NORWICH, Conn. — The fast growing casino business of southeast Connecticut has taught the $170 million CorePlus Federal Credit Union a valued personnel lesson in focusing on employee diversity.
Indeed, the result of a two-year internship program is the talk of this city of 37,000 which has witnessed demographic changes marked by the absorption of large numbers of Asian and central American immigrants who now work in two popular casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
"Our board decided a year ago we had to reach out to a very diverse community in new ways to make our citizens feel comfortable in dealing with our staff," said Warren P. Scholl, president/CEO.
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Hence, CorePlus working with a semi-private school developed a paid intern program in which employees from diverse backgrounds were hired. The program has been deemed a big success drawing attention of the local media which featured CorePlus as a "welcome" employer.
"We knew we had to change from the inside out," said Scholl in detailing the CorePlus management philosophy.
Over the summer eight student interns with ethnicities ranging from China to Bangladesh, were hired for the CU's seven branches performing an array of back office and teller duties.
A highlight of the program was a graduation ceremony Aug. 14 held at a local restaurant presided over by Norwich Mayor Ben Lathrop. Also joining in the celebration were Grace Jones, president of Three Rivers College, and Leo Butler, diversity director of Norwich Free Academy, coordinator of the intern program
with CorePlus.
At least one of the interns was hired full-time with others doing part-time work, said Scholl noting also the current CorePlus staff "really seemed to love having students here with us."
School officials, he said, have also "told us the internship is so popular that they have been asked by other area organizations to send some of these students to them.
"The Norwich Academy has said that the CorePlus program will be the model that other organizations must now follow," said Scholl.
One intern from China, Wucheng Feng, who plans to attend Three Rivers College, and worked in the CorePlus Groton office, said he learned much about finance as well as to "smile, shake hands and introduce yourself."
Feng worked in the Groton office, and he would like to come back to CorePlus in two years to work in accounting.
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