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.

For the past 20 years, Holy Rosary Credit Union ($487.1M, Rochester, NH) has operated a career and technical education (CTE) banking program at Spaulding High School through the Richard W. Creteau Regional Technology Center, pairing classroom instruction with an on‑campus branch. This year, enrollment is at full capacity. There’s even a waitlist.

But it wasn’t always that way.

The New Hampshire cooperative made some changes due to the impact of COVID. Because the program relies heavily on hands-on instruction, a staffing gap and lack of in-person instruction put its future at risk. Five years ago, Carlynne Pouliot, who was at the time assistant vice president of financial services, stepped in to rebuild the program. Today, it’s on firmer footing.

“It’s really evolved in the past four years,” Pouliot says. “This is our most successful year since the pandemic.”

According to Pouliot, who is now vice president of retail and business development, student feedback and a deeper relationship with school administration has helped strengthen the program. The biggest factor, however, was finding the right teacher.

“I have the best students,” says Kayleigh Erwin, who has run the program for two years. “Yes, they can be a little silly. Of course, they’re high schoolers, but they are still hardworking.”

Real World Experience Is The Differentiator

Sometimes, the best way to learn is by doing. HRCU’s flagship course is Banking & Financial Support Services, a year-long course that blends financial literacy with workforce development.

In the classroom, students cover personal finance topics such as budgeting, saving, and investing while also learning about banking regulations and working with members.

“The first month is learning cash handling, confidentiality, and our teller system,” Erwin says. “Even if they don’t go into banking, it’s usually their first customer service experience.”

The on-campus branch is open three days a week, and each student is assigned one shift per week as a part of their instruction. There, they handle real member transactions with the same systems tellers use in all HRCU branches. Additionally, students in the Hoy Rosary banking program have the opportunity to earn college credit.

“Students in the tech center can earn three free college credits, so this helps them save money,” Erwin says.

Last year, Erwin worked with Great Bay Community College, submitting her credentials and curriculum for approval. Now her class counts as ECON 225 Personal Finance (worth three credits).

Pouliot says this helps to further connect academics with real-world careers.

“Research shows students who earn college credits in high school are more likely to enroll, stay enrolled, and graduate,” she says.

Students in the year-long program can also earn a $750 scholarship from HRCU based on their performance.

Students who might not want to commit to a year-long class have the option to take Introduction to Banking. This eight-week feeder course for the main program covers the same personal finance topics but offers a more general overview of banking concepts and industry basics, such as the history of the credit union movement. The shorter format lowers the barrier to entry and has proved to be popular.

“It increased enrollment,” Pouliot says. “Next year we expect 20 students, split into two classes. We have already filled next year’s program.”

Student Growth. New Opportunities.

The program’s growth and popularity has enabled HRCU to offer an expanded extended learning opportunity (ELO) this year. This advanced, individualized experience is designed to allow select students to take full ownership of branch operations.

“One of our students this year will be an intern next year running the branch for a dedicated class period,” Pouliot says. “She’ll have a job description role responsibilities. We’re fully confident in her skills.”

Responsibilities include opening the branch, managing a cash drawer, and handling day-to-day operations on their own. The role also extends beyond the classroom, incorporating a paid internship component during both the school year and summer.

What sets the ELO apart is it’s fully self-directed.

“There is no curriculum,” Pouliot says. “We create a job description, they come into the role, and then they self-operate. They have to connect back to the ELO director about their training, their experiences, and the projects they’re working on.”

The credit union trusts these students to operate at a professional level, making this the highest tier of responsibility within the program and a direct bridge to workforce readiness. Moving forward, HRCU hopes to expand this offering to accommodate more students in the future.

Enrollment and participation are important success metrics for these courses, however HRCU also monitors branch usage, account openings, and how effective the program is as an opportunity to help students adapt into the career world.

In regard to that last item, the credit union has multiple success stories, including one from several years ago in which a former student stuck with banking and eventually returned to work at HRCU as its consumer lending manager. According to Pouliot, they remain in the industry to this day after moving to a different state.

More recently, a student who graduated from the program last year as a senior is now working full-time in the credit union’s main office.

“We also hired a part-time student from our program last year,” Pouliot says. “He’s in his junior year of high school, so he works with us every Saturday.”

Evolution Based On Student Voices

Perhaps the biggest reason the banking program is so popular is the fact that student feedback plays such a major role, not just in how HRCU structures classes but in how it approaches youth banking overall. This year, HRCU established an annual volunteer student focus group open to all students.

