LAS VEGAS -
That was the message from several credit unions that made the most recent rankings.
Jessica Rohman, an associate consultant for the San Francisco-based Great Place to Work Institute, said her company's mission is to build a better society by helping companies transform their workplaces. One method is publishing lists of top employers, which for 2006 includes Pacific Service CU in Walnut Creek, Calif., and Michigan State University FCU in East Lansing, Mich.
Tom Smigielski, CEO of Pacific Service CU, said happy employees create happy members. Dione Pena, HR and training manager for MSU FCU, said her credit union is known in its area for having a great working environment.
All employees have three relationships connected to their professions, Rohman said. The most important is the relationship between an employee and management (trust in the people he/she works for), followed by the relationship between the employee and the job (people should have pride in what they do) and that between the employee and others on the staff (people should enjoy those they work with).
Five Dimensions Of A Great Workplace
The Institute lists five dimensions of a great workplace: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
In addition to Pacific Service CU and Michigan State University FCU, three other credit unions made the Institute's list of Best Companies to Work For in 2006. Pacific Service CU is No. 2 on the list of Best Small Companies to Work For. MSU FCU is No. 12 on the roster of Best Medium Companies to Work For, followed by Digital FCU at No. 13, Eastern Financial Florida CU at No. 15, and Wescom CU at No. 19.
Smigielski said there are three management schools of thought. First: the beatings will continue until moral improves! Second: let the inmates run the asylum. Third: treat your employees as you would like to be treated.
"The corollary to the third is: treat your members as you would like to be treated," he said. "Happy employees create happy members, so we listen to our employees, we support them and we reward them."
The $1-billion Pacific Service CU serves 70,000 members with just 100 employees in four branches, Smigielski said. It is in the 96th percentile of employee to member ratio, yet members rate service 3.8 out of 4.0. Part of the reason, he said, is the credit union hires the best, promotes from within where possible and does a lot of temporary-to-permanent hiring.
Fitting In With The Culture
"We do multiple interviews with candidates to see how they fit in with the culture of our organization," he explained. "We offer referral awards because we want employees to bring in people they feel comfortable working with. If our temporaries meet our standards, that makes it easy to hire them permanently."
Smigielski hosts a management planning meeting every two years, which he described as a "bottom-up" meeting and a provider of feedback from management to the CEO. There are monthly update meetings, employee-initiated events and annual celebrations if the credit union has a good year.
Pena encouraged credit unions to develop an "employment brand" to enable them to become an employer of choice in their area. "Some companies have created a strong employment brand for themselves, such as Southwest Airlines," she said. "We let our community know our credit union is a great employer by attending employment fairs and hosting events such as the Race for the Cure."
A Marketer's Mentality
According to Pena, staff and recruiting communications should be approached with a marketer's mentality, and HR strategies should be closely aligned with the credit union's strategic plan, and a commitment should be made to professional training and development.
At MSU FCU, training and development are continuous, and all staff members have the opportunity to interview for any open job, she reported.
A credit union will know it has achieved "employer of choice" status when employment applications increase in quality and quantity without advertising, and when turnover is significantly below industry standards. Pena said turnover at MSU FCU is just 7%.
The results: over the past 17 years, MSU FCU has seen assets and membership climb while reducing turnover and offering more benefits to staff.
"Being an employer of choice is a business strategy," Pena said. "It is a hard process, so HR must have support from the CEO and the board."
