9 minutes
This is the final article in our series on how to consistently deliver engaging member experiences over the phone. Part one discussed hiring top performers and performance management. Part two covered processes. This is the second and final article on leadership – specifically on how to drive employee engagement within your credit union.
In case you don’t know, Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who wanted to understand what motivates people. And for those of you who think our title is misleading (after all, he did pass away in 1970), we argue that the spirit of his work is still alive and very prevalent – especially in the workplace.
Maslow believed that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. This belief led Maslow to create, in 1943, his “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,” a theory on human motivation. And to this day, compared to all other theories on motivation, Maslow’s has stood the test of time and has best translated into the workplace.
The image below is a version of Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs. This five-stage model starts with basic or physiological needs (bottom of pyramid). He stated that one must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing onto higher level growth needs (we’ll get more into this later).
Why You Should Care About Employee Engagement
When employees are happy, organizations prosper. It’s been repeatedly proven that employees who are happy and engaged at work have a positive impact on the bottom line. In fact, revenues have consistently increased at companies listed in Fortune Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. What’s more, other organizations, including Gallup, conducted their own research and confirmed a correlation between engagement and earnings.
However, in a recent Gallup study (March 2016) , only about 34.1 percent of the U.S. workforce is engaged (enthusiastic and committed) at work. Although this number is slightly trending in the right direction, there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially since this number has surpassed 33 percent only three times since Gallup started tracking this metric in 2000.
Gallup also found that the younger the employee, the more likely they were to be less engaged. And seeing as Deloitte projects that Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995) is estimated to make up roughly 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025, it’s imperative to get a handle on employee engagement.
The good news is that it’s not necessary to offer expensive perks, like Google’s free gourmet meals, to increase employee happiness at work. The right low-cost initiatives can be just as effective, provided they are tailored to meet the particular needs of your organization’s employees.
A good start is to conduct work climate surveys, ask employees what changes they would like to see to improve their package of benefits and/or their job security, and benchmark your offerings with America’s top companies. You’ll quickly notice that it almost always isn’t about money. However, an even better start would be to learn how Maslow’s Hierarchy could be translated into your organization.
How to Translate Abraham Maslow’s Work Into Your Organization
The base needs for humans, Maslow proposed, are physiological and safety needs. Typically, an employee’s most basic needs are a competitive compensation and benefits package as well as working in a trusting environment. However, by simply meeting these needs, employees still view their position as only a job and not yet a career.
Once basic needs are met, Maslow proposed that humans then need love/belonging and esteem. This translates to growth and development as well as ongoing, specific and authentic feedback and recognition (especially when their behaviors best exemplify your values). This is when they start viewing their jobs as a career.
Organizations should note the quality of the relationship between employee and supervisor is critical in this stage, being that it’s the No. 1 reason why people leave their jobs. Top employees demand top managers. Therefore, hold managers accountable for employee engagement. One way to do this is use Gallup’s Q12 Employee Engagement Survey which, based on decades of research, are the 12 questions that measure the most important elements of employee engagement. Also it’s important to note that in terms of management styles, Generation Y responds well to an inclusive style of management, and they crave immediate feedback about performance.
Self-actualization (the top of the pyramid), is all about having greater meaning in life or, in our case, greater meaning in the workplace. When employees reach this stage, it’s no longer a job or career; working for the organization is actually their calling, resulting in increased productivity and a better bottom line.
Examples of Maslow’s Impact in the Workplace
Knowingly or not, many organizations are using principles of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to create strong engagement levels with their employees. Here are some examples.
Medtronic, a company that manufactures medical devices, effectively makes employees feel fulfilled in their jobs. For example, when each new-hire starts, they meet the CEO and hear stories about how Medtronic changes the lives of both patients and employees. In addition, every new-hire receives a medallion with a portrayal of a sick person rising to remind employees they are there to restore people to full life and health. This is all reinforced at the company’s annual holiday party where patients are invited to share stories on how Medtronic saved their lives. Result: Company sales and margins are often well above average for most industries.
