By Frank J. Diekmann
I was going to wish you a Happy International Credit Union Week, but I’ve decided against it. Instead, I’m going to let five different credit unions/CU organizations from around the world do the job.
This week CUToday.info will feature its second annual series of short videos from credit unions sharing a little about themselves and their organizations, with a new video featured every day. We begin with a video from SeaComm FCU in New York (hint—make sure you give it 30 seconds). Then watch for new videos every day this week. And Happy…no, I’ll let them say it in their own unique ways.
Luau's & Oh Wows
* PSCU has now narrowed down to the final three the candidates who are vying to win this year’s “Knockout” competition. That competition is a 24-hour event in which more than 200 participants came together with a goal of collaborating to discover new solutions to enhance the credit union member experience.
I was fortunate enough to be in St. Petersburg, Fla. at the company’s headquarters as Knockout got underway, and equally fortunate I suppose that 1) I was not knocked out and 2) I was there at the beginning and not on the less-than-fresh day two. On that same day teams were also competing in PSCU’s offices in Phoenix and Allen Park, Mich., as well as at HawaiiUSA FCU in Honolulu. The 24 participating teams were each made up of five members that included PSCU employees, credit union employees, and PSCU partners from across the country, representing multiple business disciplines.
While there I had the chance to speak with a number of the participants, including Melissa Thomas, VP-electronic channels with Vystar Credit Union in Jacksonville, Fla., who apparently drew the short straw and was stuck with speaking to media members. Also on Thomas’ team were participants from Tennessee, North Carolina and Nebraska.
Thomas said the idea her team had tackled was one she had suggested in which it was seeking to create an option through a credit union’s website that would allow for member donations to a cause, especially around disasters, using a credit card. The latter would allow the CU and PSCU to participate in some of the revenue, too. One option the team was fleshing out was allowing the member to have a regular payment/donation made from a plastic card.
At the time I spoke with the team, which was working from a table in PSCU’s lobby, it was seeking to build some statistics around donations and doing other research. While Thomas said the team understood all the technology pieces involved, it did not include any coders. Nevertheless, it was already starting to build out some of the design with the plan calling for making its presentation with a PowerPoint in just about 24 hours.
Another team working on-site at PSCU (and one that might have missed its calling and should be naming credit unions) was Team Luau, Lakes, & Cheesesteaks, a name that reflected its members: Genesis Nicklaw of Hawaii State Credit Union; Lindsay Land of Consumers CU in Michigan, and Liz Fee of Citadel FCU in Philadelphia.
A spokesperson for the team said its idea didn’t really originate with any one person and instead came out of conversations the team had prior to meeting (teams could discuss ideas, but not launch any formal work before the 24-hour period began).
Team Luau was seeking to build a member app around the idea of “smoothing out” the process of data breaches.
“The alert piece is out there,” the spokesperson said. “The continuity and service piece are our focus–how to ensure no interruption. That can be seven to 10 days. We developed the concept and workflow and now the visuals and the communications.
What Goes Around Has Come Around
From the what-goes-around-IS-around department, you may read in CUToday.info recently that in Buffalo, N.Y. the folks seeking to organize Good Neighbors FCU have turned to crowd-funding to get started. Not sure if that’s ironic or fitting or just ironically fitting, but credit unions are the original crowdfunded FIs; indeed, it’s how all CUs have gotten their start. Now when you see a photo in your archives of a half-dozen men (it’s almost always men) in a black-and-white photo with the cigar box you can stop thinking of them as your credit union’s co-founders and instead recognize them as your CU’s crowdfunders.
At last report, Good Neighbors was $1,574 toward its $7,500 fundraising goal.
CUNA? CUNA Mutual? Is There A Difference
Among the many interesting findings in the recent CUNA Structure and Governance Task Force–which was examining whether credit unions should be able to join their respective leagues AND/OR CUNA–was this pretty stunning finding. Among the smallest credit unions, the report found, “There is widespread confusion among this group between the identities of CUNA and CUNA Mutual Group.” If you don’t know your trade group from your insurer/bond provider in credit unions, then that just might explain some of your CU’s other struggles. It’s also a marketing reminder to every credit union that you just can’t keep your message “Sesame Street” simple enough (as Filene’s Mark Meyers recently told credit unions).
Giving It The Old College Try? Maybe You Shouldn't
Education and skill-sets in job candidates are as hot a topic inside credit unions as other industries, and the nation’s financial co-ops have certainly not lacked for speakers recommending “hiring for personality, training for skills.” Now the UK offices of Ernst & Young have announced that they will stop requiring college degrees, and instead will offer online testing and search out talented individuals regardless of background. Why? They say there is no correlation between success at the university level and success in careers.
The Huffington Post quoted Maggie Stilwell, EY's managing partner for talent, as saying:
“Academic qualifications will still be taken into account and indeed remain an important consideration when assessing candidates as a whole, but will no longer act as a barrier to getting a foot in the door. Our own internal research of over 400 graduates found that screening students based on academic performance alone was too blunt an approach to recruitment. It found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday on Twitter.