Raymond George is on a mission to ensure all new hires at Clearview Federal Credit Union ($2.2B, Moon Township, PA) spend time in boot camp.

Artificial intelligence is a key component of Clearview’s tech toolbox, and George, the credit union’s CIO, is behind the push for all employees to log time in AI boot camp as part of their employee onboarding experience.

“People want AI to do ‘big bang’ things — replace programmers or answer calls,” George says. “Can it assist in all of that? Yes. But it’s not going to replace your people and do everything for you.”

Clearview has put into place a variety of AI tools — including enterprise access to Microsoft’s Copilot; Jasper, an AI-based marketing tool; and LuLu, a lending intelligence solution from ZestAI — and is rolling out site licenses for Claude soon. It also put guardrails around how staff access and use those tools and partnered with tech agency Problem Solutions to roll out four-hour boot camps for senior management and two-hour training for the board.

The curriculum provided an academic understanding of AI tools and a pragmatic look at the overall landscape and how to get the best results. The management team’s training included a brief history of AI and a review of tools but was largely focused on how to choose the right tool for the task at hand and how to design prompts. It even introduced the acronym IMPACT — Intent, Message, Persona, Audience, Context, and Tone — to help craft better AI prompts.

Of course, the boot camp emphasized the importance of human participation, too.

“As a human, you’ve got to bring something to the table,” George says. “Don’t just take the result and say, ‘This is perfect and ready for prime time.’ You have to review it.”

Another Tool In The Box

After successful sessions with the management and board, Clearview expanded the education to all staff and incorporated it into employee onboarding. Rather than offer an in-depth training at the outset of employment, the credit union divides the material into hour-long sessions that focus on how to choose the right tools to use for specific functions, how to build better prompts, how to interact with AI, and how to identify AI’s shortcomings and validate the information it returns.

“It’s no different from teaching somebody how to use the core,” George says. “This is another tool. It’s an internet tool; it’s not this big, mysterious thing.”

Clearview’s leadership has leaned into AI both for its day-to-day productivity gains and for what it means for staff over the long term.

“The younger generation coming out of college has AI as part of their curriculum, and we want to future proof our current staff with this technology,” George says. “AI might not take your job, but somebody who knows how to use AI probably will.”

Lessons From Previous Tech Revolutions

Clearview is training its entire staff on AI because it affects the entire workforce. Multiple employees across departments are already using it, and they are sharing successes with one other.

“I don’t want to say there’s peer pressure,” George says. “But they’re seeing what others are able to do, and it’s really helped fuel adoption.”

While acknowledging AI’s massive potential, George noted it’s simply another technological revolution following the rise of personal computers and, later, the internet. But unlike those earlier shifts, AI arrived without a clear cost of entry or gatekeepers. It largely became available to everyone at once for free.

“If companies think they can control this as much as they could other evolutions, they probably can’t,” the CIO says. “So let’s embrace it, understand it, demystify it, and have it work for us so we can be good corporate AI users and not be afraid of this tool.”

Equip your team to lead through disruption. AI is one wave in a longer tide of technological change, and the credit unions that navigate it best will be the ones whose leadership teams share a common framework for evaluating and acting on disruption. Disruptive Strategy for Organizations, offered by Callahan & Associates in collaboration with Harvard Business School Online, gives your executive team exactly that. Learn more.

Benefits And Lessons Learned

Clearview uses AI for both internal and external functions, and George says it has been a key driver for increasing personal productivity. That includes anything from speeding up writing job descriptions — “It used to take half a day, now it takes about 34 seconds with a couple of tweaks here and there to the correct prompt,” he says — and summarizing accomplishments to prepare for reviews to looking for patterns within different data sets and analyzing internal chats to improve member experience.

The most effective thing Clearview has done, George says, is to explain AI tools in a way that gives staff the confidence to use them. A few evangelists — including information security and IT leaders — held what George called “a road show,” attending multiple department meetings to field questions from associates at all levels.

“This is a new tool,” George says. “There are no experts at Clearview; we’re all learning this together. But we’re giving the framework and the structure so employees can learn to use it and be more productive.”

And, he adds, use cases are only going to grow.

“The staff has adopted it because we’ve demystified it,” he says.

The post AI Boot Camp Is More Than Basic Training At Clearview FCU appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Top-Level Takeaways

• Advancial FCU encourages employees to help shape policies, perks, and priorities.
• Recognition fuels purpose and retention and reminds employees why their work matters.
• Systems of accountability, with multiple feedback mechanisms, builds culture.

Advancial Federal Credit Union ($2.4B, Dallas, TX) believes success starts from the inside.

“There’s no way you can deliver amazing service to members if you’re delivering bad service internally,” says president and CEO Brent Sheffield. “We’ve got to have the same standards for both.”

The Texas cooperative wants members and employees leaving credit union interactions wanting to tell someone about it. Extraordinary gestures aren’t required. Listening, empathy, and responsiveness are enough.

Over the years, Advancial has turned this philosophy into something it can measure and celebrate, fueling innovation, employee engagement, and a memorable member experience.

An Owner Mindset

Sheffield says a key part of Advancial’s company culture comes down to an owner mindset, where employees feel invested in the credit union and contribute accordingly.

“By having owners, we make sure everyone lives the culture,” Sheffield says. “But part of being an owner is you get a say in what’s happening.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, senior leadership took a page from the Shark Tank playbook and put together an initiative inviting ideas from all levels of the organization.

“We called it ‘Think Tank,'” Sheffield says. “We broke everyone into random teams, so employees got to know people they don’t normally work with. We gave them one of four categories to think about how we can wow our employees or how we can wow our members.”

One of the most notable suggestions was a timeshare-style vacation home employees can use on their own or with their families. Today, the credit union has two — one on the beaches of Florida and another in the mountains of Colorado.

Advancial also introduced a suggestion box program called Bright Ideas. The credit union shares submissions with subject matter experts who review the ideas, provide feedback, and determine what’s feasible. The credit union’s President’s Circle, composed of the year’s top-performing team members, also weigh in on employee feedback.

