people philosophy. And I think that Gen Zers are seeking organizations where there is a purpose, right? There’s a there’s a commitment and a purpose, and it’s, it’s bigger than just a profit goal or making, you know, making money for shareholders. And I think the credit union space resonates with Gen Z, the Gen Z community in that way. And, you know, we do our best to shape programs that would attract people to the organization.
Sarah Cooke
And so sounds like it was obviously a strategic goal, which I know many credit unions are, as you alluded to, Michael, are looking to do as well and so Cheryl, you mentioned this briefly, but how did you all end up being able to operationalize it? Because obviously it’s great to have a strategic goal, but making it happen is an entirely different thing.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
Yes, now, one way that we’ve been able to achieve this is through our intern program. We had our we started our first Velera summer intern program back in May, around mid to late May, and we have almost 30 interns that are here with us now for the summer in a variety of areas, ranging from product to technology to organizational learning in Michael’s shop and other parts of the organization, and that express goal is to retain some of that talent for a future workforce. And so that is probably one of our biggest efforts that we’ve made so far, in order to be attractive to Gen Z, and we have had interns before as each legacy company, and we’ve had feedback about, you know, how well that has worked, but this time with the Valero lens, the Velera focus, our focus is really on retaining that talent. And we’ve also recruited Gen Z actively in our population, and I think it was at our last sales conference, there was a panel where we were talking about, how do we leverage what we’ve learned from recruiting Gen Z talent to our marketplace? How do we become help credit unions become attractive to Gen Z? And some of our panelists and speakers who are that population would blow you away in terms of how they think about work and what is attractive, and a lot of what they say really resonates with the mission of credit unions. They value purpose driven work. They appreciate people helping people, and that’s why they find Velera attractive. That’s why they would find credit union, credit unions attractive as well. It appeals to what Gen Z is looking for in terms of being able to make a difference and have an impact on the world.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah. How is Gen Z changing culture? Because they do seem very different from Gen X and the boomers that are exiting. Yeah. Michael,
Michael Summers
I think that the way Gen Z influences our culture is they almost help us walk the talk right? We can say we are all about people helping people. We can say we are an organization that tries to create an inclusive employee environment, and one of our core values is belonging. So holding us to that commitment of that core value, which a lot comes with, with a lot a lot, is underneath that core value of belonging. How do we create that employee experience that that fosters that environment, and that is noticeable so in many ways, by ensuring that we, we keep that as one of our guiding principles, and have them help us through input or feedback around the programs they help us stay on track. There was a there was a Harvard Business Review article back in 23 that had a whole list of what can managers do to highly engage Gen Z, to either attract them or retain them within your workforce. And a lot of things that were listed that managers in the organization can we’ve, we’ve checked a lot of those boxes, but we not only have to build the programs that enable those, but to also sustain them, and some of them were as simple as but, but it’s hard for a lot of organizations to get there just being transparent and open with decision making within the organization, or, or why, you know, the explain the reasons why things are built the way they’re built, whether they’re programs or projects within the within the company goes along alleviate any kind of fear they might have with, you know, just not being fully informed, empowering folks, making sure that they’ve got autonomous working, working environments, working structures, and really focusing on well being and mental health. I mean, we focus on a lot of that too. So we’ve, we’ve checked a lot of the boxes that HBr said were important, so that that’s good. But you know, how did we do that? We we’ve built a lot of programs like the, we have a whole list of business resource groups that we are now relaunching with the Valero brand. And one of them is, is around young professionals. So young professionals, that’s pretty much the Gen Z community would find that specific BRG, very interesting, and I think that one really leans into our commitment to getting fresh perspectives from that generation that’s entering the workforce, so we don’t just stagnate on old ideas. So there’s a lot of things that you it’s all about intentionality as well. And
Sarah Cooke
I’m sure that impacts the benefits offered and things like that too. How have how has Gen Z shaped that within Velera? Does it? Have they made changes?
Cheryl Middleton Jones
You know, I don’t know if I could attribute some of the changes that we’ve made specific to Gen Z. We look at, certainly, employee attitudes and requests. Because sometimes employees say, Hey, have you thought about you know, so we get those requests. But we also do a lot of benchmarking externally. And it’s through those two medium that we help, that helps to shape what we offer, it by way of benefits. And we do offer things that I think resonate with perhaps this generation. You know, whether we’re talking about tuition reimbursement so supporting their ongoing professional growth and development, because we know that’s important, right, as well as access to wages earlier. So we do, we run a program where, if you enroll, you can actually have access to your wages real time, as opposed to perhaps waiting the full bi weekly period. So that’s one of the newer offerings that we have. And I would just say, you know, as Michael mentioned, a lot of support around well being, so whether that’s physical, whether that’s mental, whether that is financial, we do have a heavy emphasis and offer benefits and programs around wellness, and I hope that that’s attractive to all the employees that are part of our organization.
