Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
APRIL 11, 2018 | VOL. 29 | NO. 12 | CUTIMES.COM
HUMAN RESOURCES
10 Perks to Keep Employees
Job seekers and employees today have more control over
their careers than ever before.
Leaving current positions for
better opportunities, and being more selective when applying for a new job, are now
commonplace.
With the war for talent in full
effect, companies of all sizes
have had to take a close look at
their compensation and employee benefits to ensure that
they meet, or preferably exceed,
expectations.
While keeping up with the latest employee benefits trends is
one great way to maximize benefit plans, employers should
also explore additional employee and workplace perks to help
with recruiting, retention and
engagement.
1. Free Snacks and Coffee
An often-overlooked way to enhance the workplace is to provide employees with complimentary snacks and coffee. Not
only does this help employees
save a few dollars each day, but
office snacks have shown to increase workplace production.
And offering employees healthy
alternatives can get people more
energized and involved with
a company’s overall wellness
program.
2. Flexible Work Schedules
One of the biggest trends in
the business world has been
a shift away from the
Must Reads
BSA
Compliance
Don’t fall behind on
your efforts. Y14
Cardholder
Engagement
Drive loyalty and
spend. Y8
CREDIT & DEBIT
CARDS
FOCUSREPORT:
Many investors are
scrambling to get in on
the cryptocurrency game,
with some funding their
purchases with credit
union credit cards. Is it
time for CUs to sound the
alarm on these risky
investments? Experts
weigh in for this Focus
Report. Y6
Partners Takes Transformation Journey
TECHNOLOGY
eeping up with exponential technological
growth has never been
more difficult for credit
unions, especially when it comes
to digital banking, member experience, and matching or beating
the competition.
In an effort to keep pace with
changing technology, the $1.65
billion, Burbank, Calif.-based Part-
ners Federal Credit Union, which
serves more than 150,000 Walt
Disney Company cast members,
employees and their families, em-
barked on a new digital transfor-
mation journey.
John Janclaes,
president/CEO
for Partners, ex-
plained the credit
union’s “Digital
2x” initiative focus-
es on digital bank-
ing services and
capabilities, as well as enhance-
ment of its current app offerings
(it should be noted that Partners
already offers some pretty pro-
gressive tech features). Partners
set an aggressive goal of acceler-
ating the rollout of its enhance-
ments from once every six months
to once every other week, quadru-
pling its rollout speed.
Its strategic plan contains four
components: Member experience, cast member enablement
and engagement, safety
ROY URRICO
rurrico@cutimes.com
Y16Janclaes
Y15
Medallion
Mess Leads
to Mergers
MANAGEMENT
PETER STROZNIAK
pstrozniak@cutimes.com
he NCUA’s approval of
29 mergers in January
and February included
the consolidation of
an Arizona credit union that lost
millions in taxi medallion participation loans, which ironically enabled the credit union to survive
the Great Recession.
The $197 million Altier Credit
Union of Tempe posted a net income loss of $8.9 million at the
end of last year and a net income
loss of $824,590 in December
2016, according to NCUA financial performance reports. Altier
ended last year with a net worth of
2.47% and an ROA of - 4.71%.
David Skilton, who was appointed president/CEO of Altier
in September 2016, noted in the
credit union’s 2016 annual report that the cooperative strove to
maintain a well-diversified loan
portfolio, which included participation loans.
“This common and viable industry practice of investing surplus funds into loan participations
helped the credit union maintain
strong revenue during the Great
Recession,” Skilton wrote. “
Surplus loans made it possible for
Altier Credit Union to participate
in selected commercial loan activity with credit unions on the east
coast from mid-2009 until Y17