BOULDER CITY, Nev.–One credit union that has always had some aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion as part of its core values said several factors have come together to really help it lean into DEI in 2021—including the creation of employee resource groups (ERGs).
Kim Graham, VP-HR & talent development with the $6.4-billion Kinecta FCU in Manhattan Beach, Calif., told attendees during a virtual Underground Enterprise Xchange hosted by Mitchell, Stankovic Associates and dedicated to ERGs that Kinecta––the name is meant to suggest kinetic energy and connection with its members–is seeing a payoff both internally and externally from its efforts at better connecting.
Graham’s comments appear here as part of a week-long series in CUToday.info examining DEI and ERGs, the latter of which remains relatively new to credit unions. Other reporting in this series includes A ‘Clear Resource’ for Building DEI and 2 Veterans of Process Share Lessons Learned.
“When I look at it, diversity, equity and inclusion has always been sort of part of what we do and what we think about,” said Graham. “We've always had a policy that we do annual equity reviews from a compensation perspective, so it's always been there. But I would say in the last year we really did go full force.”
Helping the CU to go full force, Graham said, is she has had “full support” from Kinecta’s CEO Keith Sultemeier “from the get-go.”
“When we decided we would form the Diversity Council, what we did was send out a note to employees and I said, ‘Hey, we are looking to form our first-ever Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Council. Tell me why you want to be part of the council.’ I got so many different notes from our employees. They were passionate and wanting to make a difference. I read through their life stories and reviewed it with our CEO and we pulled together a group of employees that were actually below manager level and who came from different parts of the organization, with different backgrounds, different ethnicities. It’s a uniquely diverse group.”
A ‘Level-Set’ for Organization
Over the past year Graham said that group has worked together and overseen initiatives that have included unconscious bias training, an effort she said is designed to help “level-set our entire organization as to what really diversity, equity, inclusion and unconscious biases (are all about).”
Graham said the effort has also benefitted from the “good fortune” of being given $30,000 in funding that could be spent on supporting different groups outside of the credit union.
“We've looked at internally at what are we going to do for our employee base, and externally--what are we going to do for the communities that we serve?” Graham explained, noting the internal initiatives have included, in addition to training, inclusion newsletters and the hosting of events and roundtables.
In addition, Graham said Kinecta has also put practices in place to ensure it is attracting diverse applicants for job positions.
“What we've done is we've looked at our metrics and statistics internally, at our employee demographics, and we looked at the demographics of the communities that we serve, because our goal is to be able to say our employee population represents the communities we serve,” Graham told the Underground Xchange. “That's the best way we can meet their needs, so when somebody walks into the credit union they feel welcome, they feel that we embrace diversity.”
Lesson Learned in Merging
Over the past year Kinecta has also been involved in the process of merging with Xceed Financial Credit Union, one result of which, she said, has been to identify some areas where the credit union does need to improve its demographics.
“With that in mind my staffing team is going out and looking at those pockets to increase the diversity in those areas,” she said. “We have some groups that we are definitely focusing on that also translate into business opportunities for us.”
The credit union has also developed a partnership with Covenant House, which supports homeless youth, more than 50% of whom identify as LBGTQ+. Kinecta has been offering those young people financial education with plans to then also offer educational scholarships.
In addition, Kinecta is working with a group seeking to provide support to Black-owned businesses and ha hosted a food market event on its campus, while exploring opportunities to provide membership and financial education.
Finding the Right People
“The other piece of it that I think is really, really important is that we are looking at moving forward with our ERGs,” said Graham. “That's been a bit more difficult (to find) that person who is willing to say, ‘I'm going to take the reins and be the leader.’”
Kinecta currently has a small ERG for women while one other ERG is in its “infancy.”
“We're launching an African American ERG for which I do have a sponsor, and we were just about to launch our LGBTQ+ ERG when one of our employees left,” said Graham. “We're at the point where we're putting in some governance––‘Here's kind of what it takes to be an ERG’––and that that will also kind of roll up under our Diversity Council so that we make sure that they're following certain principles and guidelines.”
Graham said Kinecta very much wants to see more participation from its employee base in terms of where their interests lie.
Critical Board Support
Graham emphasized the initiatives have taken root and blossomed due to not just executive support, but support from the board.
“I have been very thankful that our Diversity Council has had the opportunity to present everything that they've been doing to the board and the board is completely supportive with what we're doing,” Graham said. “We're at this juncture now where we are looking at our strategic plan with our values and our mission and we're at the point where we are about to include and make sure the ERGs are incorporated in our values, in our mission and our strategic plan.”