**Blueprint for 2020:**

**A Plan to Strengthen the Future of Credit Union**

**Initiative Report**

1.  **Introduction:**

> **In the summer of 2007, National Credit Union Administration Vice
> Chairman Rodney E. Hood delivered an address during the Big Ten Credit
> Union Conference (BTCUC) held at the University of Notre Dame in South
> Bend, Indiana. During his speech, Mr. Hood invited those present to
> work together to increase student membership, employment, and
> participation in the credit union industry. Mr. Hood referred to his
> new initiative as the "Blueprint for 2020: A Plan to Strengthen the
> Future of Credit Unions."**
>
> **Mr. Hood acknowledged that as the baby boomer generation begins to
> retire in the coming years, the composition of the financial services
> landscape will change significantly and there are few candidates from
> generations "x" and "y" waiting to assume roles in this arena. "While
> hedge funds and private equity are the careers du jour, America's
> financial services providers will need dedicated professionals in
> marketing, operations, accounting, risk management, compliance, and
> sales in order to remain viable, sustainable, and competitive," said
> Mr. Hood.**
>
> **The Vice Chairman indicated at this time his intent to convene an
> informal study group of college officials and credit union leaders to
> draft a framework that could be used to attract well-trained and
> highly competent new credit union employees, board members,
> supervisory committee members and credit committee members. That study
> group was formed and is comprised of the following volunteers:**
>
> **John W. Milazzo, Jr., Chair, President and CEO, Campus Federal
> Credit Union, Baton Rouge, Louisiana**
>
> **Tyrone Burke, President and CEO, Georgia State University Federal
> Credit Union, Atlanta, Georgia**
>
> **Phyllis Coleman-Mouton, Vice Chancellor, Baton Rouge Community
> College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana**
>
> **M. J. Coon, Senior Vice President and CFO, Ent Federal Credit Union,
> Colorado Springs, Colorado**
>
> **Elizabeth Dooley, President and CEO, Educational Employees Credit
> Union, Fresno, California**
>
> **Mary D. Feduccia, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Students and Director,
> Career Services, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana**
>
> **Lee Fogle, President and CEO, Duke University Federal Credit Union,
> Durham, North Carolina**
>
> **Rob Givens, President and CEO, Mazuma Credit Union, Kansas City,
> Missouri**
>
> **Mark Herbert, Chief Operations Officer, Oregon Community Credit
> Union, Eugene, Oregon**
>
> **David W. Kantar, President and CEO, Southland Savings Federal Credit
> Union, Buena Beach, California**
>
> **Ben Rogers, Filene Research Institute, Madison, Wisconsin**
>
> **Mr. Hood charged the study group with developing a framework for
> credit unions that would:**

-   **Foster credit union internships and mentoring opportunities for
    college students;**

-   **Create strategic consulting projects for MBA students;**

    i.  **Work with credit unions to perform management assessments of
        timely issues, such as membership growth, marketing campaign,
        product analysis, and membership segmentation**

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-   **Creating relationships with representatives from college career
    planning and placement offices to participate in career fairs;**

-   **Creating symposia and curricula for students to receive academic
    credit while interning at credit unions;**

-   **Providing low-income designated credit unions with contributions
    to pay for summer interns; and**

-   **Cultivating new board members, supervisory committee, and credit
    committee members for the credit union system.**

> **The success of this initiative, according to Mr. Hood, could be
> measured in terms of:**

-   **Increased percentage of career fairs that involve credit unions;**

-   **Rise in number of interns within the credit union system;**

-   **Membership growth among Gen "X" and "Y"; and**

-   **New employees with core competencies for the future financial
    services landscape.**