“I share the ideas we approved during our all-employees meetings,” Sheffield says. “From there, we move them into our project list for implementation. It’s a great way to give visibility to people’s ideas, give them credit for coming up with things.”

Rate The Experience

Perhaps the most significant tool Advancial uses to encourage and recognize employee excellence is a simple survey program in which respondents can rate service interactions by providing a happy face or sad face regarding three basic statements:

1. They showed me respect with their professional, friendly, and positive attitude while assisting me.
2. They showed sincere interest and cooperation in understanding my request and helping me.
3. They resolved/completed my request and made it easy for me.

For example, if marketing requests a report from finance or if operations helps a branch solve a problem, the person receiving the service can evaluate that experience. Members can do the same based on their own external interactions with credit union personnel.

If the experience rises above satisfactory to truly exceptional, participants can flag the interaction as such and provide a written explanation detailing how the employee went above and beyond and why the experience exceeded expectations. These responses remain anonymous to everyone except senior leadership.

The surveys feed into a broader peer recognition program that allows employees to recognize coworkers by awarding points that can be redeemed for gift cards, cash, or items like Bluetooth speakers and TVs.

Momentum Requires Effort

Today, Sheffield hosts monthly all-staff meetings to encourage transparency and communication. Sometimes, that means being frank about what isn’t working or going well, the CEO says, although he remains intentional about praising exceptional stories as often as he can. For example, a couple of H-1B visa members recently sent edible arrangements to the staff that assisted them.

“When you have a certain culture and hold people accountable, when people own it, it makes a difference,” Sheffield says.

What works today might not work tomorrow. Expectations change just as strategic priorities do. That’s why Advancial treats its approach to culture as an evolving, ongoing initiative rather than a static playbook.

“The effort is constant, it’s ongoing,” Sheffield says. “That allows us to improve incrementally. That’s our way forward.”

The member experience starts well before the member arrives. Gallup research confirms that emotionally connected employees deliver interactions that build trust and drive lasting engagement. The Member Engagement & Financial Wellbeing Consortium, developed by Callahan and Gallup, helps credit unions activate that internal shift from the inside out. Learn more.

The post When Employees Own Culture, Service Follows appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

That’s because his old man, Mike Valentine, is the longtime (and soon-to-be retired) CEO at BCU ($6.5B, Vernon Hills, IL). Dave followed in his father’s footsteps and today serves as chief lending and experience officer at Consumers Credit Union ($4.6B, Lake Forest, IL).

In this special Father’s Day Q&A, the duo reflects on their relationship, their careers, lessons they’ve learned from each other, and more.

Dave, what did you think about your dad’s job and the industry as you were growing up? Did you always want to follow in Mike’s footsteps and join the industry?

Dave Valentine: He’s been at BCU longer than I’ve been alive, so it’s always been a part of my life. There was no “work dad” or “home dad,” it all melded together. He’s the same dude at the office that he is at home. Seeing how much he enjoyed what he does, how much he genuinely cares about people, it didn’t seem like a job at times. I thought, maybe I need to do something like that.

I had the opportunity to work part time in the summer from when I was 16 all the way through college, so for the better part of about six years I was working different jobs at BCU. I thought it was pretty neat.

Mike, what advice did you give to Dave as he entered credit union leadership?

Mike Valentine: When he got out of school he went to Wells Fargo. That’s probably the best thing he could have done because he found out what not to do. He learned a lot about financial services, but then he said maybe there’s something to this credit union stuff.

If there’s any advice I gave, it was to give it a shot and talk to some people, so he talked to a couple of different credit unions and business partners.

Whenever we would talk, it was usually about golf and the [Chicago] Cubs and Bears. Now, Dave’s talking about work stuff, and I’ve got to pay attention. It’s kind of made it a different world for us because we have that in common.

Was there a point when you both started to feel like colleagues as well as father and son?

MV: In this big crazy market we’re in, our headquarters are literally two miles from each other, but I see Dave more on the weekends than at work. If there’s a conference we see each other, but Dave usually won’t say “Dad,” he’ll say “Mike.”

As he’s moved into senior leadership positions, we really have become colleagues. I ask him for advice on a number of things, especially my upcoming retirement. He’s in our market and he’s observant, so it’s neat because I feel like he really has my back.

DV: As I said, he’s been doing this longer than I’ve been alive, and there’s a lot of wisdom there that I constantly learn from. I’d say it’s more me receiving than giving, but I think there’s been some more give in the past few years, given how Consumers has grown as an organization and the added responsibilities I’ve been fortunate to get here.

How much do you talk about credit unions when you’re together outside of work? What’s the credit union topic that comes up the most?

DV: We’ll average it out to say about half the time. It’s part of the normal talk track when you’re talking with anyone — how are things going with your job, what’s new, etc. It’s just that he and I can go super deep on the topic. We both want to continuously learn, so if there’s a hot topic or organizational changes, that propels us into deeper conversation.

MV: I agree, it kind of ebbs and flows with what’s happening in the market. Talent kind of moves back and forth [from Consumers to BCU and vice versa], but I’ll get all over my team about what David tells me they’re doing over at  Consumers, and within 15 minutes of the staff meeting he’s getting a text about it because everybody at our place knows him.

Are there areas where you disagree, whether that’s on leadership approaches, how aggressively to embrace AI, or something else?

MV: I’m slower with some of the newer things out there, and you could throw AI into that. Dave has a strong marketing sense to him. It’s interesting listening to him because sometimes I just don’t understand it. A lot of times I don’t disagree; I just don’t get it. But Dave knows about things, so I bug him to tell me what he means by something, and we pitch that back and forth.

DV: I have such a passion for the people who work here and the people who report directly to me, and I know he does as well. I want to be there for him. I want to support him. It’s that kind of leadership from the heart that’s something we definitely both have.

What are some of the toughest professional questions you’ve turned to each other for advice on?

DV: For me, it’s when I’ve been presented with opportunities as we’ve either grown and scaled or just needed to make some changes. Often it’s talking about how I’m observing the situation and thinking about approaching it, either with business strategy or org design. He’s been through a lot of things I haven’t, so that helps me make better decisions.

