This article is the final installment of a five-part series about workplace health. The first four parts focused on employee engagement, organizational culture, organizational structure and leadership.
When something isn’t working in your credit union, what’s the first solution that gets suggested?
“We need training.”
A training need can be a key factor in a lack of organizational health.
But so can disengagement, unclear structure, misaligned culture, or leaders operating at the wrong level.
So it’s important to determine whether training is actually the factor in play at your credit union before spending time and money on it.
Improving organizational health isn’t about fixing everything at once. It’s about diagnosing accurately and acting intentionally. Each of the five key factors in organizational health can be improved. And, because the five areas overlap, when you work on one factor, you’ll often get improvement in others.
Here are the diagnostic steps and treatment tools for looking at training.
Diagnosing training as a root cause of your unhealthy organization
Some examples of when training is likely to be an excellent support for improving organizational health include:
- When staff are unable to effectively assist members with digital services or across multiple delivery channels
- When your organization is moving to a centralized lending model
- When a new product is being launched
In these cases, a clear knowledge or skill gap exists. Training makes sense.
But before you default to a class or workshop, pause.
- Training does not fix unclear roles.
- Training does not fix inconsistent accountability.
- Training does not fix ineffective leadership behaviors.
- Training does not fix structural bottlenecks.
To find out for sure whether training is a root cause, first conduct interviews with staff to understand what knowledge or skills are missing. Look at job descriptions to see if needed skills are clearly outlined and up to date.
Also observe the work being done. Are expectations clear? Are tools available? Does performance vary widely among people doing the same job? If so, the issue may be clarity or coaching, not training.
Finally, review performance data and member feedback to identify patterns. If errors are inconsistent or isolated, the issue may not be a system-wide training gap.
Here’s what a training need can look like in practice
After a system upgrade, one credit union noticed an increase in errors. Leadership assumed staff needed retraining. But interviews revealed the real issue: procedures had changed, job aids were outdated, and expectations weren’t clearly communicated. The solution wasn’t another class. It was clearer process documentation and updated tools.
Here are key questions to ask yourself when you’re considering the role of training in your organization’s health:
- Are employees equipped to handle member needs and challenges related to new tools, processes, or products?
- Are there performance or member satisfaction gaps that indicate a lack of knowledge or proficiency?
- Do employees feel prepared and confident that they can meet the demands of new technology, systems, and member expectations?
Treatment steps when the problem is training
If you determine that training is indeed the issue, don’t jump straight to a formal program.
Start with this sequence:
- Clarify expectations: Are outcomes and standards clearly defined?
- Provide tools: Would job aids, checklists, or updated documentation solve the problem?
- Leverage internal expertise: Can you train a subject matter expert to support others in a branch or back office?
- Then design targeted formal training aligned to clearly defined outcomes: Build targeted learning experiences that close specific skill gaps.
- Support with coaching: In some cases, especially for leaders, coaching may be more effective than additional coursework.
Effective training is precise. It addresses a clearly identified gap. It reinforces expectations. And it is supported by accountability.
Closing the series
Training matters. But only when it’s the right diagnosis. In this five-part series, we’ve also explored culture, employee engagement, organizational structure, leadership, and training.
Whether you tackle the challenges of your organization’s health on your own or engage an expert to help, this work is doable now and sustainable over time. Be one of those credit unions with a healthy workplace, and you’ll put yourself on track to have engaged employees and members, deliver on your strategy, and be poised for sustainable growth.