$308 million/33,500-member Town & Country Federal Credit Union, South Portland, Maine, has implemented various initiatives to improve employee engagement levels. For starters, the CU meets basic employee needs by offering a generous compensation and benefit package that includes tuition reimbursement and an exceptional paid time off policy. Beyond basic needs, the credit union offers various ways in which employees can develop both personally and professionally. For example, the CU’s people specialists (don’t call them HR!) partner with an outside vendor to offer employees various training courses on non-technical, softer skills. In addition, employees believe they have a future in the organization, as most of their promotions come from within (this also allows them to preserve the culture they have built). What’s more, and unlike many organizations, employees aren’t reprimanded when making mistakes – leaders view mistakes as coaching opportunities. Finally, employees get a voice to provide feedback. One such forum is through employee engagement surveys – conducted every year by third parties and, every other year, by their people specialists. More importantly, senior leaders take feedback very seriously and work with various levels of management to fix the issues deemed most critical.
The results? Financially speaking, Town & Country FCU has done well; the CU has averaged double-digit loan growth over the last five years and in 2015 increased deposits by over 8 percent and overall assets by almost 10 percent. But perhaps even more importantly, the CU has built a strong family-oriented culture of openness, transparency and results while having lots of fun (they’ve even moved to a flexible work-space for support staff, where nobody, not even their CEO, has an office). And, by the way, Town & Country FCU has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Maine for four years in a row. In addition, the CU ranked 12th nationally out of 45 credit unions in the Best Credit Union to Work for 2015 by The Credit Union Journal.
Executives at$187 million/20,000-member XCEL Federal Credit Union, a credit union based in northern New Jersey, believe there is a strong correlation between happy employees and happy members. This small credit union packs a big punch when it comes to meeting (in this case, exceeding) the basic needs of its employees. For example, XCEL FCU offers a variety of perks, including a quarterly corporate bonus program, 100 percent paid medical coverage for employees and up to 70 percent paid coverage for spouses and children, a pension program for which employees are eligible after three years, an onsite gym and relaxation room in its Bloomfield headquarters, and up to 50 percent reimbursement of local gym memberships for remote employees. Employee recognition is also firmly ingrained in the CU’s culture, many times given on the spot by the CEO, CUES member Linda J. McFadden.
Employees also work in an environment where they feel very comfortable providing feedback and ideas – even to the senior team. But XCEL FCU takes it one step further: All ideas, regardless of how off-the-wall they may be, are not only listened to, but at some point, given feedback as to why the organization can or cannot implement the idea. And while there is no official training department, XCEL FCU invests heavily in training and developing its employees with help from third parties. All this has helped XCEL FCU continue to consistently meet financial targets while maintaining a high level of employee engagement. And probably why the CU has been appearing on the “New Jersey Best Companies to Work For” list.
In 2014, $75 billion/6-million-member Navy Federal Credit Union, ranked No. 96 in the 2012 Fortune “Best Companies to Work For” list (now No. 44), launched the "Tell Your Story" Facebook campaign, to get stories from members on how Navy FCU affected their lives, and how the CU met their financial needs. Result: more than 300 videos submissions. While I admit I don’t know the original intent, I do know that this is an effective way to share why working at Navy FCU is less about products and profits and more about helping people.
All credit unions can really begin living their philosophy of “people helping people” by inviting members to their staff meetings and employee events to briefly speak about how the credit union has impacted their lives – from getting out of debt and purchasing their first house to helping them retire – whatever the situation may be.
Once again, we thank you for your time and hope this series of nine articles helped spur some thoughts around improving the member experience within your credit union.
Prior to starting his new company, Bill Stavros spent over 13 years in the credit union industry, most recently as VP/marketing & member experience at $513 million Proponent Federal Credit Union, Nutley, N.J., where he was responsible for conceptualizing and deploying a new vision for delivering customer service for Proponent FCU’s inbound call center, based on his learnings from highly regarded service oriented companies, such as Zappos, Ritz-Carlton, Disney & REI. Now with Blueprint Interactions, his goal is to help other credit unions achieve similar results. His company also offers services in the areas of sales, marketing and member experience. Stavros is a certified customer experience professional. He can be reached at bill@bpinteractions, by calling 888.757.8338 or www.bpinteractions.com.