MV: As I was going through thoughts of retirement and succession planning, David was a fantastic sounding board for me. I almost call it a switch to him mentoring me and seeing people differently than I did. That was probably one of the more helpful things for me as I was marching down that lane for the past couple of years.

Dave, what’s the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned from Mike?

DV: It sounds simple, but be yourself. People can suss out if you’re being inauthentic, so really lead from the heart. Take the work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. There’s zero difference between the person he is at home and the person he is at work. That made me understand why people enjoy working with him and want to partner with him.

You’ve got to do it your own way, but I think that’s where I saw how I can be effective. You can’t compartmentalize yourself. It’s a much better balance to just generally be the same person at home and at work.

Conversely, Mike, are there leadership lessons you’ve learned from Dave?

MV: I’m at 100,000 feet most of my life at work and rarely can I get down from there, but one of the things I’ve watched with David is his ability to get to 10,000 feet, 5,000 feet, and rise. A lot of people can’t do that. They’re either micromanaging or they’re where I am. At this point in his career, it’s so important that he do that, and one of the things I’ve watched is his ability to connect with people. It’s rare to see somebody under 40 who pays that much attention.

I have a quote that I love: “Listen to understand versus listening to respond.” Dave’s not listening to respond. He’s truly taking in the information and processing it. He may go with your thought or he may not, but you know he’s listening.

For both of you, what’s something you’ve learned from each other recently that changed your thinking?

DV: For me, watching his retirement process has been interesting because there’s really awesome stuff that he’s built over there. The board and the team at BCU have such admiration for him, and he runs the credit union so well. I’ve seen him step back and say, “This is a good time to allow someone to come in and take the reins.” That, to me, is true selflessness to the organization and putting ego aside.

Top that, Mike.

MV: Sometimes I’ll see Dave doing things at Consumers that we haven’t tried, and I’ll wonder why the heck we aren’t doing that. Dave has had some success in the mortgage business with outside LOS, and now we’ve got four or five people we’ve hired doing that. In other words, I’ve heard about it, seen it, and did something about it during the past year because of conversations with Dave.

We can talk about Dave and me, father and son, but the best thing you can have is a support system. You’ve got to be all in in this business, and if you do it right, you’re going to do it well. Every time we get together there’s a credit union topic that comes up. And it’s fun. Maybe it’s a little bit too much, but it’s great.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Do you have your own credit union family history?. We want to hear about it! Email editor@creditunions.com and fill us in, and we might feature your story CreditUnions.com.

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Before joining Firelands Federal Credit Union ($554.6M, Bellevue, OH) as chief financial officer in 2023, Don Rositano built a career at the intersection of banking and membership-driven retail, shaping how he approaches value, pricing, and performance.

Before entering the credit union space, Rositano spent more than a decade with Sam’s Club, where he led finance for a $2.2 billion division. That environment, where members pay for access and expect clear value in return, mirrors the credit union model more than it might seem, he says — and reinforced a core belief he carries into his current role: get value right for members, and the financial results follow.

Personal And Professional Journey

What attracted you to the credit union industry?

Don Rositano: I am fortunate to have been the CFO of two different community-based banks and most recently was the senior finance manager of a $2.2 billion division of Sam’s Club out of Bentonville, AK.

I loved working for Sam’s, but Cleveland is my home. My family and kids are here, and we were ready to be closer to them. When the CFO opportunity at Firelands came up, I felt my banking and membership experience would dovetail nicely. At Sam’s, we understood members pay for the privilege to shop there; that’s our philosophy at the credit union, too.

What has surprised you about working in the credit union space?

DR: One of the biggest surprises is that profitability is not the focus, people are. In my prior position, I had to reforecast our profit and sales projections every week, and we needed to produce solutions if we were suffering a shortfall.

At Firelands, although we need profits to fund growth, serving our members is our priority goal, and we forecast to meet their needs. Our profitability is a by-product of those relationships. In the three years I’ve been here, our cumulative annual growth rate is 10.46% — without mergers or adding branches — and our ROA has jumped from 0.66% to 1.41% year-to-date.

The Credit Union Learning Curve

How would you compare the culture of credit unions to your previous industry?

DR: There are a lot of similarities between Sam’s Club and Firelands. Both companies are driven to provide ultimate value to their members and to curate product offerings to reduce confusion and maximize value. Many companies like to provide products and services that have all these bells and whistles when what most members want is a great product at a great price.

Did you have any misconceptions about credit unions when you joined?

DR: As a former banker, my viewpoint was limited by industry misconceptions. I felt credit unions were behind in innovation and technological sophistication. Credit unions were the institutions you went to for auto lending and Christmas Club accounts.

The longer I’ve been in this position, I realize how wrong I was. Credit unions can master the balance of national competition, service, and evolving technology while still taking care of and seeing the member as an individual instead of a number.

What challenges did you face transitioning into the credit union space?

DR: Credit union jargon. Calling deposits “shares” and interest “dividends” has taken me a while. I’ve also had to change my thinking about profitability and service. I’ve spent a lot of time on nonprofit boards, and I love this serving philosophy in our company.

Leadership And Strategy

How did your prior financial services experience shape your leadership approach at the credit union?

DR: At Walmart, there would always be times when other retailers were cheaper, and we understood that. We wanted to be the consistent price leader, not chase a short-term discount. At Firelands, we’ve been trying to position ourselves so members are better off overall with our products than anywhere else.

For example, in my first year, we increased our primary share rate well above the rest of our competitors. We were able to create some savings in one of our expense categories and instead of dropping those savings to our bottom line, we reinvested them in higher yields on members’ dividends.

What lessons or strategies from your career have proven most valuable in your credit union role?

DR: At Sam’s I learned the importance of viewing pricing specials as an investment versus a cost. The goal is to offer something well-priced and use this as a gateway to have them experience more of the club.

I’ve used that same mindset at the credit union, and we have offered aggressive CD rates for shorter terms of four to seven months. We’ve found we do not lose this money when the CD expires, and the higher rate inspires higher loyalty.

We also never have a special only for new money. That tells existing members they are not as important. We’re in it for the long term. Our mindset has resulted in gaining greater share of our existing members’ wallet.

