Press

Excellence Award Winners Honored at HR/TD Council Conference

Jenny Jackson – CUNA Councils
800-356-9655 ext. 4102
jjackson@cuna.coop

Madison, Wis. – The Excellence Award winners from the CUNA HR/TD Council were announced during the council’s 18th annual conference, which took place April 18-21 in San Antonio.

The award recognizes and honors credit unions that exemplify excellence in the human resources and training disciplines and serves to promote credit union philosophies through people leadership. This year’s winners are (by category):

Employee Engagement (Assets Less than $499M): Montana CU Network in Helena, Mont. for their “Healthy You” Wellness Program. Implemented in 2009, the Montana CU League Group Benefit Trust now provides health insurance to 27 credit union organizations across the state of Montana. Their wellness program for participants has been a key solution to reducing claims and slowing the rising costs of healthcare.
Employee Engagement (Assets $500M – $1B): Red Canoe CU in Longview, Wash. for their “Employee Engagement” Program which used a creative approach to rewarding and incenting staff through specialized training, internal promotions and celebrations.
Employee Engagement (Assets More than $1B): Sandia Laboratory FCU in Albuquerque, N.M., for their “Management Bytes” Program, a newsletter for management staff that covers a variety of topics such as salary, employment interviewing, sexual harassment and dealing with employee performance issues.
Employee Engagement (Assets More than $1B): Mountain America CU in West Jordan, Utah for their “8 Pillars Personal Finance” Program which fostered employee’s confidence in their ability to handle their personal financial matters. This confidence created a positive impact on how they serve and advise members who come to them for financial assistance.
HR/TD Management Practices (Assets More than $1B): Mountain America CU in West Jordan, Utah for their “Online Branch Member Training Tutorials” which provided training for members and employees concerning their new online banking system. These tools will remain a resource for employees as they teach both new and existing members about Online Branch.
HR/TD Strategic Leadership (Assets Less than $499M): Montana CU Network in Helena, Mont. for their “Smart Moves” Program. The program, which is offered to credit union organizations in the state of Montana, breaks down typical educational barriers by providing regional, low cost training that minimizes volunteers’ time commitments, while maximizing the benefit of the time they spend on credit union business.

HR/TD Strategic Leadership (Assets More than $1B): Patelco CU in Pleasanton, Calif. for their “Change Management Initiative – Corporate Relocation from San Francisco to the Burbs.” In addition to a cross functional employee team to help communicate the vision and need for change to staff, Patelco also developed a microsite as a resource for employees to learn about the new area.
HR/TD Strategic Leadership (Assets More than $1B): UW CU in Madison, Wis. for their “Far From Average – UW Credit Union’s Extreme Lending Initiative.” Using the approach of increasing the focus on the skills, programs and infrastructure needed to become experts at inviting members’ loan business, UW CU was able to achieve a 5.50% increase in loan growth while utilizing existing staff and resources.

For more information on the 2012 Excellence Awards, go to www.cunahrtdcouncil.org, and click on the “Award & Recognition Program” link, located on the “Events” pull-down menu.

CUNA HR/TD Council
The CUNA HR/TD Council is a member-led organization made up of more than 750 credit union HR and training professionals across the United States. The Council strives to provide superior educational and networking opportunities to help its members to become leaders and decision makers in their organizations. The CUNA HR/TD Council is of the six organizations that make up the CUNA Councils, a network of more than 5,200 credit union professionals. For more information, visit www.cunahrtdcouncil.org or www.cunacouncils.org.