To Attract the Best External Talent, Look Within First

If credit unions want to win the war for talent, they must first ensure they have a cohesive and inclusive culture that can retain talent, according to experts.

A cohesive culture where people feel valued naturally acts as a tool for recruiting top talent, the experts indicated. In other words, a reputation in itself is a free method of recruitment – if a credit union is known as a great place to work, people will want to work there. And without a strong culture, you can hire talent, but it will be difficult to keep it.

Making Cultures Cohesive

But what does it mean to have a cohesive culture?

Dr. Troy Hall, chief strategy officer for the $1.8 billion South Carolina Federal Credit Union in North Charleston, S.C., manager of the credit union’s consulting CUSO and author of “Cohesion Culture: Proven Principles to Retain Your Top Talent,” has helped South Carolina FCU achieve its status as one of the best places to work in the state. He said there are three elements to a cohesive culture: A sense of belonging, employee value and commitment to goals – personal and organizational.

“Ultimately leadership is looking for what has been labeled today as ‘employee engagement.’ To be clear, however, it’s important to understand that the type of employee engagement organizational leaders seek is the result of a cohesive team working in tandem. The study of cohesion has set forth a fundamental tenet that cohesion causes performance, and engagement is the result of said performance,” Hall said.

The desire to feel a sense of belonging and like you’re part of a group is a fundamental human need. And that need can be more pronounced in the workplace, since that is where many people spend the majority of their time.

A study by two neuroscientists from the University of Southern California found that when social needs are met, the brain’s response is similar to its response to other rewards that are more tangible.

“The exclusive premium put on financial rewards as an incentive around the office may be overstated. Being treated with respect and as a valued member of the organization may activate reward systems in the brain that promotes stronger learning of behaviors that predict more of these social rewards in the future … Providing social rewards is an extremely cost-effective measure, requiring only a bit of time and thoughtfulness,” the study said.

That’s not to say that compensation and benefits don’t matter – they do, and credit unions must ensure their offerings are competitive. However, the study indicated the need for a healthy balance of respect, value, compensation and benefits.

Hall noted that adding extrinsic benefits like ping pong tables, happy hours and pizza parties are fun things to have, but an employer can’t guarantee their employees will be happy just because they have some fun games. “What people want is the fulfillment,” he said.

“Would you value your employer more because they gave you a ping pong table, or because he or she complimented you for the work you did and said that what you do adds value to the organization? I would say you would trade that for a ping-pong table every single day, and guess what? You would be right because the data supports that,” Hall said.

The War for Talent

One would likely never go into battle unprepared; instead, they’re likely to enter with a strategic plan of action, and the right people in the right positions. This same concept applies to winning the war for talent within your credit union.

Jill Nowacki, president/CEO of Humanidei, is helping credit unions do just that. She recently became the head of Humanidei, a comprehensive human capital solutions firm designed to help credit unions be more relevant to a changing workforce.

Humanidei works with clients to conduct a comprehensive staffing analysis and skills assessment, analyzing the current organizational chart and strategic plan to look for where there might be gaps between what the credit union wants to accomplish and how it is staffed.

She said she believes credit unions need to take a strategic look at their organizational charts to ensure they’re considering how to align staff with technology changes.

“Many organizations invest in top-of-the-line core system technology, but they don’t make any changes to align the people with the technology. Some will ‘wait out’ the retirement of people not trained on the new system and then try to hire for a match later, or they just don’t tap into everything their new core is capable of,” Nowacki said.

After determining what skills are needed in order to achieve its goals, the credit union can then seek employees within the organization who offer them, develop them among current employees or look for the qualities in external recruiting.

Diversity is also important to recruiting – especially for executive leadership positions. To ensure credit unions have diverse candidate pools and eliminate bias from the process, Nowacki recommended the following:

• Expand where you search for incoming talent, looking beyond your own social and professional networks and the publications you read.
• Enter partnerships with organizations that can provide access to diverse talent pools.
• Remove unnecessary requirements from your search, such as an MBA requirement that could potentially eliminate a vast pool of qualified candidates.
• Diversify the interview panel. For example, if a female candidate is interviewing with an all-male panel, she may feel like she doesn’t fit. If you bring in a candidate from another culture and nobody on the panel understands that culture, the candidate may feel uncomfortable with some of the nuances of the interview. Appointing a diverse group of panelists will increase the likelihood of generating multiple perspectives on each candidate, opening doors for more in-depth consideration before dismissing someone as the “wrong cultural fit.”

Multiple studies have shown diversity in executive leadership benefits the entire organization. “According to McKinsey, companies ranking in the top quartile of executive board diversity were 35% likelier to financially outperform the industry medians,” a Forbes article read. “Other research finds that inclusive teams make better business decisions 87% of the time.”

Nowacki said she feels the area that could use the most improvement is the platforms/tools credit unions and recruiters use to reach out to new talent. Recruiters often promote the technology and networks they use for outreach, but this isn’t enough to reach new talent, she said, noting that although some technology outreach tools are helpful, they shouldn’t be the sole method of outreach when recruiting.

“Credit unions and recruiters that expand their outreach beyond the usual platforms and

tools – and who truly humanize the recruitment process – increase the likelihood of finding new talent and identifying when it is the right fit,” Nowacki said.

Winning Long-Term Employees

Recruitment is inextricably linked to retention – if one is broken, the other is sure to fail as well. An organization can bring in the greatest talent in the world, but it must have the right systems and culture in place to keep it.

The onboarding process is a crucial time for employees and, if done right, can help drive their success within the organization. Nowacki recommended connecting new employees with people across the organization to help engage them immediately, helping them understand the different perspectives represented at the credit union. She also suggested scheduling 30-, 60- and 90-day check-ins with human resources or other organizational leaders to help identify any uncertainty early on and navigate it before it becomes a reason for the employee to leave.

Additionally, executive retention should be viewed much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Nowacki said.

“Envision that pyramid. Of course, there are basic needs we need to make sure we meet for employees: We have to get compensation right. We have to provide space for psychological safety – an environment where people feel like they can contribute well – but we have the opportunity to get our employees to the top of the pyramid, to that point of self-actualization. This is the point where doing purpose-driven work matters,” she emphasized.

Ultimately, Nowacki said she feels credit unions have a mission and purpose, and the ability to energize employees around those things.

“In order to keep the best executives, credit unions need to be prepared to address the needs at the top of the pyramid. As a system, we have everything we need to deliver at this level. It is just a matter of making the commitment,” Nowacki concluded.