Pouliot says it’s been an invaluable resource.

“Every piece of data we’ve got from those focus groups we’ve put into play,” the VP says. “Now, marketing and I can present to our executive team about how we can restructure our teen accounts based on the feedback we’re receiving from those focus groups.”

Student insights support services, too, not just products. For example, students told HRCU they wanted to know more about budgeting, so the credit union is hosting a seminar on the subject in May just for them. Erwin says there’s a strong interest in how savings and credit work, and she receives several questions about how students can get the most out of their money. She also says students are a lot more engaged than some might think.

“There’s a misconception that students aren’t motivated, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says. “They want to learn, attend college, and give back. They challenge themselves. They hold jobs while balancing CTE, clubs, and volunteer work. They are working.”

Hands-On And All-In

Pouliot says HRCU’s banking program relies heavily on participation from credit union leadership and strong integration with Spaulding High School and the surrounding community.

“Our board is hands-on,” she says. “We have our chair of the board, our vice chair of the board, and another board member who attend the focus groups. When we do donations at the school, the board comes.”

The credit union also hosts panels with employees from different departments so students can see different career paths that are available.

“We invite the business program, the marketing program, and our banking program,” Pouliot says. “It’s a well-rounded panel.”

The value of a strong relationship with school administrators also cannot be understated.

“Anytime we have challenges, we go to the school administration,” Pouliot says. “There’s a director of the CTE and she really helps us create our partnership. We work together as one big team.”

HRCU even attends open houses and orientations for incoming eighth graders, and credit union staff are regulars at events like fundraisers and sports games.

Concern for community is one of the industry’s cooperative principles, and it’s one HRCU emphasizes when working within the school. For example, after learning how many students rely on a local food pantry, the credit union and its student participants began making regular contributions, including organizing donations and physically helping stock it. Students also attend community events the credit union is involved in.

“They’re giving back to their peers, and they value it,” Pouliot says. “They embrace the community impact of the credit union, and that’s huge.”

The post Inside An In-School Model That Links Classrooms With College And Careers appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Every year, the Callahan team travels the country convening credit union leaders. Inevitably, one question comes up again and again: What are you hearing? Where are other executives focused right now?

It is a fair question. Change is constant, and leaders want to understand how peers are navigating it. Drawing on hundreds of strategic planning sessions, roundtables, and conversations with credit union executives, Callahan has identified six clear priorities guiding credit unions’ work in 2026.

These are not predictions. They are reflections of where executive teams are already investing their time, energy, and attention.

1. Growth Mindset

More than any single strategy, executives are emphasizing a growth mindset. This shows up in how leaders think about expansion, innovation, and relevance.

Organic growth through deepening member relationships as well as attracting new members through branches and digital channels remains a major focus, particularly as competition intensifies. Inorganic strategies such as mergers and indirect lending continue to play a role, too. Physical expansion and new-market entry is also back in the conversation, with many credit unions planning new branches in 2026. Increasingly, digital transformation ties these efforts together, reinforcing growth as both a mindset and a long-term discipline. ,

2. Tech Focus

Technology is no longer a differentiator on its own. Executives recognize that without continued advancement, credit unions risk falling behind.

We are hearing consistent focus on fintech partnerships, AI enablement, digital experience optimization, data analytics, and cybersecurity. The challenge is not in deciding whether to invest but in determining where technology creates real value for members and the organization.

3. People First

As the workforce evolves, leadership teams are placing renewed emphasis on succession planning and leadership development. Many credit unions are asking hard questions about who will lead next and how they are preparing those leaders today. Strong strategy requires strong leadership, and executives are investing accordingly, knowing that talent and culture remain critical long-term advantages.

4. Money Movement

Payments and money movement are rising quickly on executive agendas. At recent roundtables, topics like real-time payments and stablecoin generated significant interest. The underlying question is simple but important: how can credit unions help members move money quickly, securely, and with minimal friction in an expanding payments landscape? At stake is whether credit unions remain the primary hub for how and where members move their money.

5. Community Development

Leaders are viewing community development less as a set of programs and more as a strategic imperative. Executives are focused on understanding evolving community needs, forming meaningful partnerships, and aligning resources where they can make the greatest impact. The goal is not just to participate in the community, it’s to become indispensable to the communities credit unions serve.

