Credit Unions

Leading credit unions are able to link people data with financial results.

And what else differentiates top-performing credit unions from others? How employees view the credit union as an employer.

In particular, our research has found that those credit unions with the highest ratings from their employees (in categories like career opportunities, senior management, compensation/benefits, culture/values, and work/life balance) outperformed their peers on key financial metrics like return on assets and shares per member.

For example, ROA for those credit unions in the top 25 percent of overall employee ratings is 0.42 higher than ROA for credit unions in the bottom 25 percent.

Due to the unique status of credit unions among financial services firms, credit unions have long known their success is particularly dependent on their customer-facing employees. Customers expect a high level of personal service from their credit unions, and these findings put concrete numbers to this expectation.

If your credit union isn’t currently in the top 25 percent, you might find these numbers frustrating. The reality is that most credit union executives grapple with issues such as these:

• High rates of employee turnover, especially in customer-facing positions
• Employees who are unsuccessful in cross-selling or up-selling
• Failure to grow “share of wallet” within your member base
• Challenging competition from local and regional banks – for both your customers and your best employees

You know your people are key to your success, yet it’s hard to know why some of your retention, training, or development efforts work while others fall flat. You’re able to quantify numerous other aspects of your work, but people-related challenges are often the toughest.

So it is frustrating. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

 

Credit unions that engage and retain their best employees grow their membership and enjoy higher profits.

Imagine: leaders across functions working harmoniously to make your credit union a highly effective, efficient organization. Well-defined processes foster superior customer service. IT helps protect you from a challenging landscape of external threats and provides the tools needed to meet ever-increasing customer expectations.

Further, key customer-facing positions are filled with loyal employees performing at their peak. They regularly recommend talented friends who come to work at your branches. Highly-engaged employees offer personal service to your members, delighting them and resulting in ever-improving business results.

Your employees are assets for your credit union. You have become an employer of choice.

To get here – to drive better business results by becoming an employer of choice – you must figure out what your real people problems are and target your most important opportunities.

You can get started on this today! Take our free credit union self-assessment to receive a customized analysis, hand-writtten by McBassi principals. Or check out some of our other credit union resources below. Prefer to talk to someone right away? Give us a call!