Sarah Cooke
Very true for all credit unions talk about financial wellness. Sometimes it’s their own employees, you know. And you know, that’s obviously a great place to start. Is when somebody is still Gen Z still. Somebody is still, you know, 20 is a good place to start, if not sooner. Obviously. Yeah, yeah. So what are the first steps that are a credit union who wants to hire Gen Z, but maybe is struggling a little bit? What are some of the first steps you all would suggest in beginning to attract them? Oh, go ahead.
Michael Summers
I would say Credit Union. Could first really examine their culture. So we we’ve learned a lot through this journey. Just in the past 18 months since we did stand up, a group just fully focused on culture building, culture monitoring and sustaining. It’s a place where you could, we could check of or check within to see, do we have things that resonate with the Gen Z community, built into all the different moments that matter, as we call it, across the employee experience, or the talent journey, however you want to express it, but just also making sure that your culture is aligned with strategy? I think Cheryl mentioned that right out the gate here we had to make sure that the culture we were building was aligned with the strategy that we are stepping into for the next 5, 10, years. And that’s significant, because we, all know that culture is an enabler of strategy, so making sure we get it right is very important. So I would, I would say the first step is looking at culture, and then probably the second step is looking at all you’re taking an inventory of all the programs that that we’ve built in, or that a credit union has built in the talent space, and even across the other the rest of the company. If you consider moments that matter, like how to what impacts the employee when they when they go to it to get hardware software, or they go to finance to get some services from them, or another business unit, but taking inventory and making sure that those different programs are also have elements and language that would attract and help retain Gen Z employees.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
Anything to add I would, I would second what Michael said, and I would just add, I think self reflection, you know, as an organization is key, and really doing the work around where could you benefit from additional talent, not talent like extra hands to do work, you know, but really looking at what you do, how you do it, and where are there opportunities, perhaps, to do it differently and to augment that with some early career talent, you know, I know in the past, I’ve been parts of organizations where, you know, you tend to hire really experienced people, because we value their knowledge, and we want people that know the industry, and so to get that knowledge of the industry and to have that experience, typically, you’re hiring somebody that’s mid career, and that’s great, you know, I would say that works. And sometimes you also want to grow your talent to, you know, finding that talent that you can grow and develop and mold and shape can work just as effectively and give you better long term benefits, because hopefully they’ll stay with you for the longer term. So I think you know the self reflection of where you can do that, evaluating the benefits and being willing to perhaps do things differently than the way you’ve done them before, creates an opportunity to be able to add some really fantastic early career talent to your organization.
Sarah Cooke
Yes, certainly needed to refresh, because great ideas come from anywhere, and especially Gen Z. I have two Gen Z kids, and I feel like they speak a different language.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
They’re digital natives, you know? They don’t. I mean, I can tell my daughters don’t know what forms are, because they come home from school and they’re just like, you sign this. I’m like, Well, what is it? I don’t know, but you have to sign it, you know? They don’t even read anything. That’s people you know. And so it’s like speaking another language, like you said. And so I think there’s an opportunity. Heck, they teach me all the time what I can do with my iPhone that I’ve never explored. So they elevate my knowledge. And I think you magnify that across the workforce, and you’ve got, you know, this generation that can really help elevate what we do
Michael Summers
Absolutely I think Cheryl brought up a really great point when she when she used the words grow or learn. It was one of those, or both of those words, Cheryl that you just mentioned. But if, if the Gen Z population recognizes Velera or your credit union with the ability to learn and grow, which we all know are drivers of engagement and has built within their business practices, the ability to be on cross functional teams. Now, a lot of this stuff you don’t know until you get into the organization, but perhaps this is how you retain folks, but making sure they have the opportunities to learn and grow professionally within their career and being able to take risks and work autonomously, work on cross functional projects that helps people understand what opportunities there are within the organization, and making those real opportunities, I think that a lot. Lot of organizations fall into the trap where they pigeonhole people into different roles, and they’re not willing to look across the org for perhaps developmental opportunities for them, but it really does benefit the individual and the business. So I think growth and development are super important as well.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, absolutely, I, I concur. And so what? What does being America’s greatest workplace, one of great, America’s greatest workplaces for Gen Z mean for you and for Velera Cheryl, I’ll go with, start with you first.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
I mean, I think it looks like, you know, when we advertise for a summer intern, we get like, 500 applications, right? I mean, that tells me something. One, it tells me that certainly Gen Z is looking for work, but it also tells me that what we offer is attractive to them, and I think that is both the opportunity and the challenge continuing to level up and make sure that we deliver on that promise, you know. And I think the benefits to us are enormous, you know, the augmentation of some really terrific talent and new, fresh ideas, as you mentioned, Sarah, you know, that’s priceless, you know. And I think it’s to our detriment, and to any credit unions detriment, to overlook this tremendous potential that we have with this population.
