Building a great credit union workplace strategy starts from the bottom up

The difference between a great workplace strategy and a bad one can be a matter of perspective – specifically which perspectives are included in the process.

Issues often look much different from a 30,000 ft leadership perspective versus the ground level, yet decisions made at the top impact the entire organization. These can be issues like return-to-office vs remote work, open office vs cubicles and private offices, the ideal office temperature, and other aspects of work settings and policy that impact how employees feel and perform in their roles.

Rather than making gut decisions from personal experiences, it’s important that credit union leaders bring in more perspectives to develop a workplace strategy that’s optimal for their team and the outcomes they are pursuing.

We help credit unions achieve this in part by bringing all employee voices into the process through employee surveys and departmental interviews.

The process involves teasing out what works and what doesn’t in a workplace, exploring how employees are supported both in their work as well as their physical and mental wellbeing.

This often reveals surprising insights.

For example, our research of over 1,200 credit union employees revealed that only 63% felt that their workplace enabled them to work productively. And diving deeper into individual attributes of their work environments revealed that there is often a disconnect between how they want to be supported and how they are actually supported.

The open office debate?

51% of credit union employees need spaces where they can focus on individual work, yet only 26% of employees are satisfied with their access to these spaces and ability to escape distractions. And the research also showed that employees aren’t satisfied with their access to collaborative spaces either.

This reveals that an optimal solution isn’t open office or private workspaces, but rather a mix of the two types of spaces with an Activity Based Working strategy.

Bringing employee perspectives into the workplace strategy process is like a cheat code. It not only helps you develop stronger policies and deliver better buildings, but it also gives employees a voice and empowers them.

When you treat employees like stakeholders and give them the opportunity to have their voices heard, they gain a sense of ownership over their work and the success of the credit union.

We’re living in a time of great uncertainty. Workplace trends are changing quickly, and the credit union industry continues to evolve at a breakneck pace. But you have a resource that can help you cut through the uncertainty and deliver an excellent workplace strategy: your employees.

If you’d like to learn more about developing a workplace strategy that will help your team thrive, schedule a meeting today and download our whitepaper A Study of Credit Union Workplaces and the Future of Work.