In addition, we offer a well-priced money market account where our highest yield right now is 3%. Our money market accounts have grown 40% in 2024 and 30% in 2025. Our members want an excellent rate but also want liquidity and freedom to move their money.

As a bonus, I enjoy paying a lower rate versus CDs and appreciate the flexibility to adjust rates based on market ebbs and flows.

What aspects of leading a credit union required a completely new mindset or skillset for you?

DR: Sam’s is a destination club. When I left, it had around 600 clubs throughout the nation. It can afford to invest in the largest markets because members will come. When I worked in a club, we had members who would come from 60 miles away every month to stock up.

However, many credit union members need physical closeness of a local branch. Not that they necessarily use it, but they want the comfort of knowing it is there when they need it.  We are investigating ways to meet those needs while balancing the high costs of an extensive branch network.

Members-First Focus

How did you adapt to the members-first model? Are there parallels to your previous roles?

DR: I came from a member-focused organization. It bothers me when I see financial institutions focus more on profits than customers. For example, we have many banks around us that might offer a nice special CD rate, but they keep their basic rates below 1%. If a customer does not inquire, they will go from a 4% special down to a 0.15% CD rate as it rolls over. I find that unethical and anti-customer.

How have you helped improve member engagement or services?

DR: We are looking forward to making some adjustments to our checking accounts. Members want a payment mechanism at a low cost. We listened to what members are asking for, and we’ll be adding member send capabilities for both RTP and FedNow.

There’s fraud risk with these payment streams, and frankly, we need to be OK with some losses to offer these services. If we don’t, members will move to other financial institutions or fintechs that offer them. In the next few years, it is going to be a requirement as a financial institution to be in business. The writing is on the wall; I don’t want to be left behind.

Advice And Future Outlook

What advice do you have for someone considering an executive role in a credit union, especially if they’re coming from another industry?

DR: Be open to the process and understand it can be tough because we answer to members and not to shareholders. The most critical thing they need to understand is that we need to be member focused.

If you do what’s right for the members, they appreciate it and the business will grow. It’s satisfying hearing other bank employees say how wonderful we are and if they cannot do something, they refer the customer to us.

You also need to be active in the community. I’ve walked in parades; I’ve manned an inflatable slide at a community festival. If you have no desire to be part of the community, then maybe a credit union is not for you. We’ve assumed many leadership positions that community banks used to lead.

How might your prior experience help shape the future of your credit union’s strategy?

DR: I’ve been the main proponent of bringing in a data warehouse. I’ve seen the power of analytics and the ability to drive business through understanding our own membership base. A warehouse lets you see where you should focus your limited resources to help the most members, and that can drive your growth.

Harvard did a study a while back that showed the more options you offer a customer, the more confused they become about what to buy. And sometimes they purchase nothing.

I looked at our product line at Sam’s and noticed we had several products that were not profitable. We reduced our product line by more than 40%, saw a 1% to 2% reduction in sales over the next 12 months, but saw a 25% profit improvement. It also set up the division in the following years to increase sales faster than the rest of the market.

Personal Reflections

What’s been the most fulfilling part of working in the credit union space?

DR: I love our place in the community. Our CEO goes to different county fairs and makes sure each 4H participant gets a fair price for their entry. We’ve spent $75,000 on these fairs, but the smiles on the participants’ faces are priceless. We’re the champions of the underdog and pride ourselves in making sure no one is left behind.

If you could give yourself advice on your first day at a credit union, what would it be?

DR: Don’t get too anxious to perform. Learn the culture of the credit union and look for ways where you can enhance it. Enjoy the ride. It’s a rewarding experience.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

What can you learn from like-minded leaders? Don Rositano’s path from Sam’s Club to credit union CFO is a reminder that the best strategic instincts often come from unexpected places. Callahan Roundtables put credit union finance executives in the same room to share what’s working, pose hard questions, and learn from peers navigating the same challenges. Learn more and register.

The post Insights From The Outside: Don Rositano appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

If there’s one person who knows the history at SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union ($36.7B, Tustin, CA), it’s Marina Miller. More than 40 years ago, when it was still known as Orange County Teachers Credit Union, she inquired about a summer job before college. She’s been there ever since.

Although opportunities just kept showing up, Miller says it’s the culture that has kept her there.

“We make a difference for the community members we serve, and serving the educational community is so impactful,” she says. “This is where I belong and where I can do the best work.”

For more than a decade, Miller has served as SchoolsFirst FCU’s vice president of history and culture, a job that connects her to the credit union’s roots and helps her educate others on where the credit union came from and where it’s going.

What is your elevator pitch when someone asks what you do?

Marina Miller: I’m responsible for ensuring our culture stays alive and our values are embedded into everything we do. I also get to work on finding ways to show appreciation for our team, so recognitions, rewards, and celebrations are hosted in my area. We know that if we take care of the team, they will take care of the members. That’s been our secret sauce.

We’re 92 years strong at this point. It’s important we understand where we came from so we know where we’re going. In our new corporate office, we dedicated a room to display the rich history and legacy of our credit union. We start with the beginning of the credit union movement and walk through the years of how SchoolsFirst FCU — then known as Orange County Teachers Credit Union — was formed and who our founding fathers were. We have wonderful pictures and artifacts built out in the space. It is an experience. All of our new hires go through it to understand where we’ve come from and what we’ve done.

What’s the story behind your title?

MM: Rudy Hanley was the CEO here for 32 years, and when he retired, he said the one thing that kept him up at night was wondering what was going to happen with the culture of the credit union. He led with a member-service focus, and that’s what we’re here for.

We took a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to keep our culture alive. He felt it was important to create a position, which is the position I’m in now, to preserve the history and culture for the credit union, and he felt I would be the person who could lead it. What an honor to have your CEO approach you and say, “I want to make sure our culture stays alive and that our history is always at the forefront, and I want you to lead that.”

It was an opportunity I could never say no to. I was flattered, and I hope I’ve made him proud. We’ve really grown the role, and it’s been infused into everything we do.

What makes your role interesting?

