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Vertex offers credit unions onsite training option to build crucial managerial skills.
The need for management training has never been greater. Research from Gallup shows that 71 percent of employees—and 65 percent of managers—say they are disengaged in their work. To compound the problem, 70 percent of an employee’s engagement is directly attributable to his or her immediate supervisor. According to Michael Neill, CSE, president of ServiStar Consulting Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, and CUES’ strategic provider of the Vertex management development system, “There is nothing more critical to the success of your brand, culture, growth and performance than to ensure that your credit union’s managers have the skills to be fully effective.”
For cost-conscious CUs, Vertex for Future Managers can be an attractive training option. It’s a self-paced, credit union-specific course that employees can complete on-site rather than at a remote location.
Vertex offers two additional programs: Vertex Management Development, a one-on-one executive-level program for mid-level managers, and Vertex Live, a three-day management workshop presented on-site at credit unions and at other locations around the country.
Vertex is based on research conducted by Michael Neill and commissioned by the Filene Research Institute, Madison, Wisconsin. The initial goal was to identify and develop the attributes and skills common among high-performing CU managers. An understanding of the attributes led to benchmarking a pre-employment testing system that would help CUs identify the best job candidates for managerial job openings. An understanding of the skills led to development of Vertex to teach those skills that have proven critical for exceptional managers to have and use.
The research identified eight key skills that are common among high-performing middle managers, which were adapted into eight digital management training courses: effective delegation; team building; performance through coaching; employee motivation; leadership; strategic thinking; employee accountability; and effective interviewing.
Participants take an exam for each course to validate their understanding. “It’s designed to be a high-impact, highly powerful and highly transformative program,” Neill says, citing such benefits as better member service, improved employee performance, enhanced earnings and higher retention rates.
To determine which employees are the best candidates for Vertex for Future Managers, CUs can use the same assessment tool Neill used in the groundbreaking research—Profile XT Select, which measures essential leadership attributes, intelligence and work interests.
“You can teach skills, but you can’t teach attributes and interests,” Neill says. “What the Profile XT Select does is create a much higher degree of certainty that the person you’re investing in has the attributes for success and will be able to take the skills learned in the program and implement them down the road for the benefit of the credit union.” cues icon
Diane Franklin is a freelance writer based in Missouri.
