Cathy Graham has spent her entire working life in credit unions but never worked in a credit union branch until this spring — a three-week immersion she called “one of the best experiences of my career.”
Graham has spent more than 18 years at Desert Financial Credit Union ($8.8B, Phoenix, AZ), and while her current title is executive vice president, her primary work has been in marketing and strategy. The jump to branching was the result of leadership conversations around possible enhancements to the employee onboarding process.
“We were going round and round in circles, and in the middle of the meeting I had this crazy idea of going through new employee orientation and working in the branch to see what it’s like,” she says. “We all said, ‘That’s a crazy idea — but it’s kind of a good idea.’”
Desert Financial did indeed launch that crazy idea in an effort to understand how to better prepare new employees for their first day on the job. Graham spent two weeks in orientation and a week working in the branch. The singular focus of the experience, she says, was whether she as a “new employee” would feel confident in the branch — not necessarily proficient, but comfortable and ready.
“Spoiler alert: Nope, I didn’t feel ready,” she says. “But there were a couple of simple changes that would’ve made me feel ready.”
Switch It Up
Graham is quick to point out that much of the onboarding process works well; other aspects, however, slow things down and can hinder employees’ readiness to help members. For example, tellers learn transaction codes and how to navigate internal computer systems during new employee orientation, but they’re also required to complete 31 tutorials, half of which are related to compliance.
“Twenty-seven percent of new employee orientation is allotted to tutorials — not on job-related skill building,” Graham says. “We spent one hour doing mock transactions, and that was the best time. We need to switch this.”
The EVP recognizes how crucial compliance is, but one day one, front-line workers need to feel comfortable in the core operating system.
“I needed to feel comfortable performing basic transactions,” she says. “There are probably 10 things that I needed to be really, really comfortable with, but I couldn’t because we were trying to cram all this other information in.”
The good news, Graham notes, is that the training wasn’t designed like this; it has simply morphed over time. It took an outsider like herself to understand that the right content wasn’t being delivered at the right time. By focusing on the most important content early on, Graham says the credit union can better prepare tellers to perform their most common tasks on day one.
Harder Than It Looks
One of Graham’s biggest surprises from the experience was the number of steps that go into the most basic transactions, from making small talk to verifying a member’s identity (and updating documentation when needed), checking available balances and other alerts, performing the actual transaction — including correct transaction codes — referring members to self-service channels where appropriate, getting signatures, thanking the member, and more.
“It’s so simple on the member side,” she says. “On the teller side there’s this technical stuff and then the next member isn’t doing the same thing. I never knew what was coming at me next, and I needed to know how to perform a variety of transactions.”
All while being warm and friendly and watching for cues that the member might need other solutions, of course.
During her two-week orientation and one week in the branch, Graham never told members she wasn’t going to be a full-time teller, only that she was new. Nearly all offered words of encouragement. And the experience gave her a new appreciation for the work that goes into working on the front line.
“Our employees are trying to protect members, protect the organization, be warm and friendly, and balance at the end of the day,” she quips. “It’s a lot, but they make it look easy.”
Comfort Zone
Along with a new understanding of what front-line staff face, Graham says the experience also made her appreciate her day-to-day work.
“I was so back in my comfort zone,” she says of returning to her regular duties.
Her branch immersion meant not only missing regular meetings and putting other work on hold but also inconveniencing others who were impacted by her absence. The time in the branch helped Graham recognize just how much flexibility she has in her day job.
“I feel like I’m approaching my job with a bit more insight,” she says. “I’m looking at everything through a different lens. It’s causing me to take a far more employee-centric view on some of the work that we do.”
Blank Slate
The experience will also hopefully lay the foundation for future changes at Desert Financial. Graham hopes to build a mock branch with teller lines and equipment to leverage what new employees learn in those early weeks.
“Getting those up and running will take some time, but this isn’t rocket science,” she says.
Some of the easiest changes simply involve changing the timelines of training, including taking a longer view and spreading certain tutorials over six or 12 months rather than in the first two weeks.
Because Graham was entirely new to working in the branch, she says the experience was different for her than it would be for almost anyone else, especially anyone who might have some kind of a framework rather than as a blank slate. That blank slate gave her the opportunity to be vulnerable — which, in turn, made it a valuable experience.
“I can’t recommend this enough,” she says. “You’ll feel uncomfortable and incompetent, and that’s OK. If you really want to understand this experience from the employee perspective, spending even a week doing their job is so enlightening.”
Insights From Undercover Bosses. Does your credit union truly understand what happens on its front line and the jobs employees juggle? Cathy Graham stepped out of her comfort zone to undertake branch training and onboarding. The experience transformed her perspective and laid the foundation for improvements at Desert Financial. If your credit union allows executives to step into a junior role — branch, call center, back-office processing, or more — we want to hear from you. 📣 Tell us about your program. 📣