HERSHEY, Pa. — Credit union executives frequently speak to the mission of their institutions and how they can help their communities. And sometimes they can do more good by letting people
"My philosophy is that people come in and out of your life — or in this case organization — on their life journey. My purpose is that when they leave they are in a better position and had a positive experience with that part of the journey," said Justin Howard, president and CEO of Horizon Federal Credit Union in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Howard, who spoke at the CrossState Credit Union Association's CU Reality Check conference Wednesday in Hershey, was joined by many executives who said the art of hiring and retention has changed drastically during the past few years. Credit unions have to be savvy about changing their job roles to allow for hybrid work, training and other perks that may not have been as crucial before.
In the case of Horizon, this went as far as helping one worker train for a completely different career. For example, one employee became focused on health care after a personal event that occurred in their life.
"They no longer wanted to assist people with their finances but with their mental health instead," Howard said.
So Horizon, which has $139 million of assets, partnered with a local health care facility to allow the employee to "shadow" in various departments, even while they were on the clock with the credit union. Eventually, an opportunity arose, and the employee applied for and got the health care role.
This of course created an opening for someone who was passionate about the credit union industry itself. But filling that role with the right person is still no easy task in today's job market.
Even when finding the right employees, hiring and retention can be a vicious cycle, said Tom Brennan, the chief marketing officer at Erie Federal Credit Union in Pennsylvania.
"On one hand we are trying to recruit and hire talent in a
Erie FCU has maintained the large majority of its key staff throughout the pandemic but continues to have issues in hiring and retaining frontline people.
Wages in many industries have become more competitive, and finding quality people with experience in financial services has been a challenge, Brennan said.
So the $739 million-asset credit union has adapted to the current job market by offering perks such as hybrid schedules and enhanced coaching and training.
"It's a fine line we and many CUs have to walk," Brennan said. "It's not always about having more employees, it's about having new recruits with skills and talent."
Trumark Financial Credit Union in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, has seen increased turnover of late, especially in its retail lines, said
Retail is a high-turnover area to begin with, but the last two years put additional pressure on staffing, she said.
"Our team-member morale and wellbeing is extremely important to me, so I have addressed those issues head on by identifying team pain-points and working actively to resolve those issues as soon as possible," Botti said.
And so ensuring that team members have the resources and environment they need to do their job well is one of Botti's most important responsibilities.
The $2.9 billion-asset Trumark has concerns about talent runoff, but Botti is hopeful that by demonstrating to employees that the company cares — by listening and taking action — that it will be able to retain the vast majority of its workers.
"In my time since taking office in August, we've taken initiatives such as adjusting branch hours and employee benefit offerings, increasing learning and development opportunities and increasing recognition opportunities," Botti said. "It's not a perfect science, especially in a competitive wage environment, but we are hopeful to see a reduction of our turnover and protection of our talent into 2023."
