CU Websites…

So we’re going through a re-design of our website. And I’m seeing more and more of the so-called “generational gap”. I never thought that I’d see it first in personal differences in web design, but sure enough, here it is.

I’m what a recent Fast Company article would call a “millennial”, while most of our marketing department thinks like Generation D when it comes to web design. Our IS team is actually writing the site, with direction from marketing. The IS guys know what’s going on. Sites like bellco.org and celumimagine.com/en.htm are some wonderful examples of up-to-date web design. In my experience there are a few CU’s coming around and accepting the Web 2.0, but most credit unions are stuck in the Web 0.1.

Even though we’re coming up with some fairly good web design elements, the old guard of our credit union is hindering us. Its the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. If credit unions do not begin to dust of their brands and lose “my grandparents belonged to this credit union” feel, they will begin losing, rather not attracting, the members that will see them through the future.

Employee Opinion Surveys

Well our first employee opinion survey was recently completed at our credit union. Not surprisingly, “Pay” was the lowest rating we received in all 13 or 14 categories. Coming from a retail background myself, I find the CU pay is, naturally, higher than other retail pay, but lower then most banks in our general market. When I look at the overall market and compare the harsh selling stress in a retail banking environment, I see many people making a transition to the “movement”.

More interesting findings in our survey show that nearly all of our employees love their jobs, the reputation of the CU in the community, and their direct manager.

Some of the lowest ratings were pay and health benefits (spouse/dependent care).

It will be interesting to see if the changes we’ve made to the compensation structure will alter employee opinion on pay. I hear upper management say “they don’t know what other CU’s are paying” and our front-line staff saying “Bill left and went to Community Credit Union for $14 an hour.” Hopefully our adjustments will bring the two disparate views closer together.

First post

Well this is the inaugural post for this blog and my blogging experience. I intend to discuss many of the current issues facing the credit union industry that I feel are vitally important to the future success of our industry.

opensourcecu.com got me started in blogging for the credit union industry and inspired me to delve out onto my own, so I must give credit to to Trey and the folks over at OpenSource for their outstanding work in discussing a variety of important issues.

So until I can convince my credit union to put a blog on our website, feel free to visit mine.