ST. PAUL, Minn.–Dave Larson, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union president/CEO, has been named the top leader among Minnesota’s largest companies, while APFCU has also been ranked seventh in the 2018 Star Tribune Top 150 Workplaces survey.
The newspaper’s annual Top Workplaces announcement recognizes Minnesota’s most-progressive companies based on employee opinions measuring engagement, organizational health and satisfaction. The analysis included responses from over 71,000 employees at Minnesota public, private and nonprofit organizations.
To qualify for the Star Tribune Top Workplaces, a company must have more than 50 employees in Minnesota. Over 2,400 companies were invited to participate. Rankings were composite scores calculated on the basis of employee responses.
“The companies in the Star Tribune Top 150 Workplaces deserve high praise for creating the very best work environments in the state of Minnesota,” said Michael J. Klingensmith, Star Tribune publisher.
According to the credit union, when Larson was named president/CEO in 2013, he sought to implement “a missing ingredient of care” to solve high employee turnover and dissatisfaction.
“I really wanted our employees to know that, as an organization, we care about them,” he said. “Over the last five years, we’ve worked hard to bring that value into the organization. As a result, our turnover rate today is 10% and that’s in a pretty hot job market.”
As a result, Affinity Plus employees now take much-greater ownership of the credit union’s current and future success, according to Larson, who often refers to Affinity Plus employees as the “secret sauce,” understanding that the credit union is successful because of the ideas they share and their determination to serve members well.
“They feel part of something bigger -- not only helping members with their banking needs, but participating in their lives,” Larson said.
In both his professional work and personal engagement with staff, Larson said he emphasizes transparency and authenticity. He also believes it’s important to be personally vulnerable and always curious.
“At times, I see myself as kind of the storyteller or the narrator of the credit union,” Larson said in a statement. “In that story, I talk a lot about the role of the employee. When people see themselves in that story, or see themselves within the vision of what Affinity Plus is doing, it builds a much-stronger connection to the organization.”
Larsonwas recently profiled in the Star Tribune here.