Increase Employee Engagement to Improve Member Satisfaction

Culture and employee engagement impact every corner of a credit union – retention, happiness, productivity and even member satisfaction.

There are many different approaches credit unions can take when trying to improve employee engagement, and it generally starts at the top. For those that are unsure of how to approach it, a white paper on employee engagement from the Dale Carnegie Research Institute recommended the following steps:

1. Focusing. While every touch point of the employee experience does impact engagement, its leadership continues to wield outsize influence in determining engagement levels. Immediate supervisors still matter a great deal, and with growing transparency in the workplace, the words and behaviors of all leaders have impact beyond those with whom they work face-to-face on a regular basis.

2. Honestly examining top priorities. Few come to the table without preconceived ideas on engagement, and when prior experiences have been negative, it will take more than cheerleading to change minds. If there have been missteps in the past, acknowledge them before communicating why and how this time will be different.

3. Opening a dialogue with managers and truly listening to understand their beliefs – and frustrations – regarding employee engagement. It will take more than cheerleading to change minds. Again, if there have been missteps in the past, acknowledge them before communicating why and how this time will be different.

4. Aligning policies with the intent. This includes both creating supportive policies, including those regarding performance evaluation, and also changing policies that are barriers to engagement.

Heather Andrade-Neumann, SVP, chief human resources officer at the $12.8 billion Golden 1 Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif., emphasized that her organization understands that its success is achieved through the dedication and commitment of employees, and said Golden 1 prioritizes employee satisfaction.

Part of that success is having an intentional engagement strategy, which includes strong brand identity and effective recruiting practices that attract candidates who align with your organization’s values.

“The first step – before recruiting can begin – is to clearly define and communicate your organization’s culture. Your company culture should be intentional, not accidental. This will help you identify and attract the right candidates,” Andrade-Neumann said. Golden 1 uses an employee referral program and social media to promote and evangelize its culture. It also looks to existing employees to demonstrate the credit union’s values, which are especially important in branches and in the communities the branches serve.

Once an organization attracts the right talent, the next step is asking the right questions during the interview process. “It’s important to ask questions designed to discover what motivates the applicant, rather than only looking at their technical skills and work experience,” Andrade-Neumann said.

It’s important to note that while you can often teach skill, it’s more difficult to teach personality and values. Those are generally more solidified traits, so personality alignment is important.

Once employees are hired, you have to keep them engaged, which means providing opportunities for professional development.

The $2 billion Addition Financial Credit Union in Lake Mary, Fla., is doing just that. Soon after President/CEO Kevin Miller joined the credit union, he began conducting a series of organization-wide interviews with staff, dubbed the “listening tour.” Through the interviews, Miller learned that staff members wanted more opportunities for training and education – and the time to complete them.

The result, after thoughtfully analyzing various potential solutions, was WeConnect, a two-hour professional development session that runs from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. every Thursday. Leadership determined this time of the week was the slowest period for traffic in branches and call centers, thus it would limit the impact on members.

“Though we use this time each week to practice professional development in a variety of ways, one of the most common, and popular, has been hosting a live podcast where we invite internal subject matter experts, industry professionals and community leaders to educate, equip and empower our team members,” Jordan George, director of leadership and talent development at Addition Financial, said.

Thus far, the results have been positive. In just one year after launching WeConnect, the organization has seen an 81% increase in favorable feedback relating to capability development and organizational learning – the highest increase by a large margin of any factor measured by the credit union’s survey.

“WeConnect is the product of feedback from our team members. We are a company that is, more than any other organization I’ve ever worked with, deeply committed to continuous improvement and listening intently to staff feedback,” George said.

Addition Financial also uses a number of other tools to improve and maintain employee culture and engagement, including the following:

• A weekly employee newsletter that keeps team members informed on policy changes, community initiatives, member discounts and other pertinent updates. Part of the goal of the weekly is to reduce the number of critical communications being sent via email, since they too often ended up getting lost in the shuffle.
• An annual all-employee summit that provides an update on the state of the credit union, and development and teamwork opportunities.
• A family fun day, where employees can invite family members and friends for a day of activities.
• The Enterprise Board, a dry erase board visible to any team member, filled with major projects and other pertinent information. This helps to keep employees informed while also promoting transparency.

Leaders of the $2.6 billion Canvas Credit Union in Lone Tree, Colo., are also listening to what their employees have to say. “We invite people to share their voices, we listen to those voices and we act on what people say,” Tansley Stearns, chief people and strategy officer at Canvas, said.  

To hear these different voices, Canvas has an annual engagement survey and also conducts the Great Places to Work survey, which includes feedback from employees. The credit union will soon implement a quarterly pulse survey so it can get feedback on what’s working and what’s not, enabling it to provide more frequent opportunities for growth.

“Everything we do from hiring, to the way we think about the day-to-day engagement across the organization, is all about human beings and how they can bring their unique selves to Canvas,” Stearns emphasized.

She said that at most organizations, you drive to work everyday, go in, put on your work hat and disrobe your personal self – and you’re very different. Then when it’s time to leave, you put your personal self back on and head home. “At Canvas, we really invite people to be fully who they are here. That means we’re all very different. We have different belief systems and different perspectives, and what we share are values and a drive to really make people’s financial lives better,” Stearns said.

An increased focus on employee engagement and culture in the past four years has improved turnover at the credit union. In November 2015, it had 439 employees and 49% annualized turnover; now Canvas has 591 employees and its annualized turnover is 31%.

Ultimately, engaged employees are often happier employees, and according to an infographic on employee culture from Washington State University, employees who fit a company’s culture are more likely to be happy.

This all ultimately impacts an organization’s bottom line: Happy employees can be as much as 31% more productive, while unhappy employees are 10% less productive, resulting in an estimated productivity loss of approximately $450 to $500 billion each year for U.S. businesses, according to Washington State.