DES MOINES, Iowa-Credit unions comprise 30% of the firms listed in The Principal Financial Group's just-released "10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security" for 2011.
The three CUs are Portland, Ore.'s Consolidated FCU ($167 million, 11,000 members); Woodbury, Minn.'s Postal CU ($504 million, 44,000 members), and Waterloo, Iowa's Veridian CU ($1.8 billion, 161,000 members).
Since the Principal began the recognition list a decade ago, 13 credit unions have made the list, and there has only been one year when a CU did not crack the top 10.
According to Principal VP Luke Vandermillen, organizations that rank in the group's "10 Best" list invest an average of 26% of their payroll into their benefits program. While that's a significant cost, he said, "if you look at the voluntary turnover rates for companies named to the 10 best, you're going to see that turnover in about the 9% range," whereas the national average during the last five years has been closer to 21%.
Vandermillen added that it's an employer's market right now, but the companies on the list don't see that as an opportunity to cut their investment in personnel.
"If you have a job opening at your organization, you're probably going to get more resumes than you really need," he said. "But I think these companies take the long view and realize that it's not always going to be that way ... and their employees remember that, through good times and bad, our organization stuck with us and was thoughtful about the benefits they offered, and as a result I'm going to stay with this organization longer."
In addition, he said, companies with better benefits packages attract a higher quality, more productive employee. "In the case of a credit union, they practice what they preach. They're in the financial services business; they care about the financial future of their employees." Benefits today, he said, has become much more about a long-term strategy and the bigger picture, rather than HR simply deciding how much money to spend on benefits and crafting a package from there.
Strategy Recommended
One strategy Vandermillen recommended-and one employed by some of the CUs the company has recognized this year and in the past-is utilizing the assistance of a financial advisor to plot out benefits packages.
For instance, almost a decade ago Veridian CU began to rely on a financial advisor to help structure its benefits package, and SVP of Administration Renee Christoffer noted that their advisor helped them implement a wellness plan. About 40% of Veridian's employees have utilized the voluntary wellness program and the Principal's Vandermillen said that programs like that "mean an improvement in the overall health of your employees, which means maybe you should expect a different claims pattern for your health insurance, which in turn means lower costs."
