Preparing Your Credit Union for a Post-Pandemic World

The past year has been a learning opportunity for credit unions, which had to shake up many of their traditional standards and protocols for employees. And at some institutions, the changes have become catalysts for some long-overdue evolution.

For many credit unions, gone are the days when our headquarters houses all our back-office employees and serves as the only pillar of our office culture. Instead, if we are to create optimal working conditions, creating hybrid working solutions for our employees will be a key strategy in paving the road forward.

At Achieva Credit Union, we’ve left some of our traditional concepts behind to evolve our workforce and culture, while still maintaining a high level of service for our customers.

Here are five key ways we’ve found to prepare for a more flexible tomorrow.

1. Embrace Flexibility for Your Workforce

Success starts with effective technology that supports flexibility and security. Virtual desktop technology enables a secure connection to the same desktop experience an employee would have in the office, with the quick setup of a small box plugged into a home computer. At the start of the pandemic, we embraced virtual desktop technology to rapidly deploy our corporate employees as remote workers in less than two weeks.

If your credit union didn’t have a formal remote working policy at the start of the pandemic, it’s time to finalize one and determine who is eligible. There is no one prescriptive solution that will cover every employee, however. Some employees don’t have the skills or working style conducive to working remotely, so it’s key to have resources for those people to work effectively in the office.

2. Increase Your Organization’s Transparency to Support a Healthy Culture

In today’s world, employees want to feel supported and secure, and they want to have insight into how decisions about their future are being made.

It’s not about simply sending a company memo. Instead, hold regular updates on what’s happening across different levels of the organization and have frequent one-on-one conversations. When you can, give the reasoning behind a change.

3. Review and Refine Your Leaders’ Management Styles

To accommodate remote teams, many department leaders will need to refine their management techniques, revising styles that previously were centered around face-to-face interaction and accountability.

Each department will work a bit differently, but there are some basic best practices in managing remote or hybrid teams that are proving to be effective:

• Virtual daily check-ins over the phone or by videoconference;
• Digital timecards, so everyone knows who is available at what hours; and
• Intensive use of a project management tool to ensure streamlined communications and project accountability.

4. Consider Moving to a ‘Hybrid’ HQ

Headquarters used to be a home base for the bulk of a credit union’s employees. But as more team members ask for flexibility in their work locations, HQ operations may need to change to better support the credit union’s team. This, in turn, can improve employee satisfaction, which helps to reduce turnover.

Instead of selling off the headquarters facility, some credit unions have chosen to take a hybrid approach, leasing some of their office space. As an example, we are leasing about 5,000 square feet of our 67,000-square-foot headquarters facility – space that’s no longer needed because the marketing, HR and accounting departments are choosing to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

A quality security system ensures that our tenants only have access to specific areas, eliminating any impact to our credit union’s employees. The tenants get amenities like outdoor space, cleaning services and onsite fresh food, while we reduce overhead.

5. Stay Nimble

No one knows what the future holds, so planning for the short term – while being ready to adjust quickly as needed – will be key for all of us who work at credit unions.

While remote workforces are likely to stay in place for the foreseeable future, cultures will shift and we must be ready to shift with them. As we continue to balance team members’ desires with the organization’s priorities, the HQ will need to continue to be extremely flexible moving forward.

No credit unions are likely eager to become full-time property managers in working with tenants at their headquarters facilities. But evolving how our office space will be used is essential if we are to serve our employees and members in the most effective ways possible.

Jeff Blake is Chief People Officer for the $2.2 billion, Dunedin, Fla.-based Achieva Credit Union.