MM: To take our history and make it interesting and relevant to today in different ways has been exciting. I also lead the meeting and event technology side of the house, so we’ve been able to lean into video and technology for some of the learning tech. The more new ways to get our history in front of our team, the better. Especially now that we serve the whole state of California, folks don’t always have an opportunity to visit and explore our history room.

What part of your role energizes you? Conversely, what part challenges you the most?

MM: We serve four different generations of a workforce, and not everybody wants to be taught, recognized and celebrated in the same way. Finding ways to make those connections is a challenge, but I view it as a fun opportunity to make an impact at different levels. Trying to figure out what motivates and keeps team members engaged is interesting — you think you understand it until you don’t, and then you have to pivot.

For our Dream Team conference, an annual event celebrating all 3,000 team members at once, we needed new ways to make connections. We used to do in-person conferences, but today it’s hard to do that, so we had to find new ways to make it more engaging. We came up with an app where we can have interactive activities during the conference for team members to join remotely. That’s been different because we’re going from in-person to virtual but still engaging team members and ensuring they’re able to participate.

Are there any misconceptions about your role?

MM: People think we’re the party people; we’re always just having fun. Little do they know there’s a lot of work that goes into everything we do because everything has to be curated for the special activity or event to ensure alignment and at the same time, stay on budget. We’re very resourceful, and we have to get super creative which can be a challenge when planning over 50 events each year. Team members might not know all the details it takes to make everything come together; they just experience it when it’s pushed through.

What is the No. 1 skill you need to do your job?

MM: A passion to serve.

Could someone from outside the credit union step into this role?

MM: I don’t think you need tenure to be successful in this role. I took the responsibility of this role to a level where I would want to make Rudy Hanley proud. Everything I do is documented — we have photos, videos, we have storyboards, we have printed material about our history. If someone really wanted to be successful in this role, they could learn about it and become engrossed in it. If they have that passion to serve, they’ll figure it out.

Clearly, it would be easier if you knew a little about the credit union’s history, but you can learn that. The right person who has passion and creativity can be successful.

How does your role contribute to the success of the credit union in ways people might not expect?

MM: I have a team of four direct reports, two of whom assist me with organizational events and meetings, a manager who primarily oversees a team of 10 who runs our Dream Team Orientation and Service University, and a fourth person who supports our media and event technology. Our success is the fact that we help tell the credit union’s story. We build a foundation for incoming team members and we help tell the story through technology.

How do you define success in your role?

MM: Through our team-engagement scores and member-engagement scores. They’re outstanding — they’re top class. We try to get the pulse of our team on how they’re feeling, how engaged they are, and we have team members openly share if they have issues or concerns through our annual team engagement survey. We have a great recognition platform that we lead and host — called the Pulse, funnily enough — and our team members tell us how we’re doing.

If your role didn’t exist, what would your credit union be missing?

MM: I don’t know if we’d have as much of a focus on and respect for the past. In the next decade, there’s going to be so many tenured people, with so many years of credit union history who will be retiring and leaving the credit union in the hands of those who come behind us. It will be interesting to see whether it will continue in that same manner.

Why do credit unions need this role?

MM: We need to realize where we came from; some of those humble beginnings and how we made an impact on the lives we serve. We can shape our future with our past if we understand this is where we came from, this is what sets us up for success, and if we continue on this path, we’ll continue to grow and thrive. That says a lot about who we are. It’s all of those member stories and the impact we make in the school districts and the way we give back to the communities we serve. We are definitely here to serve our members, not ourselves, and people need to understand that difference.

What should people know about your role that you haven’t addressed already?

MM: Our stories and impact we make to the communities we serve extend beyond our doors. Whenever we need to rally on the legislative front, we have a story to tell and we’re ready to put it out in front of them. It’s not just internal, it’s about how we continue to stay at the forefront when it comes to the political scene.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Member engagement begins with employee empowerment. SchoolsFirst FCU’s investment in culture, from onboarding experiences to recognition programs, reflects what Gallup research confirms: when employees feel connected to the mission, they deliver experiences that build emotional trust and drive member loyalty. The Member Engagement & Financial Wellbeing Consortium helps credit unions activate this internal shift from the inside out. Learn more.

The post What’s In A Name: Vice President Of History And Culture appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

According to the LinkedIn Grad’s Guide 2026, hiring for entry-level roles is down roughly 7% year-over-year and remains below pre-pandemic levels. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports the unemployment rate rose to 5.8% at the end of 2025 for recent college graduates aged 22-27. At the same time, the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) projects employers will hire just 1.6% more new grads compared to 2025.

Nearly 70% of employers claim to take a skills-based approach to hiring, looking for a combination of internships, volunteer projects, freelance work, and personal projects that demonstrate applied skills and the ability to turn classroom learning into real-world experience. On the other hand, GPA is losing importance. Since 2019, the percentage of employers who screen graduate GPAs has fallen from 73% to 42%.

And when it comes to artificial intelligence, new grads face a quandary. Employers have expectations for how their staff uses AI but are still figuring out the specifics, according to Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at the job and internship platform Handshake. Still, a full 59% of respondents to a NACE research report claim they are not going to or are unsure if they will augment entry-level jobs with AI, whereas 25% are actively discussing their AI plans for entry-level roles. The same data finds approximately 13% of entry-level jobs require AI skills; 11% of those jobs include AI in their descriptions.

PROJECTED CHANGE IN NUMBER OF ENTRY-LEVEL COLLEGE HIRES
FOR U.S. EMPLOYERS, COLLEGE GRADUATES | DATA AS OF NOVEMBER 2025
SOURCE: National Association of Colleges & Employers Job Outlook 2026 Survey

To find a job, new graduates are using a combination of search methods. According to Metaintro, professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn remain the most widely used tools, whereas job seekers often drop campus-specific recruiting platforms after leaving school. Major job aggregators such as Indeed are useful for broad awareness and alerts for specific roles and locations. Metaintro claims industry-specific job boards and company career pages are underrated and can bear a disproportionately greater amount of fruit when compared to major aggregators. Pair all of the above with active, relationship-based networking and new grads can gain a leg up on their competition.

