Human resource management

Despite massive changes in the past decade, HR departments are still in the team-building business

ew jobs have changed as dramatically over the past lU years as that of the credit union human resource (IIR) manager. One of the most visible changes has been the elevation of the lilt manager/vice president to a member of the senior management team. "HR management is now a critical component of senior management," according to Gayle Rust Gustafson, senior vice president of administration at SELCO Credit Union, Eugene, Ore.

"HR managers used to be primarily concerned with who employees were and where they sat," says Gustafson. "Now we need to know about everything that happens in the credit union."

A decade ago, HR departments were referred to as personnel departments. They took care of interviewing, hiring, payroll, benefits, bookkeeping, and paperwork.

But big changes were in the wind. And no one knows better than HR managers that change calls for adaptation. HR departments have been on the fast track of change and adaptation in recent years.

Increased competition has forced credit unions to become more efficient by reorganizing, downsizing, cutting budgets, and streamlining their operations. And the volume of laws and regulations-the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Health Insurance Portability Protection Acthas increased significantly in the past 10 years.

The work force has become older, with a more even mix of men and women. There are now more families in the United States with two working spouses than there are with one, according to the Labor Department.

And the work force has become more dependent on technologies that have revolutionized our ways of doing business. Most employees in today's work force must have some degree of computer literacy to be productive and to advance through their organizations.

Understanding and teaching business objectives

HR departments have shouldered a big part of the burden of adapting to these and other changes. Many HR managers would say no other group has had to hunker down against the winds of change more than they have.

HR consultant Linda Christopherson, until recently the HR director of Air Academy Federal Credit Union, Colorado Springs, Colo., says she went from "being a personnel person to being a human resources professional-from paperwork manager to a strategic partner of the senior management team."

"Credit unions aren't going to be successful if they don't have highly qualified, educated HR professionals who understand their credit union's business objectives," she says.

Understanding those objectives, says Gustafson, means mastering the details of all aspects of the credit union-its products and services, the marketing strategies and tools used, the financial picture, and its members. "Generally, you have to be a very well-rounded credit union person to be a successful HR person," she says. Besides having to know a lot more, HR managers have to do a lot more. In addition to coping with the transformations of their own jobs, they've had to facilitate change for everyone else in the credit union, says Janet McDonald, senior vice president of administration at Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union, West Lafayette, Ind.

"We have to act as change agents for our credit unions to help streamline operations," she says. This involves working with other managers and employees and training them to be coaches so they can help others cope with change.

In fact, the demand for training and development has become one of the most pressing challenges for HR managers. In coping with transformation, the best philosophies and policies in the world won't do any good unless they can be made real and workable.

The training and development aspect of HR actually "humanizes the credit union's goals," says Barry Boyles, vice president of HR for the Colorado Credit Union System. A major part of his job, he says, is to realize the relevance of the organization's business objectives in his daily work life and to help others do the same. "In humanizing the goals," says Boyles, "you go a long way toward achieving them."

For Gustafson, this doesn't mean teaching employees what to do. Rather, it means helping managers become leaders who can help employees see how their jobs fit into the credit union's overall goals and objectives. It means teaching attitudes along with skills. This is crucial for preserving credit union traditions-personal touch and a sense of ownership-as job descriptions change. It means more training and development than ever before.

A more concrete example of the training and development challenge is integrating new technologies that tend to overwhelm people. Training takes on psychological as well as technical aspects, as trainers need to help employees to be open to technological changes.

Again, it calls for teaching attitudes and helping employees understand that new technology doesn't come at the exclusion of the personal touch.

"These are new and intriguing responsibilities," says Rick Miller, senior vice president of corporate development at AT&T Family Federal Credit Union, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Minimizing liabilities Miller says another major HR responsibility that has grown in recent years is that of minimizing liabilities. With more litigation and laws surrounding issues like sexual harassment and discrimination, having policies in place for compliance and for minimizing risk is a critical aspect of the HR manager's job, he says.

The Family and Medical Leave Act, for example, can be a tremendous help to employees. Credit unions must be sure they allow for that by complying fully with the law. The Family and Medical Leave Act can also be abused by employees who take unfair advantage of it. Credit unions need rules and guidelines for employees and managers to follow to make the law workable. That responsibility is charged to none other than the HR department. Credit unions have responded to the growing burden on their HR departments in imaginative ways. Some have added more part-time positions along with benefits for part-timers. Others are allowing their employees to share jobs or spend some hours working at home. And more employees are making use of flexible scheduling by working four 10-hour days, for example.

Some credit unions have sickchild day-care programs so employees can take sick children to a local hospital or clinic where day care is funded by the credit union. And credit unions are also offering wellness programs to help employees manage stress, monitor their health and fitness, and head off illness.