6. Mission/Emotion

The final priority is perhaps the hardest to define; it’s also one of the most powerful.

Mission emotion is about leading with purpose and telling a clear story about impact. Executives are asking how they communicate their “why” in a way that resonates with members, employees, and communities. Just as important, they are questioning how to measure success and looking beyond traditional metrics to better capture the real value credit unions create.

Taken together, these six priorities point to an industry that is asking smarter questions and thinking more intentionally about the future. Credit unions are connecting strategy, performance, and purpose in new ways — and that is encouraging to see.

As always, these insights are shaped by the conversations we are fortunate to take part in every day. Watch for future articles on CreditUnions.com that delve deeper into these topics as well as continued examination in our webinars, roundtables, speaking engagements, and more. We look forward to continuing the dialogue and learning from the leaders who are shaping what comes next for our industry.

No matter where you are on your journey, Callahan’s facilitators can help. Whether your credit union is navigating one or many of these priorities, Callahan can facilitate the conversation and empower your stakeholders with the data and insights to drive you forward. With more than 180 years of collective experience, we provide the guidance and support you need to ensure your team is aligned, your strategy is clear, and your goals are within reach. Learn more today.

The post 6 Credit Union Executive Priorities For 2026 appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

It’s like we put all these awesome ingredients in the oven and the cake is starting to rise. I think it’s gonna taste pretty good when it comes out fully baked.

Dave Widener had two dreams as a kid: to make maps and live in Maine. Flash forward a few decades and, in a roundabout way, he’s doing both.

As a kid growing up in Ohio, Widener loved maps and dreamed of living in Maine. After college he worked briefly with legendary mapmakers Rand McNally. Today, he lives in Portland, Maine, and commutes into New Hampshire for Service Credit Union ($6.5B, Portsmouth, NH). There, he serves as assistant vice president of member insights, overseeing strategy management and the organization’s member-engagement program.

Put another way, he’s designing member experience maps to help the credit union reach its long-term goals.

Widener spent his career up until 2022 largely in IT and project management, but he’s a full convert to the credit union cause today.

“I wish I had found the credit union movement earlier in my career,” he says. “I’ve never felt more passionate about what I’m doing.”

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

Dave Widener: I make sure what we’re doing is focused not just on our sustainable growth, but on the best outcome for our members. It’s almost the triple bottom line of doing well by doing good. That’s the credit union model, the more we do well for our members, the better we do.

What’s the story behind your title?

DW: I came from IT, I have a project-management background, and I was a business analyst at one point, so understanding processes and how to build alignment and shared purpose really came to bear here. I’ve always had a strategic mindset, so when Michael [Dvorak, CFO] said, “I want to build this function with you helping lead it,” I couldn’t say no.

What makes your role interesting?

DW: We needed some way to centralize what we’re doing with strategy, and although we’ve got more work to do, I see so much more purpose and alignment than we had before. Even though it can feel messy, we’re becoming that unified team we always knew we could be.

It’s like we put all these awesome ingredients in the oven and the cake is starting to rise. I think it’s gonna taste pretty good when it comes out fully baked.

What part of your role energizes you?

DW: I love a good problem to solve. Over my career I’ve been given things that couldn’t be fixed and I’ve fixed them, so I’ve never run from those challenges. I see these construction signs on the way to work that say, “Bridge work in progress,” and that’s what we’re doing — we’re creating bridges to the future and bridges between people and processes and member experience. Once these bridges are built, folks are walking across them and using them, and that’s when the engagement really starts.

What part challenges you the most?

DW: Historically we’ve been an organization whose heart has been in the right place. We love saying yes to things but then not understanding, respectfully, the difficulty of making them stick. I think a lot of folks saw the strategy office like this, so the winds were definitely against us. Year One was not easy.

Now we’ve brought in our chiefs as our steering committee, which has created this resurgence of belief. What we’re seeing now is this doesn’t need to be the latest flavor of the day. This can be something that sustains us into the future. The model is sound, the results are sound, and we have fantastic human potential we are beginning to powerfully capitalize on.

What did it take to get buy-in and start things moving in the right direction?

DW: It doesn’t matter what role they play, the more folks who can take on a role and see their work contributes to a metric that leads up to our team performance goals, the better we get. We’re creating successes, so folks on the sideline can say, “I want to be part of that team.”

What’s the biggest misconception about your role?