Strategic Insights

• The top five industries for projected hiring growth are: miscellaneous professional services; engineering services; construction; finance, insurance, and real estate; and management consulting. Healthcare, skilled trades, cybersecurity, and business operations are also active in hiring new grads.
• On the flip side, the 14% of employers who plan to decrease hiring in 2026 tend to represent: pharmaceutical manufacturing; transportation; wholesale trade; food and beverage manufacturing; and miscellaneous manufacturing. Hiring for the general tech industry also remains uneven.
• The share of fully hybrid jobs has declined in the past year, falling from 47% to 42%; the share of fully on-site jobs has risen from 43% to 48%. Fully remote jobs have held steady, comprising 10% of the market. Half of all entry-level positions require an in-person presence, whereas only 6% are fully remote.

How Can Credit Unions Support Entry-Level Job Seekers?

• Students across the country are moving into credit union internships. Such opportunities support the future of the industry while providing practical, real-world work experience for future job seekers. Read more in “From Internship To Credit Union Career.”
• Holy Rosary Credit Union has embedded itself into a local high school’s career and technical education program, offering scholarships, internships, and courses eligible for college credit. Read more in “Inside An In-School Model That Links Classrooms With Careers.”
• California Credit Union offers a summer internship program, and alumni have left their mark on the credit union’s operations. Read more in “Interns Inspire Innovation At California Credit Union.”

The post New Graduates Face A Cautious Job-Hiring Landscape appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Coffee at the branch and a friendly smile aren’t gonna cut it anymore. Members still appreciate those amenities, but just like low rates, low fees, and a top-tier digital experience, that’s all table stakes now.

Once a conversation centered on front-line service, member experience has become an enterprise-level responsibility shaped by digital channels, data, and rising expectations.

CreditUnions.com is all about member experience this week. In the days to come, keep your eyes peeled for:

• The three C’s of the modern call center.
• Six hot takes on MX from the leaders tasked with shaping it.
• How all-digital Alliant puts the human experience first.
• FORUM Credit Union’s approach to MX oversight that ensures nothing gets overlooked.
• Callahan Client Webinar: Learn how Travis Credit Union cut contact center wait times by 90% in less than a year. Register now.

Now it’s your turn. Simply put, what is your credit union doing to maximize member experience? Drop us a line, and we might feature your story on CreditUnions.com.

The post Coffee And A Smile? Not Good Enough. appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Top-Level Takeaways

• Teams that optimize in silos can degrade the overall member journey.
• When no one owns cross-team decisions, outcomes tend to default to the safest option — not the best one for members.
• Clear ownership aligns goals, data, and outcomes from dedicated teams.

Member experience doesn’t fall apart because teams don’t care; it breaks when no one owns the decisions that cut across them. Avoiding that reality is shaping the member journey at FORUM Credit Union ($2.3B, Fishers, IN).

According to Andrew Spirrison, FORUM’s chief member experience officer since February 2023, member experience used to mean the quality of front-line interactions but now includes onboarding, digital, service, retention, and more. A role that owns member experience today must be integrated across the organization’s operations and channels.

“The job is less about coaching tellers and more about partnering with teams across the credit union so the journey feels consistent end to end,” Spirrison says.

Consequently, member experience leaders must navigate a complex environment that requires them to connect decisions made in separate parts of the organization.

Shared Ownership, Fractured Experience

Distributed ownership can work, but complexity makes it harder, especially as more channels and systems shape the member journey in parallel rather than sequence.

It wasn’t too long ago that digital channels and capabilities were an add-on. Today, digital serves as the experience and expectation for most members, Spirrison says. As more teams influence a single journey, the risk rises that their efforts drift apart without clear coordination. Such fragmentation often happens quietly, as each team improves its own performance while unintentionally creating friction elsewhere in the experience.

“Without one clear owner — or small group of owners — overseeing the whole journey, each team can optimize their own piece while the end-to-end experience breaks down,” Spirrison says.

In effect, local gains can produce global inconsistencies when no one is accountable for stitching together digital, branch, payments, and service into a coherent whole.

The Tradeoffs No One Owns

As complexity grows, so do the number of decisions that don’t belong to any single team, particularly those that require balancing competing priorities.

“Many decisions involve tradeoffs,” Spirrison says. “Speed versus risk, personalization versus privacy, and cost versus experience.”

Without a clear owner, those decisions tend to stall or default to the safest path rather than the best one for members. In some scenarios, ambiguity in ownership doesn’t just delay progress but can actively degrade outcomes across both service and compliance. The result is slower execution and missed opportunities, even when every team is acting with the member in mind.

“When nobody clearly owns the decision, it can get lost in translation and result in a negative member and regulatory experience,” Spirrison says.

Requirements For Effective Shared Ownership

FORUM’s experience suggests shared ownership works best when paired with clear accountability, particularly around decisions that cut across organizational boundaries. A credit union can distribute responsibilities, but it also must define accountability for the end-to-end experience if it wants consistency across channels.

“Someone has to own the journey,” Spirrison says.

That clarity extends beyond structure into how the credit union makes, measures, and reinforces decisions through systems and data. Analytics play a big role here, and FORUM deploys three distinct streams — journey analytics, behavioral data, and real-time feedback loops.

• Journey Analytics — Using end-to-end experience data across a prioritized set of member journeys, including account opening and depository products, lending, and self-service account maintenance. “We employ this at FORUM across multiple business channels — deriving a suite of informational dashboards that are leveraged for key service, product, and delivery channel decision-making,” Spirrison says.
• Behavioral Data — Spotting patterns that drive personalization and flagging where members get stuck or drop off. “This defines our new partnership and implementation of a true digital and in-branch lending and new account experience,” Spirrison says. “This includes interactive journey reporting to promptly detect and address journey bottlenecks.”
• Real-Time Feedback Loops — Using survey results, complaints, abandonment, decisioning signals, and more to surface and address issues while they still matter. “Similar to above plus acting on what you are hearing and seeing while it still matters,” Spirrison says.

