By Cathy Hulsey
Are your employees unhappy? Is your credit union’s culture suffering? If these are issues your credit union is facing, it’s imperative to ensure there is an internal communications strategy implemented within your credit union.
Ineffective internal communication leads to lost revenue, member dissatisfaction, massive miscommunications and decreased employee engagement and retention.
If you’re lacking an internal communications plan, it’s time to prioritize achieving great internal communication within your credit union; however, it’s not as simple as merely deciding to do better. Prior to establishing a strategy you need to communicate to your executive-level staff that these changes are about to occur, and manage to get them on board with this priority.
Additionally, it is necessary to gather information from your employees to develop a baseline prior to implementation. You can begin gathering the pertinent information by distributing a short anonymous survey to your employees, or by meeting with them in small groups or one-on-one to discuss their views and concerns regarding communication within your credit union.
Once you have established a baseline, you will need to determine which internal communications methods are the best fit for your credit union, which can vary based upon structure and culture. Focus on improving horizontal communication throughout your credit union by exploring tools that allow your employees to communicate most effectively and encourage collaborative, open conversations. If there are complaints that mass emails are overflowing employees’ inboxes and leading to miscommunications, perhaps you should consider tools like Slack or Google Hangouts. If your credit union’s Intranet is not being properly utilized, it may be time to consider discarding the service for something more appealing to your employees.
Another important aspect of internal communication is to ensure your employees feel included and appreciated, as it increases their engagement, work ethic and loyalty. Intentional efforts ranging from something as simple as recognizing an achievement, such as a birthday or a noteworthy accomplishment, to focusing on improving the vertical communication between your executives and employees will have a noticeable effect.
If your employees feel that there is not a sufficient amount of vertical communication, consider holding a weekly team meeting so that everyone feels in the loop and included. For example, at EPL, our weekly ‘Power Up!’ meeting—where we discuss internal items, share ideas, receive feedback and motivate employees—is met with great enthusiasm and active participation.
The best way to identify the right internal communications tools for your credit union is to pick your employees’ brains for their suggestions. Once you select the most appropriate communication methods, be sure to set goals surrounding them in order to measure your success, or to learn you need to reroute. Use metrics such as Intranet logins, surveys, retention rates and sales changes to measure your internal communications success.
It might take time to figure out what is right for your credit union, but we assure you, once you do—it’s worth it.
Cathy Hulsey is chief of staff and chief human resources officer at EPL, Inc.