Another month, another scandal brewing at Wells Fargo.

Just when the beleaguered bank was beginning to move past theshadows of its fraudulent account scandal exposed in 2016, it's nowbeing accused of charging thousands of customers for auto insurancethey didn't need.

Regardless of who at the bank gets the finger of blame pointedat them, scandals like this ultimately are borne from dysfunctionalwork cultures and recruiting practices that typically don't placeenough focus on candidate qualities such as ethics.

Which begs the questions: How does your credit union incorporateethics into its recruiting practices? Beyond simply looking fortellers, loan officers, or even VPs who are experts in theirfields, are you looking for candidates who have the uniquepro-social philosophy that credit unions are known for?

Millennials and Pro-social

Recruiting Mix Perfectly

According to a study published by Forbes earlier this year, 64%of millennials said it was a priority for them to make the world abetter place through their work. While it's no question they'realso looking to make a decent salary, the strength of millennials'pro-social work philosophy is unique compared to othergenerations.

What a great opportunity for credit unions to align thisgeneration's work goals with the pro-social philosophy that isingrained in our movement. As your credit union advertises newroles via LinkedIn or other job sites, what types of key words andphrases are you using? Do you focus more on the technical skillneeded for a candidate to be successful, and do you supplement thatby highlighting the “people helping people” message of ourindustry?

When you communicate your credit union's pro-social focus, you'llattract applicants who are drawn to that focus. And it's notjust about hiring tellers who can smile and greet a member by name.As credit unions move toward more online and mobile services, itbecomes increasingly important for back-office staff to havepro-social skills since they oversee much of your credit union'sinteractions with your members.

Are you looking for IT developers and operations staff who careabout your credit union's social mission as much as they care aboutkeeping their professional certifications current? You should be.If you're not, you may wind up with employees who don't see yourcredit union as being any different than the big banks.

Effective Recruitment Begins in the MarketingDepartment

Oftentimes a potential employee's first impression of yourcredit union doesn't come from a job posting or recruiter's pitch.These candidates are the same consumers who encounter yourmarketing messages and are paying attention to your credit union'scorporate social efforts.

Before a job applicant ever considers you for work, they willwant to become familiar with your company. What sets your creditunion apart? Even more broadly, what sets the credit union movementapart from other financial competitors?

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before millennialsunderstand our philosophical differences from banks. In a Googlesurvey fielded in 2015, 49% of millennials aged 18 to 24 had noidea what made credit unions different from banks. And perhaps evenmore depressing was that 36% had no idea what a credit unionis.

How can we expect to find employees and leaders who will supportthe credit union movement's pro-social philosophy when we're noteffective at communicating our overall consumer advantage?

Before your credit union considers beefing up its pro-socialrecruitment messaging and strategies, you need to understand howyour members (and more importantly, non-members) perceive you. Dothey see you as just another financial institution that happens tohave lower loan rates, or do they truly understand what your creditunion stands for philosophically?

You can't expect to have employees who understand yourphilosophy if your members don't.

Consider an Industry-Wide Career Path

The days of employee (or employer) loyalty are long gone.Forrester Research has predicted that the youngest employees todaywill have between 12 and 15 jobs in their lifetime.

Many credit unions have stories of new hires who on orientationday are already asking what their next position will be and howsoon they'll have it. While this shows tremendous drive on the partof the employee, it puts many credit unions in a pinch if theirorganizational chart doesn't offer quick job advancementopportunities.

But the credit union movement presents a unique opportunity thatbanks can't offer – even though an employee may start at a smallcredit union with few advancement opportunities, our industry has ahistory of welcoming, and sometimes encouraging, employees to movefrom one credit union to another in a truly collaborativefashion.

What if part of a credit union's recruitment pitch was, “Do wellhere, and you could move up to a leadership role here or at anothercredit union.” I can't imagine Wells Fargo ever saying that workingfor Chase is a welcomed next step for a new hire. But a messagelike this might help credit unions collectively attract top talentthat would never give us a second thought otherwise.

We're Waging a War for Talent

Strategies like pro-social recruiting and industry-wide careerpaths may be ways to maintain or regain the upper hand in hiring.And they're just two ideas being researched in Filene's newestcenter of excellence focused on the War forTalent. Sekou Bermiss, Filene's research fellow from theUniversity of Texas at Austin, is committed to helping creditunions win this war.

Sekou and other leaders from academia will be discussingcutting-edge ways credit unions can recruit and retain tomorrow'sleaders in Austin, Texas on Sept. 14 during America'sGot Talent: Attracting It is the Challenge, Filene's firstresearch colloquium on the topic.

While we face hiring challenges, competitors like Wells Fargoare facing their own very public challenges rooted in unethicalemployee behavior. Now is the time for credit unions to setthemselves apart as the employers of choice for those who don'twant to be associated with scandal.

Andrew Downin is the Managing Director, Research atFilene Research Institute. He can be reachedat 608-661-3746 or [email protected].