The veteran experience and retail manager adds that the scorecard has grown beyond Net Promoter Score to include effort scores, digital adoption, new account application pull-through success rate, churn risk, active checking percentages, and overall membership and account lifetime value.

Altogether, he says, this comprehensive tracking of end-to-end experience data across a prioritized set of member journeys helps teams align around shared outcomes rather than isolated metrics and makes it easier to detect fragmentation.

What’s Next For MX?

Looking ahead, member experience leadership roles are set to continue to expand as member expectations rise and competition broadens beyond traditional peers into fintechs and digital-first platforms. Spirrison points to enhanced AI service and personalization presented in a localized, member-centric way as one of several areas shaping how member experience will evolve in the near future.

At the same time, MX leadership roles are becoming more proactive, focused on anticipating needs rather than reacting to them after friction appears. Such an approach can solve problems before members notice them.

Of course, as visibility increases, the experience function is also integrating more deeply into strategy and governance, with clearer ties to growth. Ultimately, the trajectory reflects a broader change in how credit unions think about member experience as a function of leadership and execution.

“The role has moved from ‘make service better’ to ‘design and run the member experience as a growth engine,’” Spirrison says.

That shift reinforces the central idea that ownership, not just intent, determines whether a distributed model delivers consistency or fragmentation.

“Some institutions can spread CMXO responsibilities across leaders and still make it work,” Spirrison says. “But when there is no one accountable owner, the common failure mode is fragmentation: handoffs get messy, decisions slow down, and accountability blurs.”

Instead, he says, credit unions that treat the member experience as a true cross-functional strategy will move faster while remaining more consistent. That’s when managing the member journey becomes less about owning service and more about making everything members and employees touch feel connected.

The post When Everyone Owns The Member Experience, No One Does appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

The contact center at University Federal Credit Union ($4.2B, Austin, TX), splits approximately 65 employees between phone and digital channels. As part of the member service department, the contact center is evolving along with the larger institution.

“Our headcount depends on where the organization is with our digital and self-service tools,” says Becca Pike, director of member services. “We’re still building the foundation of our digital transformation, so our headcount is fairly consistent today with what it has been historically, although I see that shifting as we see what volumes come in through which channels.”

UFCU typically starts all contact center staff in the phone channel so they can build a solid understanding of the organization’s systems and its sales and service model. As employees build on that foundation, gain confidence, and learn to appreciate the empathy needed, they can then shift to digital channels.

Similarly, GreenState Credit Union ($11.2B, North Liberty, IA) splits its team of 60 between phone and digital channels, with the latter group focused on chat, email, and ITM service. The credit union serves more than 400,000 members across branches in three states; the contact center alone supports approximately 50,000 interactions each month.

Staffing is split roughly 60/40 based on where the growth is at any given time. If the credit union is deploying ITMs, for example, it’s likely to increased hiring on the digital side. If it has released new products and expects an influx of phone calls, it’s likely to staff up the call side.

To create pathways for advancement and avoid turnover, GreenState employs three levels of contact center specialists that take on higher-risk tasks — from credit card advances and mortgage and wire calls to eventually call monitoring, quality assurance, training, and more. And to reassure staff that AI and automation won’t be taking their jobs, GreenState is upskilling specialists for more complex needs beyond what is now level three.

“Our North Star is always going to be member experience and reducing friction, but our star right next to it is employee engagement,” says Amy Stevens, senior vice president of member experience.

Out west, Desert Financial Credit Union ($9.5B, Phoenix, AZ) has slightly more than 150 contact center employees to serve its more than 500,000 members. It divides that group into four different teams, including service — which is the largest group with the highest turnover — sales, digital, and member loyalty. That latter is focused on member retention.

Desert Financial expects the sales team to generate at least four times the monthly revenue of a branch salesperson, and the contact center drives approximately 60% of the credit union’s lending support. Christina Mijares, assistant vice president of the member engagement center, staffs for specific teams and says moving to a universal model would change staffing needs for the entire contact center.

Integration And Food For Thought

Contact center leaders often struggle to help their staff members feel they are a part of rather than apart from the rest of the organization.

GreenState runs a relatively lean team, and Stevens says she has “lots of champions embedded in business units” across the credit union, which ensures the executive leadership team knows what’s happening in the contact center.

Stevens’ team also has monthly liaison meetings with cards, marketing, collections, and other departments to understand what’s happening in those areas. That not only keeps the contact center up to date but also creates growth and integration opportunities for those employees. Executive leadership also listens to calls every month to get a sense of what members are reaching out about.

“Senior leadership gives a lot of shout outs to this team, and it wasn’t always this way,” Stevens says. “Contact centers can have a negative connotation, and we’ve been able to garner respect.”

At UFCU, Pike says there’s a clear understanding that the contact center is the intake for the credit union.

“We’re the place people go if and when a journey broke,” she says.

That requires a high level of awareness about what’s going on across the organization. If members reach out and the contact center doesn’t know what’s going on, that doesn’t instill a high level of confidence, the director says.

To mitigate that risk, contact center leaders regularly meet with staff in key departments. For example, they meet monthly with branch and payments leaders because service inquiries frequently relate to those departments.

Desert Financial’s quarterly “Food For Thought” sessions bring in senior leaders across different departments to eat lunch and observe the contact center to gain a better understanding of how their work affects the contact center.

“Doing that repetitively and being consistent about it has created more awareness,” Mijares says.

A quarterly contact center newsletter also helps keep the entire institution informed about what’s happening there, and Mijares makes sure to mix data with photos to deepen the connection to the center.

Building Culture

The cadence of contact center work is different from the branches or back office, where there are more opportunities for employes to chat and form relationships. Because the contact center has a much faster rhythm, Mijares says she’s intentional about building a culture that matches the rest of the organization yet support contact center requirements.

“You cannot overstate how critical that onboarding process is,” she says. “It’s uncomfortable for people to take a call, have no idea what it’s going to be, and be unprepared. The call center onboarding experience is a game changer. It’s make or break.”

Since staffing the contact center can often feel like running a complaint line, UFCU’s Pike says internal culture is important.

“All of us are in it together,” she says. “How we support one another — from phone reps to leadership — is a crucial part of how we’re empowered to solve issues.”

