LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — St. Francis Campus Employees CU doesn't take for granted the impact a friendly, familiar face has on the bottom line.
The CU has built a tenured staff - and is happy to pay for that - to reduce turnover and operating expenses, build efficiencies, and grow. The formula has helped the CU deliver an expense-to-average-asset ratio of 1.46%, post 11.5% share growth in 2008, and top out capital at 12.46%. The CU's strength has allowed it to provide value to its members, as SFCECU ranks near the top of Callahan's latest Return of the Member rankings for credit unions with assets between $20 and $50 million.
CEO Margurite Cofell believes that employee knowledge and experience breeds efficiency over time. "Wherever you start a new job, it takes time to figure out how things are done and then more time to perfect your position," she said. "If you have constant turnover, that can lead to operational dilemmas and additional expense. I realize so much of our strong bottom line is a result of long-term employees who know their jobs and do them well."
The staff of six, including Cofell, combine for a total of 80 years of service with SFCECU. All are cross-trained, which allows staff to pinch hit when others are out without the need for temporary hires. Cofell understands that can often lead to large workloads at times, but employees keep positive attitudes. "What you pay your employees has a bearing on whether they stay and how they look at their daily jobs," she said. "It's a statement to employees about how they are appreciated."
Having tenured employees also affects how members view the credit union, Cofell offered. "When you are dealing with people's money, they don't like to see new faces when they come in. They wonder what happened to the old employees and if the new hires will make mistakes. I realize there are some schools of thought about allowing employee turnover to manage payroll. But I think that approach has a huge affect on where your members decide to do business. You don't want them thinking of you like you're a bank. I hear comments all the time from members who say they see so much turnover at the bank that they wonder if the bank knows them at all."
Members have little trouble recognizing the entire SFCECU staff, since in recent years they operated in less than 1,000 square feet of office space inside sponsor St. Gabriels Hospital. "We just added a couple rooms, which has helped," Cofell said. "But being in close proximity to each other has made it easy for members to know us all by name-and it didn't hurt internal communication. We hardly need our intercom system."
The $30.7-million SFCECU's approach to business has bolstered member loyalty to the point where Cofell estimates that 60% of its members use all of the credit union's services, which include checking, CDs, IRAs, consumer and home equity loans, and a MasterCard and debit card.
As of press time the credit union paid 1.75% APY for a six-month CD and 2.35% APY for one year. Regular share accounts returned 1.5% on any balance. New car loan rates, for any term, stood at 4.29% APR, a 10-year fixed home equity loan charged 5.475% APR, and signature loans were 9% APR.
