Strategic planning can focus the credit union's mission, clarify goals and provide a roadmap for achieving desired outcomes. However, unless the plan has support from staff, it becomes almost impossible to reach objectives; and unless the plan is used as a tool to engage and retain talented employees, you are missing an opportunity. To successfully create and implement a strategic plan, we need engage and empower our staff from the beginning of our planning process.
Think about your current strategic planning process: where it takes place, who is in attendance, how you choose topics, what shapes your goals, and, finally, how you get staff to support and implement the plan. These are all things to keep in mind as we look at the strategic planning process.
Strategic plans are designed to affect all areas of the credit union and they require cooperation between departments. In your current planning process, are all departments, ages and levels of staff being represented? We ask our staff to implement the plan in their daily role, so we need to give them a reason to not only support it, but to want to see it succeed.
While it may not be feasible to have a representative from all departments in attendance at planning sessions, there needs to be a way for ideas to trickle up as well as down. Ideas can come from anywhere. How are you ensuring you get valuable insights from the employees who regularly work with members, different departments and processes? One of the best "problems" you can have is receiving too many ideas from your staff on how to improve the member experience or operations. It is then your management team's role to prioritize and select the opportunities that align with your future objectives.
Creating a cooperative atmosphere and encouraging engagement are key to the success of your plan. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace (Gallup Consulting, 2010) poll showed that 54% of U.S. and Canadian workers are not engaged in their company or role. They "lack motivation and are less likely to invest discretionary effort in organizational goals or outcome." Even worse, 18% are actively disengaged, meaning they are "unhappy and unproductive at work and liable to spread negativity to coworkers."
Employees are more engaged when they know their work is meaningful. If their daily role directly ties into achieving organizational goals that they helped create, you are making it clear how their ideas and contributions are meaningful to the success of the credit union. Then a cooperative atmosphere is established in which employees are also more likely to be collaborative.
Engagement will also drive employee retention and give your younger talent an opportunity to voice opinions from their perspective. A top priority for many credit unions is attracting and retaining younger talent. This level of engagement gives you input from them at a strategic level, a targeted member and employee demographic, and gives them a reason to stay as your employee.
Additionally, you are ensuring that your employees understand and believe in your mission and plan. Nothing is lost in translation to your staff when they are present throughout the planning process. You add clarity of your objectives, employees know how they fit into the big idea, and they support it.
Strategic planning is a powerful way to communicate where the credit union is going and how it is going to get there. By including all levels of staff in that process, we ensure that we receive valuable ideas and insights throughout the organization, we empower employees by giving them a voice, and we give them a reason to stay engaged with their credit union.
Jennifer Laud is director of marketing and innovation for First Financial Credit Union in Chicago, She can be reached at (773) 565-2009 or [email protected].
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
