VIENNA, Va.-When you hire more than 2,000 employees per year, you learn a thing or two about recruitment and how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
No one knows that better than Navy Federal, which hired 2,200 employees in 2011 and expects to hire another 2,400 this year. Navy FCU shared with Credit Union Journal some of the strategies the world's largest credit union uses in recruitment, retention, training and development.
"We have finally fine-tuned our hiring processes," said Louise Foreman, EVP-human resources at Navy Federal. "We are able to scale up or down, as needed. Part of it is that we are working more closely with each business unit to understand their ebbs and flows and anticipate what new products and services are coming that may require personnel."
That, said Foreman, is a major challenge for any HR person or department, regardless of the size of the credit union: understanding what the needs are and being able to respond quickly. "We've expanded our internal and external resources to do that. We have new online job board agreements with Monster and others, and we're using social media like Linked In."
Although based in Virginia, Navy Federal has facilities around the world, including on ships, and has built a huge call center operation in Pensacola, Florida.
NFCU is also engaged with the military spouse network and MBA internship programs. "We're trying to do proactive recruiting, so we're building those networks."
The next step is assessing the candidates. Navy relies on a number of different assessment tools, including the TalentSIM leadership assessment tool and Alignmark's tools specifically for member service reps and account specialists.
"But you don't always want to use an assessment tool," Foreman offered. "We also use scenario questions in the interview. We're moving more and more to a competency-based model for job descriptions. We identify the competencies that are needed, then we work those into the questions we ask and the descriptions we use."
Even with a tough economy and high unemployment, getting the right people on board is only half the battle-keeping them is the other half. To that end, Navy has established a career development program that helps employees identify career paths and the skills they need to hone to take the next step along that path.
Understanding How The Credit Union Works
"You have to ensure that they have the technical skills or have an opportunity to gain those skills," Foreman offered. "You have to make sure they understand how the credit union works and what other positions may be of interest to them."
Navy Federal also makes a point of giving strong employees who have the potential to move up opportunities to be involved with special projects and other challenges.
"It's something you can do no matter what the size of your credit union," she said. "There are many inexpensive opportunities to offer special training to good employees, whether its partnerships with other groups, credit unions or organizations, or even simple cross-training and rotation opportunities."
Navy embarked on an executive development program about 10 years that has helped it grow potential leaders with a two-year program in partnership with the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia. It is now working to roll that program down to the next level of management.
