While Unitus Community Credit Union of Portland hosted the event at its headquarters, it wasn't branded as a Unitus-specific event, but rather a joint event where representatives from each participating credit union had an equal opportunity to talk to job seekers about open positions at their institutions.

In an onsite interview, Unitus Community Chief Human Resources Officer Gayle Evans said there are many career paths professionals can take without leaving the industry. “Let's say someone wants to become a VP of marketing, but that position is filled [at Unitus],” she said as an example, adding if they were to take that position at another CU, she would be happy for them and welcome them back in the future.

Here's what really made this career fair badass: It took place in a very visible location outdoors, signage clearly labeled it as a credit union career fair, and music from a local DJ drew the attention of passersby, including employees from two big banks located next door to Unitus, KeyBank and Wells Fargo. It was a shameless nudge to bankers to consider switching to a financial services job that they would find more meaningful, and it appeared to work: “We spoke with people from a bank a block away,” Evans revealed.

Firefly CU employees “step” away from their desks to take part in the “Let's CU Step into Summer” challenge.

A Summer of Steps

Sometimes, credit unions join forces not to make someone's life or career, but just to promote balance and fun. In a recent press release that caught my eye, Firefly Credit Union in Burnsville, Minn., announced it had completed a summer fitness challenge, “Let's CU Step Into Summer,” with approximately eight other credit unions around the country. Supported by hubbub, a corporate wellness program provider, the challenge allowed employees from the participating CUs to track their steps by syncing a wearable fitness tracker with hubbub's platform or entering them manually, and compare their step counts with other credit unions' teams throughout the process. Firefly's team ended seven million steps ahead of its two million-step goal.

“We've done a steps challenge before with our own employees, but I think it was just fun that it was the first time we were able to band together as an organization to see what we could achieve with our hard work, collaboration and teamwork, while engaging in a different type of friendly competition with other organizations,” Firefly Human Resources Generalist Lisa Trinka said.

And when employees make connections outside of their own credit unions, who knows what can happen? Anything from a new friendship to a new business process idea could develop.

As demonstrated in the past few weeks, healthy competition between credit unions can encourage motivation and prevent complacency, but when serious help is needed in a community, CUs have no trouble banding together as one.  And when it comes to facing their actual competitors, like the nine Portland credit unions did at the career fair, they aren't afraid to show how fierce they can be.

Natasha Chilingerian

Natasha Chilingerian is managing editor for CU Times. She can be reached at [email protected].