NORWICH, Conn. - CorePlus Federal Credit Union's President Warren P. Scholl admits that his intent was "a bit selfish," for embracing a different way of promoting diversity, but he had no idea that doing so would bring so many unexpected rewards.
"I wanted to find a way to broaden the credit union staff. I thought if I could attract high school students, expose them to the possibility of a career in credit unions that I'd be doing a service to my community and wouldn't have to conduct an advertising campaign to make it happen."
Experiment Leads To Program
It turned out (to Scholl's delight) that the CU's modest experiment in diversity led to a full-blown student/intern/employee development program called "Diversity in Action." It also opened up inter-generational lines of communication with employees and members.
"I've been reluctant to put a marketing program in place for fear of it not ringing true," Scholl said. What he decided instead was to treat high school kids like young adults, give them rules, responsibility and training through summer job status. What he ended up with is a pool of smart, eager potential employees in the demographic most prized in CU land.
"There isn't a one of them that couldn't come back and work for us full time," said Scholl, of the nine Hispanic, Asian and African-American junior and senior high school students from the Norwich Free Academy who worked at the CU for eight weeks. Scholl was speaking to a group of parents from the school and simply made the offer. "They asked me how many I could take. I said 10. I got nine."
Not Just A Summer Job
Scholl told the nine on day one: "If you're just looking for a summer job, then go cut grass. That's not what this is about." He set up an orientation and began work training in earnest. The students learned teller and support operations, compliance training in Bank Secrecy Act, Check Fraud, Consumer Privacy and use of the CU's computer system, Internet, home bill paying and credit lending practices.
They were split up between public contact positions, teller and lending or support positions. They initially worked side by side with an experienced staff person but were soon functioning on their own. They started at minimum wage and were given a review midway, tested on what they'd learned and switched. Pay raises were based on merit, and students met with their assigned supervisor and received a 50-cent per-hour increase if they did well.
CorePlus was originally a teachers' CU, Scholl explained, and through mergers gained SEGs, finally going community charter three years ago. With that background, there was no shortage of know-how for creating a program.
"Obviously, we didn't do it in a vacuum. We spent time planning it and coordinated with the school and the school superintendent before we proceeded. We had a solid plan, but the best part turned out to be the students themselves. They were all bright, articulate, eager to learn and energetic from start to finish," he said. One student, who spoke Mandarin, helped to open an account for a couple that owned a restaurant near the CU, said Scholl. "That's the real-world diversity were trying to accomplish."
Equally important, students gained the respect of our senior management team, our staff and our members," Scholl said. "Members were never told that the person taking their deposit was a student. But afterwards, when they were, they told us they liked the idea and supported it wholeheartedly."
"We knew that we were trying to build a foundation for a long-term program, and it's a two-way street, so, we told the students our expectations and we asked for their input along the way," allowed Scholl. Students were given a "journal" and told to put into writing any and all thoughts they had regarding their experience. They had to carry the journals with them at all times, and any supervisor from the CU could ask to read their journal at any time.
That made for a real gut-check, according to Compliance Officer and Diversity Program Director Raymond Hasson. "We asked for honesty, and we certainly got it. The students weren't at all shy about expressing their feelings, good and bad. But for us it was a very valuable tool, because we learned a lot about the way the students thought, and it gave us a great deal of food for thought about how we can change and improve the program in the future."
One of those changes is to give student credits for the program, and to expand it to other area high schools such as Montvale and New London, where the CU has a branch.
