LAS VEGAS — Leave it to human resources professionals to find the silver lining in the currently cloudy economy.
CUNA Human Resources/Training & Development Council conference attendees told Credit Union Journal staff morale is good, and in many cases employees are happy as the CU is one of the few businesses in their hometowns that are doing well in the current environment.
CUJ asked: what are the special challenges to HR or trainers in this economy? And, what is the economy doing to employee morale?
We are trying to look for cost savings anywhere in the credit union. We recently held a strategic meeting and the two main topics were helping members through tough economic times and looking for cost savings internally. We just did an employee satisfaction survey last week. I don't know the results yet, but overall, morale is pretty good. Everyone is thankful to have a job, and people feel lucky to work for our CU.Angela Adams
VP-HR
Generations FCU
San Antonio, TexasWe are not downsizing, we are adding positions to the credit union. The biggest blow to morale has been the fact a lot of our employees have spouses who have lost their jobs. We are trying to help them get through by offering workout loans and other hardship loans, including, unfortunately, loans on their pensions.Deana Turcott
Director of HR
Dort FCU
Flint, Mich.Our biggest challenge is keeping everybody looking at opportunities in picking up market share. It is hard to keep focused on the positive when everything in the news is negative, but we can seize opportunities in this market. One area in particular is credit cards, as banks are increasing rates or are pulling cards altogether. Our morale is pretty good. We have not discontinued doing fun things for our employees, and we have strong managers.DeAnna Kann
VP-HR
Financial Plus FCU
Flint, Mich.The most pressing thing right now is the corporate stabilization plan and how it affects us, along with the overall economy. Luckily, our credit union is stable and in a good financial position, but we are not immune to what is going on. We are trying to be efficient and are watching costs. We have not had any layoffs. We have a hiring freeze of sorts, in that we evaluate carefully every position to determine if we need to fill it. The economic situation is well known, so we are trying to keep morale up. People are happy to work at our credit union as we have a steady environment.Nikki Yarrington
Manager of HR
WESTconsin CU
Menomonie, Wis.We are trying to look at how to control cost of living expenses and provide incentives to keep employees motivated. Beyond simply having a job, we want to give our staff incentives that are not money related. There is not as much turnover, as people are just trying to stay where they are, but we want to know how to make them feel valued. Staff morale is really good right now. We are not doing as big of merit increases, but we want to let people know we are still okay. We did not do bonuses, but we educated employees to let them know it meant maintaining staff and being productive in servicing members.Bob Davis
SVP-HR
VyStar CU
Jacksonville, Fla.