2.  **Executive Summary:**

> **Credit unions of all sizes, fields of membership and charter types
> can benefit in their recruitment activities by partnering with local
> institutions of higher education and with agencies of local and state
> government. It was found that a number of networking opportunities
> already exist in many communities for business to partner with
> education and governmental agencies to find and develop recruiting
> opportunities.**
>
> **Some of the more successful recruiting programs are formal in
> structure, have a reporting accountability within the credit union and
> work closely with community contacts. Career services departments of
> high schools, community colleges and universities offer a wide range
> of recruitment services, usually at no or little cost. All are anxious
> to partner with industry to give their students employment
> opportunities.**
>
> **Local and state governments are likewise anxious to partner with
> employers in their locales to offer opportunities for workers entering
> the work force and for those displaced due to economic downturns and
> other reasons. Many will provide resources to match candidates with
> opportunities at no cost.**
>
> **Successful credit unions utilize formal intern programs in areas
> such as Marketing, Information Technology, Internal Audit and the
> like, for students while in school and during semester breaks. These
> interns learn valuable skills and provide a resource for permanent
> employment post-graduation.**
>
> **Successful credit union recruiters also tend to have an on-campus
> presence to promote themselves and are active sponsors of student
> organizations. They make themselves known to campus leaders; i.e.,
> administrators, faculty, staff and students.**
>
> **A further, more complete, explanation of those practices can be
> found below.**

3.  **Methodology:**

> **The study group met via telephone and internet to discuss their
> charge and how best to accomplish Vice Chair Hood's expectations.
> Input came from each member's experiences and what is presented is a
> collaboration of that input. While it is recognized that this study is
> not all inclusive, it will serve to give its readers valuable insight
> to actual techniques that have been used with success. It is hoped
> that this study might become a "living" document in that additional
> experiences could be added and shared as such a need arises.**

