ORANGE, Calif. - Shoot off an e-mail. Pick up the phone. Have a face-to-face. And–at some credit unions–roll cameras.
It seems that certain credit unions, large and small, can’t imagine doing their daily business without video conferencing. “You can say more in a video meeting than in an e-mail or even a traditional telephone call,” said Bill Byerly, CEO at $55-million Building Trades FCU here.
Building Trades trains remote staff several times per month using TANDBERG video conferencing technology deployed in 2005.
“Video communication is more like having a face-to-face conversation because you are receiving facial clues and other body language signals that are obviously lost in e-mail or regular phone conversations,” Byerly explained.
In Baltimore, during video meetings for employees of the $850-million MECU, “you’ll see people waving at each other because they haven’t seen each other in a long time,” said Dorothea Stierhoff, senior public relations specialist. MECU installed Polycom video conferencing products, in partnership with CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G), one year ago.
Face-to-face meetings are impractical and expensive for remote board members of Building Trades, Byerly continued. Instead, the two board members attend monthly meetings via video, saving cross-country flights and hour-long drives to headquarters.
“Multi-site credit unions are now able to show tangible ROI based on travel expense reduction,” agreed Trina White, telephony specialist at CDW-G. “Interrupting the work day to travel to various locations to conduct meetings is quickly becoming a thing of the past.”
Video allows MECU to do “special things,” according to Stierhoff.
Celebrate Birthdays Across Branches
“One of the first things we did was to celebrate the CEO’s 60th birthday,” she said. “We put all seven branches on the Polycom system and had platters of food for a celebration across the entire credit union.”
Like the 25 Building Trades employees, the 250 MECU employees are trained via large flat screens, as well as portable screens, that can project people and content.
MECU employees attend a week of video training when they are hired, and the entire credit union alternates between one- to two-hour corporate training and departmental meetings every week, Stierhoff said. In addition, there are video-based manager meetings and compliance meetings.
Town Hall Meetings
Then there are the “town-hall” meetings, Stierhoff continued. “That’s when the senior management is put to task by regular employees.”
“At the town halls, you really see an interest from employees about where MECU is going and how they can help MECU grow,” added Chris Lumley, information systems director at MECU.
Video is a big part of MECU’s initiative to “hire, train, entertain and retain best-of-breed employees,” Lumley said.
Previously, trainers traveled from branch to branch, or employees all gathered at a central location, racking up parking and driving costs.
“Not everyone would receive the message at the same time or immediately, and for something like a compliance issue, timing is critical,” said Lumley.
Training on new products was also frustrating, said Stierhoff. “In marketing, we would be ready to launch a new product, but we had to go around training everyone for several weeks. It made it hard to keep the excitement going about the product.”
In contrast, video training delivers a consistent message because all employees hear it at the same time through the IP-based video network.
At some point, both Building Trades and MECU said they plan to use video to interact with members and help them with lending and financial planning products and education.
MORE
Read more about video conferencing at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
Video Conferencing Used To Bring Together Staff In 3 Remote Offices
Web2B: Next Gen. Of Online Branch Is Slowly Evolving At LAFireCU.org
CUs Try Out Networked Merger
For more info on this story:
www.btfcu.org
www.mecu.com
www.cdwg.com
www.polycom.com
www.tandberg.com
