Executive Cross Training
Having been in the CU industry for a few years now, I’ve had to opportunity to interact with more people throughout the CU movement all of the nation. One thing continues to surprise me in the feedback that I get from people who have recently switched CU’s or recently joined the movement: every CU seems to do it different.
Nearly every time I visit another CU or talk with a C-level executive, I learn something dramatically new about that CU. This led me to my idea for executive cross training. Here at our CU, we regularly cross-training front office and back office employees to help educate them in what other parts of the organization does. One of the things that I loved about my past life at Blockbuster was the fact that new RDO’s (Regional Director of Operations), who oversaw 100ish stores, would start day 1 learning how to be a CSR, or a teller. They were then, in essence, promoted up until they achieved their position. This process made sure that the executives of the company still understood how their front line actually works. Not only should CU’s do this for any new non-branch management, but they should also take some cues from other retail experiences.
The executive cross training program is simple: send C-level employees to other CU’s to work for a month or two at a time. Let them see how the books get closed every month, how their executive team interacts with their board, and how price deposit and loan products. It would be as simple as getting a few CU’s to partner and become sister CU’s or something and simply swap execs. I’ll trade you my CFO for yours.
Executives would get a whole other level of hands on training that can’t be accomplished in a conference and the CU would get the knowledge and experience from other credit unions. Sound concept? Would CU’s be too protective of their upper brass to share for a month?
Your last question is a biggie…would CU’s actually agree to do such a thing. Generally speaking, we need to collaborate more with our sister credit unions. This cross-training idea is spectacular, and would further highlight our uniqueness as a movement.
That said, I think cross-training employees in all departments, even within the same credit union, could give management new insights on policy, procedure, and how they are actually delivered to the membership. They don’t to be able to master all of the intricacies of each position, but at least have a general working knowledge of the position. I’m sure it’s been done (or is being done somewhere), I just don’t know where.
I think it would not only be valuable internally, but it would make for a great recruitment tool for recent grads: Work at our credit union and train all over the country. It would be like a challenging new internship once a year.
Might not work so well for the already married folks, though.
[...] Wright wonders what it would take to get an executive cross-training ball [...]
I love the idea, of enhancing the training of execs to include job functions other then the typicals ones in their position. As a manager in Br Ops, I would have loved to recieved some training on how other departments are run.
In this same respect. Filene and Tinker FCU have done something very similar. I am on sabbatical with Filene for 6 months, and TFCU is paying my costs, other then travel expenses during this time. Collaboration is the key. Sharing resources and learning from outside of the box, is great to see in the CU movement. I hope to see other CUs participate in other ways of collaboration.