Out of the Box

Before she even started work at $93 million/7,000-member Trailhead Credit Union, with 25 employees in Portland, Ore., Card Services Specialist Christine Lange had a “welcome box” delivered to her front door. Inside, she found a “trail guide” to prepare her for her first day of work, plus some gifts with the Trailhead logo. Lange says that when she opened the box, “I felt really proud to be joining such a cool organization. The Trail Guide is a beautifully designed document that shines a bright light on Trailhead’s brand and personality.”

Member Service Specialist Stuart Gleason says his welcome box “definitely built my anticipation about working here at Trailhead. It was a great mix of fun stuff and good info. It made me feel like I was already part of the CU even before my first day.”

Kim Faucher, VP/marketing at Trailhead CU, couldn’t be happier about these responses: This is just what she hoped the welcome box and other aspects of their onboarding program would achieve. After the CU spent time during the previous year developing a strong service culture within the organization, CU leaders realized that it would be important to help newly hired staff understand the CU’s goals and focus.

“We brainstormed ideas for things to excite new employees and ways to convey the concept of a service culture,” Faucher says. The ultimate result was a comprehensive program that begins as soon as someone is hired. For its efforts, the CU was named runner up in the Staff and Culture Initiatives category of the CUES Golden Mirror Awards.

Part one is that surprise package shipped to the new hire’s front door. Inside, the new Trailhead CU employee will find a letter from CU President/CEO (and CUES member) Jim McCarthy, a personal note from the assigned manager, and several items with the CU logo: a mason jar water bottle, a tote bag made of jute, a pen. Those hired early in the year also receive a calendar.

“The ‘Trailhead swag’ items are things that fit the Portland culture, with its focus on being environmentally friendly,” says Faucher. “As well, we include more directly work-related items such as our New Employee Trail Guide.”

Setting Expectations

For Gleason, the guide “helped me fit in easily by describing our history and culture and giving me a good idea of what to expect when I started.” A key component is a glossary providing definitions for the acronyms and shorthand phrases used at Trailhead CU. That idea came from Executive Assistant Toni Matthews, who joined the CU at the end of 2012.

“To develop the guide, we talked to some of the newer employees and asked them ‘what do you wish we had told you when you started?’” says Faucher. “Their answers gave us ideas about what we should put in the guide. Our goal was to make it fun, rather than a boring policy handbook.”

Also included in the guide: the organizational chart, service promises and actions, dress code information, professional development and holiday schedules, and other information to help the new employee get up to speed quickly.

Rangers Lead the Way

Step two: The newly hired staff member is assigned to a Trailhead Ranger. New employees often have a hundred little questions that don’t seem significant enough to ask a manager: Where’s a good place to buy lunch? Who do I ask for help when the printer isn’t working? For new hires, their assigned Rangers are the people they can go to for answers to those queries and for additional guidance about the CU’s culture.

“The managers really like this because they know the new hires are getting the basic information they need and they don’t have to worry about making sure they cover everything,” says Faucher.

She feels the process of developing the welcome kit was also beneficial to the CU as a whole. “We had to decide what was important and what to include, and that helped us think through our brand and culture,” she says. “This was valuable, too, when we recently opened a new branch. Having the welcome box meant that even though these employees were in a different building, they had the same information about service and culture right from the start.”

Winning the CUES GMA was particularly exciting for the staff. “We were very honored,” says Faucher. “We definitely celebrated!”

Teresa Pitman is a freelance writer based in Guelph, Ontario.