2011 CUNA HR/TD Council Excellence Award Winners

The CUNA HR/TD Council's Award Program 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.

The distinction is reserved exclusively for the credit union HR/TD elite. Those who in all aspects of their chosen profession, consistently excel for the benefit of their credit union, uphold the standards of the HR/TD professional ethics and contribute to the credit union movement.

Employee Engagement:

• NuMark CU in Joliet, IL for their implementation of the Profit & Cash program. This program challenged the staff to work towards growing their services within the current membership as well as increasing their overall membership in spite of the depressed economy. The resulting growth led to the need for a new branch which opened in January 2011. View the award entry. (Assets Less than $499M )

• HawaiiUSA FCU in Honolulu, HI for their Junior-ee Summer Internship Program. By making the students Junior Employees Junior-ee, Hawaii FCU’s redesigned their internship program with an emphasis on providing students with real-world work experiences. View the award entry. (Assets $500M - $1B)

• UW CU in Madison, WI for creating a culture of high engagement. UW Credit Union created a new employee engagement survey that allowed them to interpret the results and formulate a plan to improve their performance. Their employee engagement score increased significantly and UW Credit Union was recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work” by Madison Magazine. View the award entry. (Assets More than $1B)

HR/TD Management Practices:

• SunState FCU in Gainesville, FL for their SunWell Program which promoted health and well-being for all employees. This program included wellness challenges, encouraged team participation, and led to a more pleasant and productive work force. View the award entry. (Assets Less than $499M )

• Oregon Community CU in Eugene, OR for their 360 Training: Excelling in a Sales Culture. The training, created by OCCU staff, blends product and service training with essential sales training, and served to help transition the staff into a high functioning sales team that met and exceeded all goals. View the award entry. (Assets $500M - $1B)

• SECU in Linthicum, MD for their Connections 4.0 Upgrade Learning Program. The upgraded learning system resulted in cost and time savings by changing training from a traditional “brick and mortar” classroom to a more effective blended learning approach. This allowed all staff to acquire new skills via an on-line learning solution while applying targeted face to face resources to support managers in the rollout. View the award entry. (Assets More than $1B)

HR/TD Strategic Leadership:

• Red Canoe CU in Longview, WA for their Paddle Professional Activities to Direct and Develop Leadership Excellence Program which was created as a realistic and targeted approach to cultivating true talent in the organization. A true sign of success is that 6 of the initial 12 participants have been promoted to a higher level within the credit union. View the award entry. (Assets $500M - $1B)

• Mountain America CU in West Jordan, UT for their Talent Management and Succession Planning Process. A full-circle talent management process was developed that integrated employee aspirations with company needs and provided for on-going employee development.  The result of the new initiative was lower turnover and increased employee satisfaction. View the award entry. (Assets More than $1B)