A new face is being seen at more credit unions – the “universal employee.”
According to Jon Haller, director of corporate and market research for the Credit Union National Association in Madison, Wis., the term covers folks who are “more than normal tellers.”
“They handle transactions, member service, new accounts and, in some cases, they also can accept loan applications,” Haller said, noting CUNA began seeing this title appear on credit union rosters about two years ago – and it is appearing with greater frequency. “We expect to see this to grow due to the changing nature of the branch. Credit unions need people with a wider range of abilities.”
This was just one finding in the trade association’s newly released 2017-2018 CUNA Staff Salary Report. Haller said there has been some growth in “chief” positions in recent years, but not enough to create a separate category in the report.
“It could be credit unions are renaming some of their vice president positions,” he assessed. “We do not yet see a need for separate categories for VP marketing and chief marketing officer.”
Wage freezes declining, new hiring depends on asset size
Haller said CUNA researchers found only small percentage of credit unions, 15 percent, currently are implementing wage freezes. He noted these are mostly smaller credit unions – those with less than $10 million in assets.
“Several years ago, in the aftermath of the recession, there were wage freezes at 45 percent of credit unions,” he pointed out.
Some 29 percent of CUs are adding full-time positions in 2017, but Haller said the percentage at a given credit union depends largely on asset size. For CUs with $200 million or more in assets, the figure jumps to between 60 percent and 75 percent. Still, he noted, the percentage of credit unions adding full-time positions is slightly less in 2017 than it was in 2016. “We are watching this closely to see if credit unions will be increasing hiring in 2018.”
For credit unions to stay competitive in the marketplace, Haller said they need to recognize the role social media has in spreading information regarding salaries and benefits to potential new employees, as well as current employees.
“There are free salary surveys online, so people have more information. Because of that, I would recommend credit unions be prepared to discuss – perhaps in more detail than in years past – how they determine their salary levels. People want to know how the salary for a given position compares to the market. If a credit union is below market, it needs to be prepared to discuss that with a candidate. If the credit union has benefits such as its corporate culture or flextime, it needs to be ready to discuss that.”
Spotting other CU salary trends for 2017-2018:
- Overall, the average anticipated 2018 salary bumps in credit unions with assets of $1 million or more stand at 2.9 percent and 2.8 percent for management and nonmanagement positions, respectively. These averages include any 0 percent figures from the roughly 20 percent of credit unions that are anticipating providing increases.
- As might be expected, average anticipated 2018 salary increases for management and nonmanagement vary among credit unions in different asset-size groups, and reach their highest levels among those with assets of $200 million to $3 billion.
- All told, 70 percent of credit unions with assets of $1 million or more provided some sort of variable pay—bonuses and/or incentives to at least some of their full-time employees by year-end 2016. The figure exceeds 90 percent in credit unions with $200 million to $3 billion in assets.
- Bonuses continue to be somewhat more prevalent than incentives for both management and nonmanagement personnel.
- CEOs are expected to retire sometime during the next two years at 7 percent of credit unions.
- Two-thirds (65 percent) of credit union CEOs received some form of variable pay (i.e., bonuses and/or incentives) by year-end 2016. Among those actually receiving such awards, the average award levels increase with asset size, topping-out at roughly $75,000 to $80,000 among CEOs managing credit unions with assets of $1 billion or more.
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