PLEASANTON, Calif. – There's something different about theatmosphere at Harland Financial Solution's Credit Union CoreSystems office.

Granted, most businesses give employees a heads-up beforeallowing the press in the building, to make sure everyone putstheir best foot forward. But signs of employee discontent areimpossible to hide: grumbling groups of cigarette breakers, forexample; or, employees who minimize online shopping Web sites asthe guest approaches.

Walk around Harland, and every employee is more than happy totell you how long he or she has worked there. Over in programming,one cubical enclave gives “the new guy” a hard time because he'sonly been on board five years.

Harland Financial Services has an impressive turnover ratio:10.5% annualized. The Credit Union Core Systems division, comprisedof the Pleasanton office, along with smaller locations in DesMoines, Iowa and St. Paul, Minn., is at 10.3%.

General Manager David McConney credits the John H. HarlandCompany's positive leadership strategies, which he says start atthe top with chairman, president and CEO Timothy Tuff.

Like many companies, Harland has a values statement, whichincludes four core values (respect, leadership, focus andpersistence) and four pillars of success (customer focus,competitive technology, best people and innovation). There'snothing remarkable about the statement, except for one thing: eachand every employee must not only buy into it, they must also liveit. In fact, employees are hired on the basis of their ability toexemplify the values statement philosophy. Skills, while important,rank second.

“I've personally seen very few organizations who make a realeffort to walk the walk,” McConney said, adding, “and we really domean it . it's not something you can fake on a consistentbasis.

“That's not to say we don't have our issues, but I think it'sapparent that around here, people are pretty happy in their skins.And when your people are happy, they can be devoted to making thecustomer happy.”

Empowerment is another tricky concept that lives actively atHarland. When asked about empowerment, more than one employee saidthey feel so empowered, they know they will never be disciplinedfor doing anything that makes the customer happy. McConney agreedwith that policy, adding that he's so comfortable with thatphilosophy, he doesn't even mind if it sometimes results in lostrevenue.”It isn't about every dollar that goes through theregister. It may be a short-term cost, but the long-term payback ishuge,” he said. One of Harland's selling points to potentialcustomers is staff tenure, particularly in the programmingdepartment. Peter McKellar, senior manager of programming, has themost tenure of anyone at Harland Financial, dating back 26 years tothe original inception of the ULTRADATA system in his nativeAustralia. “I can't remember the last programmer who voluntarilyresigned,” McKellar said, noting that most programmers have atleast 10 years experience with Harland products. Why the longevity?McKellar credits Harland's expectation that programmers act morelike artists than order takers. “Rather than have a group ofrobotic technicians who simply do as you say, we hire businesssolutions analysts. I expect them to understand what the customerwants and find a way to create it,” he said. McKellar said he goesso far as to send programmers out to credit unions so his team canexperience the product as the end user does. “The buck stops here,”McKellar says, with a proud grin, explaining that back in his day,he was not only the programmer, he was the only point of customercontact. Niles Bay, vice president of product development,commandeers a daily meeting with his team of project managers. Whenone manager reports a slight delay, Bay asks a curious question.“Will this still allow us to keep ahead of the curve?” he asks.Many folks in the industry wonder how Harland is so quick toprovide solutions for the latest issues in the credit unionindustry. It's simple: they plan for the unexpected. While Harlandplans major releases and enhancements at least one year out, thecompany also sets aside time for needs that arise during the year.“We reserve about 20% of our capacity for projects that come fromour `ahead of the curve' focus groups,” Bay explained. The focusgroups are made up of customers who attend Harland's regional usergroup meetings. They discuss what works, and more importantly, whatdoesn't work. Harland also keeps in close contact with credit unionregulators and even the banking industry to be in the know at alltimes. Case in point; after the FFIEC mandated new Internet bankingsecurity requirements last fall, Harland got to work reprogrammingonline banking modules to meet the new rules. The project beganduring fourth quarter 2005. By Jan.15, 2006, the first customerwent live with the updated software. And the FFIEC mandate doesn'teven take effect until the end of this year. Oftentimes, thedepartment that keeps the longest hours at a credit union is IT.They are usually the first to arrive, and at month-end, the last toleave. Now imagine setting call center hours to serve that group,which spans six time zones. Customer Support Senior Manager CherylBookhammer oversees five customer support teams, including aback-office team that is on the phones from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m.Pacific Time, and on call the other four hours of the day. Theyhandle issues that often arise at the beginning or end of abusiness day: month end processing, ACH balancing, etc.

“We want to make sure that for the majority of their processingday, we are in the office,” Bookhammer said. One of California'smost publicized problems, bad traffic, is actually a benefit whenit comes to scheduling nontraditional hours. Employees on each endof the back-office schedule miss the rush hour crunch, which forsome, saves an hour or more during commutes.

Bookhammer rewards her department with the usual incentives:contests, gift cards, and peer recognition. In addition to theoverall positive work environment at Harland, she also creditsparticipation in the San Diego-based Service Strategiescertification program, which tests participants against the bestpractices of service departments in companies like Microsoft andOracle.

“While it's important to understand credit unions, it's alsoimportant to understand what support organizations are doing, too,”Bookhammer said.

In the past few years, Harland has made several majoracquisitions, including the purchase of Liberty Enterprisesapproximately one year ago. However, according to McConney,acquisitions are now on the back burner, with the leader focusingon further development of existing products.

“That's not to say that we're not interested in goodopportunities, but there's a drive to complete an integration ofour products,” McConney said.

Every company is after increased market share, and Harland is noexception. The secret to Harland's success lies in changing thecompany's image in the marketplace, McConney said.

“We're continuing the journey of moving away from being viewedas a data processor to being a strategic partner and thoughtleader,” he said, adding that in his opinion, being a leader in theindustry is just as much about market perception thanfinancials.

Keeping up with fraud and the evolution of technology, not tomention continued credit union mergers, will provide plenty ofchallenges for Harland as the company moves forward, McConneysaid.

But not surprisingly, McConney said he believes that the key toovercoming those challenges lies not in technology or marketconditions, but people. “When the chips are down, if your employeesare committed to you, they'll do the right thing,” he said.

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