The $3.5 billion Mountain America Credit Union has been honored with the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility, the Utah credit announced last week.

The award is part of the national When Work Works project administered by Families and Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management.

When Work Works, an ongoing initiative of FWI and SHRM, is a national project to educate the business community on the value of workplace flexibility by sharing research and promising practices, and conducting the annual Sloan Awards, which recognize employers across the country for the use of flexibility and other effective practices as workplace strategies that increase business and employee success.

“This is a huge honor for us and speaks volumes about our workplace practices and employee participation,” said Marshall Paepke, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Mountain America.

“We work hard to provide flexible schedules for as many employees as possible, recognizing that it's not practical for every position,” Paepke said. “But where flexibility can be offered, we do, believing that an engaged and happy workforce helps drive member satisfaction and loyalty.”

Lynn Stephens, senior vice president of human resources at the 420,000-member credit union, also noted: “We've won work-life awards in the past, but this national recognition is a first for Mountain America. We're truly honored. And the fact that the award is based, in large part, on surveys submitted by employees, verifies that our employees feel that we value them and that we understand the importance of workplace flexibility throughout the organization.”

Workplace flexibility—such as flextime, part-time work and compressed workweeks—has been demonstrated to help businesses remain competitive while also benefiting employees, the credit union said. Flexibility in combination with other aspects of an effective workplace—such as learning opportunities and supervisor support for job success—can have a powerful impact on employee engagement and motivation, the announcement said.

“Our research consistently finds that employees in effective and flexible workplaces have greater engagement on the job and greater desire to stay with their organization. In addition, they report lower stress levels and better overall health,” said Ellen Galinsky, FWI president.

“As a recipient of the 2013 Sloan Award, Mountain America ranks among the top 20% of employers nationally in terms of its programs, policies and culture for creating an effective and flexible workplace,” Galinsky said. “In addition, what makes this honor so special is that their employees have corroborated this, affirming that it is indeed an effective and flexible workplace.”

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.