MADISON, Wis.–If the increasingly competitive battle for talent is demonstrating anything, it’s that career development can no longer be limited to just a credit union’s top executives.
The Credit Union Executive Society (CUES) has made a number of changes in its focus and offerings to credit union leaders as it works to expand educational efforts beyond just the C suite. That realignment is now being broadly rolled out to the credit union community.
“With our new structure we are being very intentional about onboarding our members and helping them to understand how to leverage our benefits across their employee base—from the CEO all the way to the teller line,” said Jimese Harkley, VP of membership at CUES. “We want to create engaged members, and with our new structure, we are doing that even better today.”
Harkley emphasized that CUES is currently focused on onboarding members.
“We want to help them drive adoption, giving them all of the information they require to ensure our programs are tailored to the needs of their institution,” Harkley said. “And our credit union members are doing a really wonderful job with this so that everyone in the credit union has access to our learning opportunities.
“This is pivotal for CUES,” continued Harkley. “Because we have been known for executive education for so long, and that is still a key expertise of ours. But through our new structure we have also opened the door to add that education everywhere in the credit union’s organization—and it’s wonderful to see credit unions embrace this as they have.”
Retooled Structure
As CUToday.info reported, CUES has retooled its membership structure in an effort to help credit unions win in the war for talent. Under the new structure, there are three new CUES membership tiers for both staff and directors: Individual, Unlimited, and Unlimited+. Each membership tier features new and enhanced benefits, and both unlimited levels allow credit unions to add as many employees and board members as they wish for one flat rate, according to CUES.
The simplified membership levels include greater access to CUES’ most popular offerings, such as Elite Access Virtual Classroom and online education for board members, providing more content and comprehensive benefits, the association said. Harkley said some of the new benefits include individualized curated content and learning pathways, and peer-to-peer networking and sharing through a robust online community.
Harkley explained how CUES is working with members when they enroll.
“Once a member signs up for their membership, our Member Engagement Department sends an email to the credit union’s HR and training representatives, because they are the ones to best communicate with the people in their organization,” explained Harkley. “We talk with HR and training, tell them where all our tools are located in our portal, and then they work with their employees to fit the right tools with individual needs. They are taught, for example,
Jimese Harkley
which educational manual serves which purpose—such as our Leadership Development Guide and Guide to Effective Mentorship.”
New Platform
Harkley said the new CUES learning platform has educational offerings that benefit front-line staff as well as CEOs.
“They have access to the CUES Learning Portal, our Elite Access Virtual Classroom that features online courses from professors from some of the top business schools in the country, and CUES.net when it launches in January.”
Harkley said CUES.net will provide CUES members with an enhanced educational and networking opportunities.
“In this industry there is a lot of educational material at your fingertips, especially with mobile access now. And CUES is changing to keep up with this shift, providing information in real time,” explained Harkley. “For example, we moved CUES.net from a listserv platform to a real time, connected platform, where you can look up your colleagues across the country and network with them, interact with them and share documents in real time.”
Harkley added that CUES expects to eventually provide its members with a “report card” that will help them maximize their return on investment with CUES.
Strong Response
Harkley said that enrollment numbers have been strong since the new memberships became available in mid-August.
“Credit unions are responding to the new CUES and we appreciate that,” said Harkley. “It confirms that the changes we have made are right for the industry. Credit unions are simply getting more of their staff involved with CUES. We have opened up our educational opportunities to reach throughout the ranks of credit unions. While we still have a strong focus on executive education, and that will always be the case here at CUES, we want to be with credit union employees as they work their way up to the executive levels. We want to be there for them and start that leadership development.”
CUES Directors Conference takes place Dec. 2-5 at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa, Hawaii.