WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -
"We have adopted a high deference to automation, much of which contributes to our employees' overall well-being," said Noelle Fischer-Herbert, VP, corporate development at the $1.1-billion CU.
"And we give them the online training they need that helps them get the most out of the tools they have," added Tom Smigielski, president at Pacific Service.
Pacific Service was ranked second in the "Best Small Companies to Work for in America" for 2006 by the Great Place to Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Still, when the 5 o'clock whistle blows, employees take off. And they don't rush home to burn the midnight oil on Blackberries and laptops. In fact, Pacific Service doesn't even issue the after-hours tools to employees.
"You won't find people here after 5 p.m. because they're able to get their jobs done efficiently and leave," explained Smigielski.
A technology project that earned kudos from employees was a recent core system conversion, according to Fischer-Herbert.
"Employees went from operating with strings-of-code to point-and-click and pop-up windows," she said. "That's better quality of life."
The two-year conversion was made a little lighter with incentives, from salary bonuses to gift certificates and "chain-gang" t-shirts, Fischer-Herbert added.
Technologies don't always contribute to hard ROI at Pacific Service; in some cases, the CU pays for new technology for no other reason than to make life and work better for employees, said Nannette Cutliff, vice president, technology solutions group and chief information officer at Pacific Service.
"We switched to wireless mice and keyboards, headsets, and flat-screen monitors, all technologies that are aimed at making the employee experience more efficient and enjoyable," Cutliff went on. "We continue to get rave reviews because employees use those things everyday."
Pacific Service usually satisfies all employee requests for technologies that upgrade the quality of work-life, Cutliff said. Moreover, "new employees have the tools they need to be as comfortable as they can be; there's no need for employees to beg supervisors for those tools" added Barbara Smith, assistant vice president, human resources and administration.
Over in the contact center and lending department, where workspace is filled with ringing phones and telephone conversations, a soundmasking system drowns out the din with white noise, helping employees focus on their own calls.
And Pacific Service employees get twice as much work-life benefit from their automated loan origination and approval system than employees at other credit unions, said Smigielski. That's because Pacific Service "trusts the technology" more than many other CUs, he said. Employees rely on the loan system to make good decisions instead of second-guessing and double-checking everything.
"Some credit unions just can't let go," said Fischer-Herbert. "They parallel-process indefinitely."
It's no simple matter to make technology work for employees, Smigielski said.
"There are a heck of a lot of technologies out there that are inaccurate and labor-intensive for the user," he said. "It's a real challenge to pick out something that will improve employees' lives."
Nevertheless, technology isn't perfect, even at Pacific Service. Currently, employees complain about spam and security technologies, said Cutliff.
"With the constant growth of spam and fraud attempts, our employees have to work through complex passwords and log-ins through several different softwares," she said.
Over the years, technology has helped fuel healthy growth at Pacific Service, Smigielski said.
"We've got over $1.1-billion in assets and almost 70,000 members from Eureka to Bakersfield, yet we only have 100 employees," Smigielski said. "You can't do that without technology."
FOR MORE RESOURCES
Read more about quality of work-life at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
Why Some Credit Unions Are Making The Lists Of Great Places To Work, for a story about credit unions that have made the grade at the Great Place to Work Institute.
Kentucky CU Employs Multimedia To Train Staff, Appeal To Members, for a story on how Commonwealth CU's plasma screens motivate and retain employees.
For info on this story:
* Pacific Service CU, www.pacificservice.org
* Workforce Management, www.workforce.com