4.  **Findings:**

> **The study group met on several occasions for the purpose of pooling
> best practices and personal experiences into a document that would
> fulfill Vice Chairman Hood's vision for a template that could be used
> by others in the credit union industry. What follows is a summary of
> those best practices.**
>
> **Credit unions desiring to attract youth to the employment
> opportunities they offer would be well served to formalize their
> efforts in a comprehensive recruiting plan. Those credit unions that
> developed and implemented such plans were generally ones that
> identified their own staff needs and understood student demographics,
> minority distribution, enrollment/degree trends and millennial
> characteristics of the work force from which it drew. Also important
> to success was the appointing of a person, usually someone in their
> Human Resources areas, the accountability of the program. This person
> can monitor the credit union's employment needs and becomes the
> conduit between the credit union and recruitment sources inside and
> outside its community.**
>
> **Credit unions of all charter types would be well served to establish
> strong relationships with secondary and post-secondary institutions of
> learning within their trade areas. These would include high schools,
> colleges and universities. All have counseling services, especially
> the latter two, who normally offer career services to assist students
> in preparing for and finding employment during school and post
> graduation. Most offer on-campus recruitment, job vacancy posting and
> resume referral services. Louisiana State University's Baton Rouge
> Campus offers the TigerTRAK service through its Office of Career
> Services. It is an online source for job postings and on-campus
> interviewing opportunities and is available to LSU students, faculty,
> staff and registered alumni. This is a service made available through
> MonsterTRAK and is available to other universities throughout the
> United States. Currently, over 3,100 schools participate in this
> program. For information, please go to
> [www.monstertrak.monster.com/employers](http://www.monstertrak.monster.com/employers)
> and follow the instructions. Many offer services where student
> databases can be searched for candidates to match credit union job
> qualifications and then email the resumes of potential candidates to
> the credit union. Many also assist credit unions in evaluating their
> recruitment results and help refine efforts for greater success.**
>
> **In Louisiana, the State has launched a web-based educational and
> workforce initiative to cover over 1,000 public and private schools
> called LA ePortal. Its goal is to create a workforce education and
> training pipeline that produces better prepared workers for Louisiana
> employers. Louisiana State Agencies, led by the Board of Regents, have
> collaborated to launch LA ePortal. It is a state-of-the-art online
> career, college and work planning solution for students; i.e.,
> tomorrow's labor force. Credit unions, as well as other potential
> employers, can partner with LA ePortal to promote their company, gain
> exposure, and create public awareness to over 400,000 students, their
> parents, educators and administrators in a streamlined, focused manner
> -- 24/7/365. LaCap Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Baton Rouge,
> was one of the early participants in this venture. This initiative is
> spreading to other states through the efforts of Profiles
> International, LA ePortal's developer. Credit unions that participate
> can use this tool to facilitate their recruiting efforts while
> partnering with private and public schools, community and technical
> schools, colleges and universities, as well as Out of School Youth and
> Career Solution Centers. For additional information, visit
> [www.laeportal.com](http://www.laeportal.com/).**
>
> **One of the most frequently used recruitment tools utilized by credit
> unions is that of formal intern programs. These can be either summer
> internships or those that are conducted during the school year or
> semester. They are coordinated with academic programs leading to
> degree programs or core study programs. In high schools, this could be
> a Distributive Education or a COE program. In college, it would be a
> program designed to follow a specific degree tract; i.e., Marketing,
> IT, Internal Audit, etc.**
>
> **Ent Federal Credit Union, Colorado Springs, is an excellent example
> of a credit union that utilizes internships in conjunction with the
> University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and INROADS. INROADS is an
> international program that works to develop and place talented
> minority youth in business and industry and prepare them for corporate
> and community leadership. More can be learned about INROADS by
> visiting [www.inroads.org](http://www.inroads.org/).**
>