DW: Strategy isn’t one person’s role. If you’re the bridge builder and the dot connector, that’s a key role of strategy. But strategy belongs to everybody, just like the member journey and experience belongs to everybody. One person can’t represent that, but one person can help create movement and start the fire that spreads.

I like being a champion, but I don’t need the credit. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be paid and feel appreciated, but the work is what inspires me. The less we talk about Dave and the more we talk about our strategy and our members, the more we win.

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

DW: Listening is most important. We all have egos, it’s impossible to blot that out completely, but we do our best to keep the ego at the door because we have to hear things we don’t want to hear, and we need to listen to things we don’t necessarily want to in order to be truly great.

My boss tells me you have to be willing to weather the detractors because if you let every piece of constructive or even negative feedback sink your ship, you’re not going to be successful. You have to believe in the vision and allow the critical stuff you need to hear to get through your filter, but don’t let that tell you that who you are and what you’re doing is wrong.

What skill do you wish you had or had more of for your job? 

DW: I wish I had a few more years under my belt with the cooperative movement. I don’t have the national relationships that some folks have. I had experience in the FI space early in my career and then spent time in life sciences and gaming and energy. I’m just getting back into the FI space, so that’s probably one of my larger deficits.

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

DW: The direct things are bottom-line and member experience related, but what I see happening is a real aligning of our collective mind, hands, and hearts in a way that I have not seen since joining. To see the organization start to come together even though it’s uncomfortable and a bit messy, folks rolling up their sleeves as one team — this has started to become a movement. We’re building this corporate culture that is cohesive and supportive and is going to get us not just to $10 billion but to $20 billion and beyond.

Job titles say as much about the organization as they do the person. “What’s In A Name” on CreditUnions.com dives into notable, important, interesting, or just plain fun roles to find out what’s happening at the ground level and across the industry. Read the series today.

How do you define success in your role?

DW: Our growth targets are clear. We’re looking for those member outcomes that would be noticed as best in class. That’s quantifiable, but how we get there is the real thing we have to be mindful of.

What I see is an evolution of our culture. When everyone owns the strategy and member experience — turning “I” into a “We” that is strong and steadfast, even though it takes constant nurturing and care and feeding — that’s what success looks like. That kind of collective spirit and energy can get us through anything. That’s what creates the sustainability not just for our bottom line, but for our members’ long-term outcomes as well.

When does a credit union need this role?

DW: If this were easy, we’d all be playing golf and the credit union would run itself. Even though a lot of these concepts are Business 101 blended with a member-focused heart, it takes a lot of consistent work and dedication to make things seem simple create dramatic outcomes. That’s what we’re aiming for.

It’s easy to think about a future outcome or growth number, and that might provoke the need for a strategic function. But what’s more critical even is what happens when we get there. Are we prepared from a people, process, and technology perspective? That’s when that “Eureka!” moment happens. That helps build the call to action for a cogent and executable road map, and we can’t wait “until we get there” for that. There’s no size that’s too big or small to think, “What happens when we’re lucky enough to realize our goals?”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

When members know you care, they stay. Gallup research shows emotionally engaged members stay longer, own more products, and contribute more business on high-value offerings. That kind of engagement doesn’t happen by accident — it happens by design. Callahan and Gallup equip credit unions to spark behavior change that improves financial wellbeing and drives sustainable growth. Learn more today.

The post What’s In A Name: AVP Of Member Insights appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

As CEO retirements and succession announcements continue to appear frequently in industry news, it’s clear that one size does not fit all in terms of compensation philosophies or executive benefits plans.

Before diving into specific plans, boards should start by defining the goal  —  for both the credit union and the executive. A brand-new CEO who is in their 40s will likely be motivated by a plan that looks very different from what a long-term CEO who is much closer to retirement finds attractive.

Who Is Involved In The Process?

To be successful, credit unions should ensure that executives are part of the process. While the board of directors must ultimately make the decisions on a CEO’s compensation package, involving the CEO in initial discussions to gain an understanding of what would be most meaningful to them is invaluable.

At the end of the day these plans are meant to be retentive, and if one party’s objectives are not met, the plan may not function effectively as designed.

What Are The Blind Spots?

Some of the most common compensation blind spots we see within the industry can be easily avoided through effective planning and high-quality conversations. A few of these proactive steps include focusing on purpose alignment, investing in board member education, benchmarking against your peers, and understanding potential hidden costs. Siloed decisioning, which refers to only discussing and deciding a time-based Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP) versus including the entire compensation framework for the CEO, executives and other key roles, is also a potential pitfall to avoid.

