By Ray Birch
TACOMA, Wash.—All of bumps in the road the pandemic laid in front of credit unions has altered the strategic planning process, says Mike Beall, who emphasized responding isn’t just about changing the view toward the future itself but also how the CU approaches planning itself.
“Credit unions had become very much focused on a three-to-five-year strategic planning cycle,” said Beall, chief experience officer and one of the owners of CU Strategic Planning. “But coming out of COVID the new normal is looking ahead even three years is very hard.”
Beall said among CU Strategic Planning’s clients two years has become more of the sweet spot.
“During COVID credit unions became so focused on meeting the challenges of the day, the human resources challenges, the challenges of what was going on in the financial world…It seemed like every three to six weeks there were some new issues to be addressed,” recalled Beall. “You could only look so far ahead.”
Beall’s comments are appearing here as part of a CUToday.info series that looks at how credit unions are approaching their planning in 2023 and beyond.
A Tough Combo
All the change that has occurred during the COVID pandemic and a time when financial services has rapidly transitioned to being highly digital have combined to make it that much more difficult to forecast the future, according to Beall.
“They're under pressure more to account for all of the financial pressures, the potential of recession, the changing environment and then budgeting for all of those things,” he explained. “And the truth is a credit union’s control over of all of these things…it's not always in their control.”
As an example, Beall pointed to the unexpected share growth that occurred during the health crisis its affect upon net worth ratios. Now, as CUToday.info has reported extensively and as every CFO knows all too well, the flood of liquidity has become a liquidity crunch.
The Branch Conundrum
Mike Beall
Another challenge to planning in the current environment is the remote workforce, which has put a new premium on attracting the right talent with the ability to do the work—and show up, said Beall.
Beall pointed to the difficulty credit unions are having in having sufficient branch employees on hand, forcing management staff to step into those roles at times to meet member demand. He added that some savvy HR leaders are now asking for two emergency contact numbers when a person is hired so they have a better chance of reaching an employee who is not coming into work and is also not answering phone calls or texts.
Beall pointed to another traditional practice that has faded quickly.
“In the past, if you had a frontline job and you were not going into work, you called in with your reason,” explained Beall. “You’d say, ‘I’m sick. I'm not coming in.’ That’s going away as employees often just don’t turn up for work. That is very hard for a small branch staff to address. It can sometimes mean the difference between a branch being open or closed for the day.”
With potentially that kind of impact on member service, Beall said this problem is rightfully being elevated in credit union strategic planning sessions.
A Greater Focus
To address this issue, Beall said credit unions are focusing more on training courses, new compensation models and other programs to keep staff engaged.
“They are focusing more on long-range programs to motivate staff and give them more ways to build career paths,” he said.
Moreover, the smartest CUs are now stepping up their communications to staff on why they are in business—the mission of credit unions in general and the specific mission of their organization—as another means of getting staff engaged with the cooperative, according to Beall.
When it comes to how credit unions are dedicating time to strategic planning, Beall said that is changing, as well.
“We’re rethinking and identifying how to get the most out of the time that the organization is able to set aside for strategic planning,” explained Beall. “We work with credit unions to do a lot of pre-work. It used to be you’d go away for a long weekend and work on strategic planning. Now, with almost every credit union we work with, we conduct a pre-strategy session survey.”
Beating Board Think
That survey, said Beall, accomplishes several things, and among them is helping to have more voices heard.
“It sets the tone for the planning session,” he said. With the questions we ask we get a sense of what kinds of things management really wants to hear from both the board and from staff,” Beall said. “But the survey also gets us out of what I call ‘board think.’”
To Beall, “board think” is the scenario that develops when the loudest voices on the board control the dialogue to the exclusion of others who may have valuable insights and perspectives, Beall said.
“You sometimes would end up in a place where a couple of people dominate the conversation,” he said. “But now, if you're starting work in advance, then everybody's voices are heard equally.”
Beall said it also helps him, as a facilitator to help the organization get stronger results from the planning session.
“We use the time that we have together better, we work smarter with the time we have and really get down to the nitty-gritty issues,” Beall said.