> **Ent FCU currently offers four internship opportunities; a Consumer
> Lending Internship through INROADS, and a Member Service
> Representative Internship, a Librarian Internship and Marketing
> Assistant Internship through the University of Colorado. A fifth
> internship opportunity is being considered for a student to work with
> The Colorado Pioneers Museum to archive digitally stored credit union
> documents related to the credit union's 50 year history.**
>
> **Even smaller credit unions with fewer resources can take advantage
> of a university relationship in an informal way to recruit staff and
> volunteers.**
>
> **Duke University Federal Credit Union has become known to the Duke
> MBA program because of the efforts of a former Board Chairman. While
> enrolled in the Graduate program, he recruited one of his fellow
> students to become a credit union staff member. That student is now a
> Duke MBA and is the credit union\'s COO.**
>
> **Since that time, Duke University FCU has recruited two board members
> and one staff member out of Duke's MBA program as a result of these
> contacts. To keep this valuable exposure for the credit union at the
> Business School, the COO now attends career nights for upcoming MBA
> graduates. In addition, the credit union has offered an informal
> internship program, and has worked with the Business School on
> strategic studies for the credit union.**
>
> **Other credit unions, such as Campus Federal Credit Union, Baton
> Rouge, Louisiana, have used interns with great success. Campus Federal
> has partnered with LSU to offer internships in Internal Audit and
> Marketing. The credit union has also worked with professors and
> Masters of Business Administration students in LSU's E. J. Ourso
> College of Business Administration. The credit union has been able
> through this collaboration to utilize students in studies that have
> been beneficial to the credit union. Likewise, the credit union has
> participated with students on many of their projects related to their
> course studies required for graduation. This partnership has resulted
> in a wonderful networking opportunity.**
>
> **These programs offer a win-win situation for educational
> institutions, credit unions and students. For the student they address
> the Catch 22 situation of not being able to find a job because of not
> having experience. In addition, they give the student the opportunity
> to practice hands-on what they are learning in the classroom. Intern
> programs also provide the student with the opportunity to work at a
> job in which he or she has an interest in pursuing, but might not be
> all that certain about. The program provides experience, the
> aforementioned networking opportunities, a foot in the door upon
> graduation and, in some cases, a paycheck. For the educational
> institution, the program provides a partnering opportunity with the
> business community that could produce a gateway for future recruitment
> and hiring opportunities. And, for the credit union, intern programs
> provide for a valuable source of recruits that are eager to learn and
> to contribute while they are working their way through school. The
> credit union gains the opportunity to determine whether the student
> worker meets their standards for post-graduation employment, and if
> they do, will have a trained and tested employee to join their
> ranks.**
>
> **An innovative approach aimed at entry level employees involves
> credit unions, other financial institutions and retail organizations
> partnering with local community colleges to provide generic training
> for students interested in jobs that have a similar skill sets, such
> as Paying and Receiving. It is recognized that in a retail atmosphere,
> certain skills such as cash handling, are not specific to one
> industry. By having these skills taught by the community college in
> partnership with local businesses, a pool of trained and employable
> recruits is developed for the community. This approach assures
> employers that they have a steady stream of qualified applicants from
> which to choose. It gives the community colleges a needed curriculum
> to teach and the students benefit by being taught the basic skills
> necessary to begin contributing more quickly in the workforce
> resulting in higher starting salaries and quicker advancement
> opportunities.**
>
> **For credit unions that do not have existing contacts at targeted
> institutions of higher learning, they are encouraged to contact those
> institution's career centers and to use energetic job descriptions to
> highlight intern and employment opportunities. Both graduate and
> undergraduate students know that any new job, especially an
> entry-level one, entails a lot of work, so instead of just describing
> responsibilities, highlight differentiators and opportunities. Some
> common credit union differentiators to highlight in job descriptions
> include:**

