Just like their banking counterparts, account managers at the three credit unions surveyed for this year’s Account Managers’ Report Card — Meridian Credit Union, Vancity Credit Union and Coast Capital Credit Union — reported varying levels of satisfaction with their firms.
Unlike last year’s Report Card, in which a number of credit union advisors were grouped together, the three largest credit unions were tallied separately this time around to determine whether opinions differ as significantly among credit unions as they do among banks.
The most notable discrepancy was found in the scores at St. Catharines, Ont.-based Meridian, at which the majority of its account managers remain dissatisfied with the 2005 merger of Niagara Credit Union and HEPCOE Credit Union that created Meridian. That dissatisfaction translated to an overall rating of 7.1, more than one and a half points below fellow credit unions Vancity and Coast Capital.
“We’ve been going through a merger, so it’s been rough for the past year and a half,” says a Meridian account manager. “But the firm’s performance has been great.”
Still, the merger has had an impact; in a number of categories, Meridian scored lower than its counterparts. Meridian’s scores for strategic focus, corporate culture, public image and the firm living up to its promises all took a significant hit in the ratings.
Yet, the bulk of comments made by account managers at the credit unions — including Meridian — were overwhelmingly positive when it came to work environment and job satisfaction. “I’m happy here. The culture is great,” says a West Coast Vancity advisor.
The importance of good corporate culture was also stressed by Vancouver-based Vancity’s vice president of sales and services, Lydia Johnson, who noted that involving employees in the direction of the firm is the key to creating a happy work environment.
“We involve our staff in some critical decision-making,” she says. “Our account managers play a critical role in our organization, so we bring them in for strategic thinking and future planning. We need to hear what they have to say.”
If this sort of involvement is the key, it appears to be working. “I have a strong basis for comparison, having worked at banks,” says a Vancity account manager in Vancouver. “I’ve worked in institutions at which people hated going to work. That isn’t good for your health. I’d estimate that 95% of the staff here love it.”
Credit unions pride themselves on being community-oriented, often putting money into community causes and becoming familiar and personally involved with their clients or, as they say, “their partners.”
“I like that we’re involved in the community,” says an account manager at Vancouver-based Coast Capital. “I like what Coast Capital stands for. I like its ethics.”
“Thirty-three per cent of our profits go back into the community every year,” says Vancity’s Johnson. “Our values are very real. When we do our strategic planning, we make sure that our values are part and parcel of what we are doing.”
Trudi Kloepper, Coast Capital’s senior vice president of investment services, says that sense of community has to extend into the branch environment for a credit union truly to thrive: “We’re really interdependent, so you really have to want to be a part of this special team. They have to want to share.”
That sense of belonging to a team is prevalent in the comments of the vast majority of account managers at the credit unions surveyed. “It’s a small company that makes you feel like you’re a part of the success of the branch,” says an Meridian account manager in Ontario. “It’s a family atmosphere.”
The overwhelming similarity among the account managers at the three credit unions was their sense of satisfaction in being able to help clients attain their financial goals; many attribute this to the environment in which they work.
“The nature of working with a credit union,” says a Vancity account manager in Vancouver, “is that it’s truly a workable partnership.”
But even though credit unions are built on this community involvement and the idea that big isn’t always better for clients, many of their account managers expressed a desire to be able to move beyond their home province and expand across the country. And many are hoping that becoming federally regulated rather than provincially regulated will become a reality with this year’s Bank Act review.
@page_break@”I think we should remove provincial barriers,” says a Coast Capital account manager in British Columbia. “If a client moves to another province, we have to tell them that we can’t deal with them anymore. Basically, we have to fire the client.” IE