WASHINGTON – There’s a war for credit union talent. Filene Research Institute announced today, at the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference, a $1 million grant from Visa to help with new efforts to attract and retain talent in the financial cooperative industry.
“Recruiting and retaining top talent in credit unions is key to keeping our movement strong and our mission long-lived,” said Andrew Downin, Managing Director, Research at Filene during a breakfast meeting with members of Filene. “We’re especially thrilled to have the generous support of Visa to make this research a reality. Their participation will help bring to life insights that allow credit unions to better compete in the talent marketplace.”
The announcement was made, along with the news that Filene, headquartered in Madison, Wis., is launching a new “Center of Excellence for the War for Talent” to be led by Filene Fellow Dr. Sekou Bermiss. Currently Bermiss is Assistant Professor of Management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin.
One of the first challenges the center will target is to take a closer look at credit union recruitment tactics to best attract top candidates who believe in the credit union mission. According to Bermiss, this idea is more complicated than it sounds.
“There’s a lot of work to be done on this,” said Bermiss.
“While the tagline ‘our people are our best asset’ is espoused by many organizational leaders, the implementation of this simple principle is remarkable complex.” Bermiss added, “The War for Talent research center provides a powerful platform to share insights to help improve by the quantity and quality of job applicants.”
According to officials from Filene, the War for Talent research center marks the final of the five Centers of Excellence launched by Filene during the past year.
The first colloquium by the War for Talent research center will be held in Austin, Texas on Sept. 14, 2017 to discuss research and strategies aimed at bolstering the quality of both paid and volunteer credit union talent.