No matter how technology, consumer preferences, or regulatory agendas change, Stevens at GreenState says culture and a laser focus on the member-service mission is critical.

“As long as you have that, you can weather whatever changes you go through,” she says. “The people on the team need the mindset that we’re going to collect feedback, do something about the feedback, and improve on that while at the same time ensuring the member that their voice was heard.”

The post The 3 C’s Of Contact Center Success appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Completed in 2021, the Texas cooperative’s headquarters is a monument to modern sustainability, with water capture and reuse, solar panels, and geothermal energy. The three-acre property offers 52% more square feet of space than the old HQ at a 90% reduced utility cost, using roughly the same amount of water as two families of four. The building has drawn enough interest to warrant its own website, offering a behind-the-scenes look at its design and performance, and the credit union regularly hosts tours for stakeholders, students, and community groups interested in sustainable development.

Credit Human’s 200,000-square-foot headquarters building spans 12 floors. It includes four levels of parking and supports 500 employees.

Two “living walls” of plants greet staff and visitors on the first and fifth floors of Credit Human's HQ. The credit union reclaimed most of the wood used in the building from buildings in San Antonio.

The building uses 97% less potable water than a typical commercial building. Tanks above and below ground can hold 140,000 gallons of rainwater, which the credit union filters and uses to flush toilets and irrigate.

Going Green From Construction To Culture

Sustainability is a key focus at Credit Human — the credit union has worked since 2019 to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 81% — yet the catalyst for the new HQ came down to operations.

Before moving into its current building, Credit Human operated two corporate offices in San Antonio. Leadership needed a unified footprint and additional space as the organization grew, turning their sights toward downtown. After a lengthy search, it selected a new address: 1703 Broadway.

That location, however, wasn’t just about square footage. Credit Human developed the building in partnership with Silver Ventures as part of a broader Class A office complex known as the Broadway Office Development. The site sits adjacent to Pearl, a 23-acre mixed-use redevelopment built on the former Pearl Brewery site just north of downtown San Antonio, one of the city’s most visible examples of urban revitalization.

Public-sector collaboration played a key role in bringing the project to life. The City of San Antonio and Bexar County provided financial support for infrastructure improvements, including upgraded intersections, expanded sidewalks and bike lanes, new green spaces, and a public parking garage. Credit Human also partnered with the San Antonio River Authority to incorporate low-impact development strategies that filter and manage stormwater runoff before it reaches the San Antonio River.

Although the building boasts cutting-edge features, leaders emphasize that its innovation lies in the way its systems work together.

“The majority of the technologies that we have in this building are 10 years old or more,” says Francisco Manon, senior manager of support services at Credit Human. “But making multiple building systems work together under one coordinated design hadn’t been done to this degree in the region.”

That level of integration introduced real-world friction during construction. Manon and his team navigated challenges with city inspectors who were unfamiliar with some of the interconnected systems, and the project — like nearly everything else at the time — faced pandemic-related supply chain delays.

Yet the greatest obstacle wasn’t technical. According to Beth Keel, sustainability programs manager, the real work was in getting stakeholders to think differently.

“The biggest challenge was a cultural change rather than technical,” she says. “We needed to help stakeholders move from thinking ‘we’ve always done it this way’ to asking what’s possible.”

One person already on board with the new approach was CEO Steve Hennigan.

“This is something our CEO started talking about six years before we started designing or selecting a property,” Manon says. “He wanted to do whatever was theoretically possible in this building.”

When it came time to move employees into the building, the organization adopted a deliberate onboarding process to teach employees how to operate in their new workspace, from sorting trash, composting, and recycling to eliminating single-use plastics and even removing vending machines and soda.

Keel continues pushing that cultural shift with ongoing education.

“I do lunch and learns every quarter,” she says. “We bring in partners like CPS Energy or SARA, the San Antonio River Authority, to educate our staff not only on greenhouse gas emissions but also what’s possible for their own homes and communities.”

Manon echoed that employee engagement is essential. Sustainability investments won’t perform as designed if the people using the building don’t participate.

Sustainability Is Good Financial Sense

Operating green isn’t just good for the environment, it can benefit the balance sheet, too. The same systems that reduce emissions also reduce operating costs, which creates a path for more investment.

“We have proved that not only is it good for the environment, but it makes financial sense,” Manon says. “We created a revolving fund and reinvest all the savings we produce with these kinds of investments into more projects.”

Manon ties the approach to measurable targets and long-term planning. For example, Credit Human has an organizational goal to reduce its emissions based on previous buildings up to 75% by 2030.

The financial framing also shows up in projects beyond its own headquarters.

“We’re installing solar arrays even in the new financial health centers, which normally are leased space,” he says. “We know we’re going to recoup that investment in six to seven years.” Looking ahead, Credit Human is in the design phase of a 100-year-old building in New Orleans, where the credit union believes it can target net zero despite the complexity of renovating a historic structure.

A Continued Ripple Effect

In addition to encouraging lifestyle changes among its staff, Credit Human has rolled out eco-friendly products for members.

The cooperative has a sustainable home lending program focused on geothermal, solar, water, and other home upgrades and has helped match homeowners with trusted companies, which leaders describe as a “high point” borrowers point to. As Credit Human invests in sustainability, leaders argue that members are poised to benefit.

Closer to home, the impact of the headquarters extends beyond its walls. Since opening, the Financial Health Center at 1703 Broadway has recorded increased foot traffic, new member accounts, and deposit growth as well as helped expand community partnerships. The building also includes a community room available free of charge to local nonprofits, reinforcing its role as a shared resource within a rapidly developing corridor.

Ultimately, Credit Human’s headquarters is an example of sustainability as an operational strategy rather than a marketing move. The building’s specs are impressive, but the team’s most significant insights for other credit unions are more about execution:

1. Don’t cap ambition by designing to the minimum standard and build for integration.
2. Plan for a culture change and invest in employee engagement.
3. Frame the ROI like a long-term owner, not a short-term builder.

The post Credit Human Redefines ‘Green’ In The Heart Of Texas appeared first on CreditUnions.com.