As cooperatives focus on retaining, rewarding, and recruiting top talent, it’s essential that they avoid such blind spots and understand current candidate expectations to remain competitive.

What Are The Current Trends?

A SERP is now table stakes when recruiting a new CEO, with an expectation that a plan will be in place within their first 12 months of employment. Increasingly, SERPs are also an expectation of other C-suite candidates. Benefits like these are a key part of what attracts high performers to new opportunities or helps retain them.

The most common types of SERPs are 457(f) plans and split-dollar. Designed strategically, these can be effective retention and recruitment tools. To truly understand the pros and cons of the many options available, you may want to enlist the help of a benefit design specialist to create a new plan or enhance an existing one.  Design specialists can help reveal nuances such as preferences for long term or short term retention, upcoming life events to help design plans, and other factors to ensure the plan has the intended effect.

How Can A Credit Union Align On The Goal?

The following key questions can help boards, CEOs, and plan partners begin to align while ensuring a balanced approach that reinforces long-term stability:

1. Define the primary objective of the plan — Is the goal long-term retention, retirement security, short term?
2. Ensure the benefit is meaningful enough to achieve the goal — If the value is too small, it will not be an effective retention tool. How will you determine the benefit?
3. Create a mutually beneficial structure — The plan should reward the executive while aligning with the credit union’s long-term success and financial capacity.
4. Determine the desired retention horizon — Identify the specific timeframe the organization wants to encourage the executive to remain (e.g., five, 10, or retirement).
5. Align on vesting and payout triggers — What milestones (years of service, retirement, performance, etc.) must be met for benefits to be earned?
6. Balance competitiveness and stewardship — Benefits should be competitive with the market while remaining responsible to members and the institution.
7. Confirm long-term organizational alignment — The plan should reinforce leadership continuity and strategic stability.

Remember, Flexibility Is The Name Of The Game

Compensation philosophies and executive benefits plans can be flexible in their design. Employers have the discretion to structure their philosophical approaches, policies, and specific plans in ways that align with the organization’s goals and the needs of the executives.

Executive benefits plans should complement existing incentive structures and take both individual and organizational objectives and time horizons into account. The financial impact of the plan, on both the credit union and the individual, should also be considered. This includes P&L, cash flow, executive taxation, potential excise tax to the credit union, and the long-term nature of cost recovery strategies. A trusted plan design specialist can help your credit union understand all its options and customize executive benefits plans to align with organizational goals while retaining key executives.

Contact us to learn more about how to evaluate and enhance your executive compensation and benefits package.

Tom Sievewright is director of executive benefits at ALM First Executive Benefits.

“ALM First” is a brand name for a financial services business conducted by ALM First Group, LLC (“ALM First”) through its wholly owned subsidiaries: ALM First Financial Advisors, LLC (“ALM First Financial Advisors”); ALM First Advisors, LLC (“ALM First Advisors”); ALM First Analytics, LLC (“ALM First Analytics”) and ALM First Executive Benefits, LLC (“ALM First Executive Benefits”). Executive benefit services offered exclusively through ALM First Executive Benefits.

The content in this message is provided for informational and educational purposes only.

The post How Compensation Blind Spots Impact CEO Retention And Succession appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Most people wouldn’t take a road trip without putting on their seatbelt first. Simone Suri wants credit unions to take the same approach with their AI journeys.

Suri is chief administrative officer and general counsel at Members Cooperative Credit Union ($1.2B, Duluth, MN). The cooperative started using artificial intelligence in earnest about a year ago, but leadership didn’t just hand over access and let staff loose. Rather, it grants access on a case-by-case basis to employees who request it. Employees with approval may use only the credit union’s licensed Microsoft Copilot, and they cannot submit member data into the tool.

“We don’t want people going to ChatGPT because we have no idea what’s going to happen to that data,” Suri says. “The idea is to use a tool where the data will remain safe. We want our data in a more controlled environment.”

Members Cooperative’s approach to AI revolves around a robust internal policy that provides guardrails for usage. That starts with a risk assessment and written documentation that details for all users when, where, and how they can use AI. Such documentation protects the credit union, staff, and members alike. Although most employees are excited about using AI, Suri says, most people don’t have a technology background. Having a policy like this in place is crucial for helping them understand the opportunities they can leverage as well as what to avoid.