Sarah Cooke
Michael, you want to add
Michael Summers
I fully agree with what Cheryl just said. I would, I think I would just take it one step further to say, like, once you’ve attracted them and get you get them within your organization, then make sure, to my earlier point that you’re doing everything that that you help them know there are opportunities within your organization and help make those connections for them. Because she’s Cheryl’s right. I mean, we need fresh perspectives. We need fresh minds. We know that our interns are coming in with some crazy skills to the to the point where Cheryl and I met some of them just a few weeks ago, and we were like, Oh my gosh, we gotta sharpen our saw, because these folks, these folks are talented and but, you know, testament to maybe even just the program but the organization, is that we have at least one repeat intern that was going for, you know, she was finishing up her bachelor’s program during her first internship, and now she’s on a master’s program, and she’s doing another internship with us, and we got to find a way to, you know, secure that talent. So it’s great that that to me, I would agree. I think that means, it indicates that we are headed in the right direction, and that’s what it means to win an award like this. To me as well,
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah, hopefully our credit union audience is out there listening to y’all, because we all, we all need younger members to join credit unions, one because they’re the best choice out there, but also as being an employer of choice too. I can’t remember who said that, but yeah, to be an employer of choice is what I feel like all credit unions should, should shoot for. And when you get 300 applications and you’re only taking 30, mit gives you the best choices possible.
Cheryl Middleton Jones
So if I could, I would just also add, you know, I mean, the value proposition for credit unions in this space of attracting talent is phenomenal. I mean, you have the platform. I think it’s also a matter of being where they are. And so, you know, certainly we post positions in that, but we’re also out on campus. So, you know, maybe you start small, you know, after you figure out where there are opportunities internally, maybe you go to a local university and just, you know, interview and see what’s out there and start with one person, you know, but that’s how, that’s kind of how we’ve started our programs before we got to the Velera space of being able to scale a little bigger than we could as PSCU or Co-Op, you know. But we started small, and from that start, we’ve been able to expand and grow. But the credit unions of that we support and that we serve are just wonderful employers, and I think you want students to know that. You want this generation to know that, and you have a tremendous space to be able to do that.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, you almost preempted my next question. But we’re coming to the as we’re coming to the end, I want to get your final thoughts for our credit union audience. And since Cheryl just kind of gave one that could have very well been at the end of the show, but yeah, I’ll start with Michael first, and to give Cheryl time to give think of another one.
Sarah Cooke
What would you like to leave based on our you know, discussion today? What would you like to leave our credit audience with?
Michael Summers
Well, I do believe that it does start with the culture of your organization, because you can’t artificially create something, whether it’s a Gen Z attraction strategy or any other program and talent space without it aligning with what you’re what you believe in for your culture. So be intentional about culture. That’s one thing that we’ve learned over the past year and a half, is it you have to be super intentional. Having a culture grow itself within your organization isn’t a strategy. I think you need to take control of it and try to build it, try to measure it, try to monitor it and nurture it as much as possible.
Sarah Cooke
So I think it does begin with culture and following up to, you know, making sure you continue to nurture it and measure it. Okay, Cheryl, wrap it up here. Final thought,
Cheryl Middleton Jones
Okay, well, I would just double down on what I said earlier, you got to start somewhere, start small and set a goal. You know, whatever that goal is, you know, start there and then work your way up. I think this didn’t start with a grand plan to have 30 plus interns. It started small, and we saw value and continue to invest. And it’s not just a People objective. This is something that is supported by the businesses that are part of Velera each one of our functional areas are, they come to us saying, hey, I need an intern. And isn’t that great? You know, where you build something, where the demand keeps it going. It’s not something that we’re actively pushing. We are, you know, being solicited every September, October, to say, Hey, are we going to do intern skin in the summer? Because I want one, and that, I think, is a good hallmark for success, too. So I would double down on starting and starting small, set a small goal that is achievable and work from there.
Sarah Cooke
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Thanks.