-   **Socially responsible employer.**

-   **Opportunities to work with senior managers from Day One.**

-   **Travel for job - job-related training.**

-   **Opportunity -- Opportunities to influence strategy immediately
    (this tactic is especially appealing for MBA recruits).**

-   **Reasonable hours allow for good work/life balance.**

-   **Education reimbursement (for full-time hires).**

> **Also useful are job descriptions that highlight specific skills a
> new hire will gain. For Finance employees, this might include learning
> to run asset-liability scenarios or enterprise budgeting. For
> Marketing employees, it could mean in-depth market research or running
> a direct mail campaign.**
>
> **An interesting approach that successful credit union recruiters use
> is mentoring students by joining schools' online mentoring systems
> that allow students to connect with professionals for advice about
> occupations, employment and graduate/professional schools. Involvement
> ranges from responding to occasional e-mails to allowing students to
> job shadow during a business day. At LSU, this program is called the
> Tiger Network. Additional information can be found at
> [www.lsu.edu/career/employers](http://www.lsu.edu/career/employers).**
>
> **The promotion of the credit union on the campuses from which they
> drew candidates was also found to be of importance. The more familiar
> the university faculty, staff and students were with the credit union,
> the more creditability the credit union had and the easier it was to
> attract candidates. It was also found that having a consistent, strong
> credit union presence on campus year-round enhanced the credit union's
> image and the confidence of the campus community in the credit union
> as a desirable place to not only work, but to seek needed financial
> services. Attendance in on-campus Career Expos and job fairs have
> helped to showcase credit unions and the career opportunities they
> make available. Many institutions of higher education offer credit
> unions the opportunity to sponsor presentations and receptions to
> informally meet with students and share literature about their
> organizations prior to on-campus interviews. This has been found to be
> an excellent ice breaker and help make candidates more familiar with
> credit unions and what they do.**
>
> **Another way for credit unions to promote themselves on campuses is
> to sponsor student organizations and activities. One such opportunity
> is used by Mazuma Credit Union, Kansas City, Missouri. An organization
> the credit union works with is the University of Missouri-Kansas City
> chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). SIFE is a global
> non-profit organization active in more than 40 countries. It works in
> partnership with business and higher education to establish student
> teams on university campuses. Its teams work with faculty advisors and
> they are challenged to develop community outreach projects. They work
> to leverage personal experiences, the expertise of their faculty
> advisors, the support of their local business advisory boards, and the
> resources of their institutions to implement programs that create real
> economic opportunities for members of their communities. SIFE also
> offers an intern program. Additional information may be obtained at
> [www.sife.org]{.underline}.**
>
> **One low-budget, high-impact way to gain exposure to talented MBA
> students is to partner with Net Impact, a not-for-profit business
> association with more than 60 chapters nationwide. The program is
> organized in chapters at top business schools and in several cities.
> Net Impact students actively volunteer for Service Corps, where they
> engage in short-term, part-time consulting projects relating to
> marketing, business planning and operations, and strategic planning
> for non-profit organizations. At the very least, participating credit
> unions receive free advice from a professional team. More importantly,
> however, credit unions can present themselves as a viable potential
> employer for MBA students already predisposed to socially responsible
> business. Find more information about Net Impact at
> [www.netimpact.org](http://www.netimpact.org/).**
>
> **Successful credit unions advertise in job search handbooks and on
> on-line websites sponsored by college and university career services
> offices. They also reach candidates through student publications,
> student newspapers, bulletin boards, university websites, bus signage,
> bench and bill board/score board advertisements. Many also utilize
> student radio and television broadcasts.**
>
> **Credit unions have also established relationships with academic
> departments and student organizations to announce job and interview
> opportunities. In many cases, these networks work in reverse to allow
> faculty and staff to recommend outstanding candidates for employment
> at credit unions. An interesting additional benefit of these
> partnerships has been that many faculty and staff members interested
> in summer break employment, a career change or post retirement
> employment have found credit unions as places to fulfill their
> employment needs.**
>
> **Still another strategy utilized by credit unions and other employers
> is partnering with state and local agencies to encourage the
> advancement of young adults through apprenticeship, occupational
> training and technology. One such partnership is sponsored by The City
> of Baton Rouge and its Business and Career Solution Center. Through
> the activities of The Baton Rouge Career Solution Center Youth
> Program, youth and adults receive vocational training in a number of
> disciplines to include business services. Another program offered by
> The City of Baton Rouge is The Baton Rouge Workforce Investment Board
> (BRWIB). It provides a local link between job seekers and employers.
> The BRWIB offers a variety of resources to help job seekers find work,
> plan a career, and receive training. Employers rely on The BRWIB to
> screen and test job applicants, provide training, obtain research, and
> perform out-placement services. These programs offer an excellent
> opportunity for credit unions to contribute to their communities and
> recruit entry level staff members. Additional information on these
> programs can be found by visiting [www.brgov.com]{.underline}.**
>
> **The study concludes with the finding that there are a number of
> opportunities awaiting credit unions that choose to partner with their
> local institutions of higher learning. Whether to find needed staff or
> to build relationships and business, these partnerships serve a useful
> and worthwhile purpose. Credit unions are encouraged to tap into these
> networks to fulfill their needs and to enrich their communities.**

5.  **Conclusions:**

> **Conclusive evidence suggests that opportunities exist for credit
> unions to increase student membership, employment and participation in
> their organizations. Nearly all the options have one thread running
> through them...a partnership between the credit union and institutions
> of secondary and/or post-secondary learning. If credit unions want to
> be successful in attracting the attention of young people, they would
> be well advised to network with the career services counselors of
> their local high schools, colleges and universities. Also important
> were it use of resources made available from non-profit organizations
> and the use of websites dedicated to assist employers and potential
> employees alike.**

6.  **Closing:**

> **The members of this study group would be remiss if they did not
> thank Vice Chairman Rodney Hood for his inspiration and leadership
> during this endeavor. It was his original concept and vision that made
> this study a reality. We thank Mr. Hood for his confidence in the
> study group's abilities and for banding us together through this
> charge.**
>
> **We sincerely hope that this document serves to inspire other credit
> unions to follow the lead of those who already utilize the techniques
> herein described. These best practices are easily replicated, as is
> the success already experienced by those early to adopt them.**