The key to all these programs, says Christopherson, is flexibility. For a work force whose needs are changing, she says, credit unions need to be as flexible as possible to accommodate those changes and keep quality employees.

Proving their worth Another growing challenge for HR managers is quantifying the value of their programs so they can continue to invest in training and development or child-care programs. That's not as easy as calculating the cost savings of switching service providers.

The costs and benefits of "soft" expenses can be hard to measure, says McDonald. Such quantitative work can be daunting, especially for people-oriented staff like HR managers who don't always have the necessary accounting skills, she says.

Tools to help with new and old responsibilities Even though HR departments have taken on a pile of weighty new responsibilities, they still have the administrative record-keeping tasks they've always had. Balancing these responsibilities is the biggest challenge for an HR manager today, according to Boyles.

To cope with this balancing act, HR managers have developed different resources to help them maximize their departments' effectiveness. The most important one, of course, is good people, says Miller. And that makes good hiring and training practices that much more important. Gustafson credits much of her department's success to "a fabulous trainer who creates, delivers, and always improves training programs."

Many credit union HR departments have been able to add to staff in recent years to help with the increased workload. HR managers are also getting more help by virtue of being members of their credit unions' senior management teams. All HR managers interviewed for this article say they don't have any problem getting their CEOs' attention, most of whom clearly recognize the changing roles and greater importance of their HR departments. Another resource greatly valued by HR managers is networking. It's essential to be able to meet with peers in national and regional forums to trade information, says McDonald. "One of the greatest questions to ask your peers is, `What would you do differently if you had it to do over again?' " she says. Boyles believes it's important to network on three levels. "You need to talk with other credit union HR people," he says. "But you ought to talk with HR people in other industries, too. In addition, talk with people in other disciplines, such as marketing and finance. Everyone benefits from this cross-pollination." Another networking resourcethe best, according to Gustafsonis the CUNA HR Council. Currently, it has about 400 members and is an invaluable source of information for credit union HR professionals, Gustafson says.

Another helpful networking tool is the Internet. The Internet holds tremendous potential for providing information and ideas for solving problems and improving operations.

Similarly an intranet can be a networking and resource tool. An intranet is an internal network devised through the Internet but serving a more narrowly defined group, such as a credit union.

Christopherson says one of her most valued tools is a human resource information system (HRIS) integrated with the payroll database and the credit union's computer system. HR professionals can use these systems to relate HR expenses to a credit union's productivity, she says.

Such systems are often homegrown within. credit unions. They can take many forms, however, from simple and inexpensive report generators to sophisticated, expensive database programs. The latter variety is becoming more commercially available, according to Christopherson.

A new, fully integrated HRIS isn't the only thing on many HR professionals' wish lists. Many managers would like to have better distance learning and training capabilities. And videoconferencing systems would help credit unions with multiple branches share training resources.

But the best way to guarantee the HR department's effectiveness is to make sure everyone clearly recognizes how important the department is to the success of the entire credit union. That means hiring or promoting truly experienced and qualified professionals to do HR jobs, according to Yvonne Eversan HR consultant in Madison, Wis.

In the past, someone might have become an HR vice president without holding a bachelor's degree, Evers says, but that's not very likely today. HR is now such a complicated and challenging field that it demands well-educated specialists.

HR has its rewards If HR management seems like a demanding, high-pressure way to make a living, it is. But HR professionals say they get their rewards. Boyles finds great satisfaction in handling delicate issues and in helping people through their difficulties by applying his own experiences, both as a person and a professional. The variety of the job is rewarding, according to Miller. For an HR manager, "every day is different," he says.

But the greatest reward comes from playing that evolving strategic role, according to McDonald. Being the glue that holds the credit union together as it progresses toward its objectives is the payoff for Christopherson.

"When I see the credit union culture alive as it was designed to be, when I see my team working in alignment with what we say we are, that's when I get my reward," says Gustafson. +

RESOURCES

CUNA HR Council; contact Dan Hoover at (800) 365-9655, ext. 4141

* "Tomorrow's HR Manager" by Michael Losey, published by John Wiley & Sons, 1997

* "Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization" by Peter Senge, published by Doubleday,1994

Society for Human Resource Management; (800) 283-7476 American Society for Training and Development; (800) 6282783 or (703) 683-8100

CUNA's Human Resource Management School: Introduction and Advanced Update, Oct. 4-9, 1998: Tradewinds Resort on Sand Key, St. Pete Beach, Fla. Call (800) 356-8010, ext. 4246.

* "Human Resource Management and the Credit Union." This book provides tools for finding and retaining good employees. It shows how to mesh staff considerations with management goals and how to avoid legal liabilities. 146 pages. $47.50. Call CUNA's customer service department at (800) 3568010, ext. 4157, or send an e-mail to ccsd@meteor.org; ask for Stock No. 21347.

Copyright Credit Union National Association, Inc. Mar 1998
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