TOP-LEVEL TAKEAWAYS
- Credit Union 1’s quarterly “culture kits” engage employees and reinforce its mission through themes like performance, volunteerism, and belonging.
- Fostering a strong internal culture helps the credit union strengthen trust, unity, and connection within its teams and communities.
At a time when financial institutions have the reputation of being faceless entities, one factor can make all the difference in building trust and creating lasting relationships with members: culture.
Gone are the days when culture was treated secondary to efficiency and productivity.
Today, executives across a variety of industries agree investing in their people has become the secret sauce for success. For credit unions, where the mission is to not only serve but also uplift communities, fostering a strong culture isn’t just a business strategy — it’s the foundation of everything they do.
“We use culture kits to rally our leaders around strategic goals,” says Nicole Boswell, assistant vice president of employee experience at Credit Union 1 ($1.6B, Anchorage, AK). “Each kit is thoughtfully designed with a blend of fun gear and meaningful tools to drive organic change.”
Items inside vary depending on the theme, but in general include pamphlets and activities meant to educate and encourage collaboration while also including items like keychains, t-shirts, lanyards, or similar “swag”.
Conversations And Collaboration
The credit union launched culture kits in the first quarter of 2024 and has released them every quarter since to each of its branch managers and department managers as well as to members of the executive team.
Each culture kit focuses on a central theme that aligns with one of Credit Union 1’s strategic goals for the year.
“We’re in the first year, so the big topics have come quite naturally as far as culture building and culture unifying,” says Jessica Gallagher, director of corporate communications. “As we go on, I think we will continue to tap into leaders for their insight on what topics they’re seeing as most relevant.”
Performance Management
Executive management chooses kit themes during a monthly development meeting. In the first quarter, the credit union focused on performance management. That kit included goals for the management to reach — such as how often they should meet with their team members for one on ones, observations, or scheduled reviews.
“It’s important to have that hands-on time together,” Gallagher says.
According to the communications director, that kit has continually reinforced goals and promoted discussion throughout the year.
Volunteerism
The second quarter culture kit centered on volunteerism. Credit Union 1’s extensive community outreach heavily supports youth and education, health and wellbeing, and social services. This year, the executive team set a KPI for the number of volunteer hours logged by employees.
“The spirit is to educate and engage employees, get them excited about why we’re doing what we’re doing, and make sure it’s a cultural focus of our company and not just a side effort to what we do,” Gallagher says.
The credit union surpassed its KPI in October, Gallagher says, and has recorded a 25% increase in logged employee volunteer hours since the launch of the community-focused culture kit.
Beacon Of Belonging
In the third quarter of the year, Credit Union 1 used its culture kit’s “belonging” theme as an opportunity to promote its employee resource groups — which it calls “packs.”
“The culture kit became a beacon of belonging and inclusion,” says Boswell, whose duties include overseeing the composition of each kit. “In just four months, 31% of our employee base has joined a pack, proving that intentional and fun communication fuels real change.”
A Look Ahead
As for what’s on the horizon for 2025, Gallagher says culture kits will continue into the new year. The program has demonstrated its usefulness in unifying teams and bringing Credit Union 1 closer to its goals.
“We are on a strong path toward expanding our management development tools,” she says. “This has been a great one to empower our leaders to have those conversations with our team and build culture.”
For credit unions striving to build trust and create lasting relationships with employees, Gallagher has some words of wisdom.
“We’re in a big period of growth right now, so it’s easy to focus on margins and metrics,” she says. “But that is not what our employees are most passionate about. When you’re trying to get people to get behind what you do — that’s culture building.”