“Anytime new technology and data is involved, we need to take a second and understand not only the benefits but also the risks and how we navigate those risks so we can get the benefits without compromising the security of our data,” Suri says. “This has to be a no-compromise situation.”

The Use Cases

Members Cooperative selected Copilot because of its security, data protections, and integration capabilities with the credit union’s existing tools, Suri says. Although the credit union does not allow member data in AI — which largely rules out use cases for member-facing staff — Suri says there are many ways AI drives back-office efficiencies. But even then, there are guardrails. Associates must disclose when they use AI, and human oversight is required, given AI’s propensity to make mistakes.

“You can’t assume everything coming out of an AI tool is like punching in two times two on a calculator and the answer is always four,” Suri says. “You really need to look at those results and validate them. We’ve had situations where information hasn’t been accurate. Most recently, I found that people like to put legal questions into AI. Again, you have to think about where AI is generating its answers. The information isn’t coming from an attorney on the other side of the wires answering your question. It’s pulling from all of these different databases, some of which are outdated or old or just might be illegitimate. At the same time, AI may be pulling from sources that are amazing and incredibly accurate, but you still need that human oversight.”

So what are the use cases at Members Cooperative? Like other credit unions, it is still figuring that out. But Suri says inputting existing policies into a licensed AI tool can help improve those policies, whether by making them more concise or uncovering gaps. Similarly, AI could conduct market research or even provide a starting point to draft an AI usage policy. One key, she notes, is the prompts that go into AI. The better the prompts, the better the outcomes.

“Each organization needs to figure out where its comfort level is,” she says. “Some studies have shown we’re not getting the efficiencies we think we’re getting.”

Best Practice: AI tools are everywhere — even Google’s first results are frequently an AI summary. Suri suggests closing off access to public AI sites on all credit union-owned computers. Doing so encourages employees to use credit union-licensed services and steers users away from potentially less secure tools. Plus, she adds, many credit unions are moving in that direction.

The Balancing Act

Suri acknowledges there’s a balancing act between empowering employees and exercising caution. The key, she says, is education. Leaders must ensure organizations are discussing the risks and advantages of AI, identifying use cases, and recognizing how those use cases might vary by department. What’s most important is to keep the conversation going.

“The biggest problem you’re seeing in credit union land today is we know AI is there and people are excited but not talking about how to use it safely,” she says. “Or we talk about a risk once and then not again for six months.”

Risk assessments and robust governance around AI can help alleviate the concern in departments like risk and IT, in part because that kind of documentation provides clear, objective guidance on do’s and don’ts.

“It allows you to recognize risks and contemplate what you’re willing to accept,” Suri says. “What risks are appropriate given the risk appetite of the credit union and which are not? Going through the process in a methodical way like a risk assessment makes it less personal. But you’ve got to have enough knowledge on both sides to have those tough conversations and work through those risks.”

In addition to clear standards for employees, Suri suggest examining all vendor contracts to better understand how those providers use AI. That can be a challenge, especially if the credit union’s point of contact does not have all the answers. If that’s the case, keep digging.

“You’ve got to ask questions about what type of AI tools your vendor is using, what data is going in, and identify associated risks, including compliance and operational risk,” she says. “Those are hard questions for a sales rep to answer, so you usually need to get other folks involved in those conversations.”

Suri adds that memorializing AI disclosure requirements in the contract can help the credit union if vendors change their practices later on.

“Third parties are a significant source of FI breaches,” she says. “If they start putting member data or other proprietary information into those tools, we’re vulnerable.”

The Lessons

Suri admits that even though Members Cooperative has a robust AI plan in place, it still has work to do.

“You could line up 10 employees, ask each one about their comfort level and what AI can do for them, and every single person will have a completely different answer,” she says.

But rather than pushing employees to use AI more, Suri says that varied level of comfort —  which is likely common at many credit unions — exemplifies the need for a thoughtful approach, including a risk assessment and well-formulated governance approach.

The big lesson might not be to shy away from AI, but to be thoughtful about how, when, and where it’s deployed — and always back up usage with human oversight.

“I’m finding more and more folks are getting comfortable with AI and pushing the boundaries, which is great,” Suri says. “It’s good to play with things and challenge yourself. But be cautious along that journey because we are seeing incorrect results. Not because AI has become less accurate, but because people are getting more comfortable and pushing the boundaries of what AI can provide.”

The post Governance And Guardrails Help Credit Unions Navigate AI appeared first on CreditUnions.com.