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Core Strengths Helps CO-OP Financial Services Boost Employee Performance
CO-Op Financial Services introduced Core Strengths as part of its training program in 2014 in order to help boost the performance, productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency of its employees. Since its introduction, employees from every department have completed the training resulting in greater team effectiveness and higher employee engagement.
“By getting people into these workshops earlier in their tenure, it really does help the manager of that person have a better picture of their employees’ motivations and strengths.”
The Challenge
CO-OP Financial Services, which has 9 offices across the United States, helps credit unions leverage the latest technology and insights to strengthen member connections and propel growth. In 2018, its credit union members completed 7.1 billion transactions. In order to continue to achieve its goals, CO-OP is focused on performance, productivity, effectiveness and efficiency.
In the middle of 2014, CO-OP started exploring Core Strengths as a professional development course to help address its goals.
“We really didn’t have a formal training program when I started,” said Dave Ragan, Manager, Talent Development. Ragan and his team went about building a robust program that included Core Strengths as a key component of it. As a result, “It rounded out our course structure nicely,” Ragan commented.
The Core Strengths Solution
At the outset, Core Strengths’ program was delivered to CO-OP’s Client Services team. CO-OP expanded access to the program more broadly and included employees at all levels and across functions. “It is offered to all employees, including our executive team,” said Ragan. Both new and existing employees are invited to experience the course. “By getting people into these workshops earlier in their tenure, it really does help the manager of that person have a better picture of their employees’ motivations and strengths,” said Ragan.
Over the last few years, more than 700 employees across all departments, including marketing, IT, HR and Client Services have completed the Core Strengths training.
Benefit
Since its inception, Core Strengths: Results through Relationships has been very popular inside CO-OP. The course has been lauded for its ability to help team members improve self-awareness and support the teams’ ability to work together. “The primary goal is to provide our leaders with as clear of a picture as we can of who our employees are,” notes Ragan.
In addition, with the inevitable changes in staff, the Core Strengths program and tools help the team grow and evolve. “When we do get new managers, we try to do our best to provide that new snapshot of what their team’s MVS, Conflict Sequence and strengths are as soon as possible,” said Ragan. “Managers often say ‘Hey I am just taking on a new team. Can I get a new team profile, so I can take a look at it?’” adds Ragan.
Participants in the program also directly benefit. “We get a lot of positive feedback around ‘You really are investing in my development’,” added Ragan. Finally, Ragan notes that people who have completed the course are more engaged in general at work and in their relationships with their teams.
About the Company:
CO-OP Financial Services is a payments and financial technology company based in Rancho Cucamonga, CA whose mission is ensuring the success of the credit union movement. CO-OP payments solutions, engagement services and strategic counsel help credit unions optimize member experiences to consistently provide seamless, personalized multi-channel offerings, while delivering secure, sophisticated fraud mitigation service.
