Armed with nothing more than a stick of chalk, a monotone voice, and some dusty facts about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, a high school economics teacher played by Ben Stein bores his students silly in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off .”

We’ve all been there professionally, too—looking down the barrel of a 126-slide training presentation while someone drones on, reading each slide aloud verbatim.

But increasingly, credit unions are harnessing tech-nology and embracing new teaching and learning approaches that can improve productivity, connect employees at remote sites, and motivate staff mem-bers to achieve.

“If you’re not engaging your employees, you won’t be able to engage your members,” says Matt Davis, founder of gameFI Inc., which uses game strategies to boost staff performance at credit unions. “If you aren’t taking employee engagement seriously, you aren’t tak-ing a sales and service culture seriously.”

Th at ground-level engagement with employees is

Strategic use of new

tools can boost staff

engagement and

create effi ciencies.

Technology Transforms Training

crucial. Seven of 10 American workers say they’re “actively disengaged” or “not engaged” in their work, according to Gallup’s State of the Workforce survey. Th at means they’re “emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.”

Technology enables credit unions to cut through the monotony, making training more inviting and relevant. Many have well-rounded training programs that incorporate game dynamics, e-learning, mobile platforms, and hands-on simulations. Th ese programs bridge the distance between far-fl ung branches and address the transformation in how diff erent genera-tions of workers consume information.

“Th e goal is not just to share information but to impart knowledge,” says Marlo Foltz, CUNA’s vice president of blended learning. “You see the popular-ity of communication avenues like Snapchat, the Tasty cooking videos, and live Facebook streams. Some say it’s ruining training because people think everyone can be trained in 90 seconds.

“The reality is, that’s how millennials consume knowledge,” Foltz adds. “So like it or not, we have to adjust accordingly.”

Experts say these effi cient avenues boost productiv-

ity. But trainers also insist credit unions need to use technology in targeted, goal-oriented ways craft ed to each institution’s needs.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Here’s the greatest shiny thing in technology and we need it,’” says Linda Barner, vice president of human resources and learning and development at $3 billion asset Mission Federal Credit Union in San Diego. If that technology has no great impact, Barner notes, “you just spent $100,000 on the newest toy—but what do you have to show for it? Be strategic about how you implement technology.”

Embrace blended learningSarah Gilbert, president of meLearning Solutions, works with organizations to create mobile and e-learning strategies. But she warns no one-size-fi ts-allapproach exists.

“You have to determine your overall technology strategy and how your learning function supports the organization’s goals in the fi rst place,” Gilbert says. “I feel strongly about having long-term solutions and not just putting Band-Aids on things.”

Mission Fed began upping its learning technology game about fi ve years ago. It now has a robust line-up of online learning courses for its more than 500 employees—from onboarding classes to teller, regula-tory, and supervisory training.

But blended learning—which additionally incor-porates face-to-face contact, written worksheets, and supervisor feedback—also is important, says Barner.

Technology isn’t the answer for everything, she says. “You have to be certain it’s appropriate for your intended use.”

While new employees can view an online onboard-ing class to pick up some basics, Mission Fed contin-ues the momentum with new employee workshops, oft en hosted by CEO Debra Schwartz. Th at human contact best conveys the credit union’s culture, history, and strategy, Barner says.

Other specifi c credit union topics aren’t well suited for e-learning, she adds.

“For example, if I want people to understand sales

Focusu Incorporating technology into your training

programs boosts employee engagement.

u Select technology that addresses your CU’s specifi c needs.

u Board focus: Evaluate your CU’s training budget to ensure you’re investing suffi ciently in technology.

Dennis ChaptmanAt Summit CU’s virtual computer lab in Madison, Wis., nine monitors enable staff to offer personal attention to trainees at remote sites. “Trainers can see, click-by-click, exactly what you’re doing,” says Jeff McManamy, assistant vice president of learning and organizational development.

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and be eff ective with a good sales model, I would not just use e-learning. Good sales techniques require mastery and practice and feedback,” Barner says. “You have to know more and do more than just sit there watching something.”

More recently, the credit union has branched into using shorter, YouTube-like videos housed on its intranet that explain products and services. For exam-ple, near the end of year—when individual retirement accounts (IRAs) generate more interest—Mission Fed releases what it calls a “QuickCast” on IRAs.

“If it’s more than seven minutes, you’ve probably lost your audience,” says Barner. “But it’s a good way to off er a refresher in an informal style. In addition to the video, we point them to some additional online resources if they want to do a deeper dive.”

Mission Fed has even taken an early look at its online policies and procedures manual, adding short tutorials to explain concepts. Barner hopes the eff ort will yield data that show what subjects employees look up most oft en.

“If we can pull those analytics, that changes how and what we train,” she says.

Remote sessions provide fl exibilityOne of the biggest training challenges credit unions face is educating staff members who work in a variety of locations, oft en many miles from the mother ship.

In a room at Summit Credit Union’s training center in Madison, Wis., trainers work in a virtual computer lab to educate off -site employees on the fundamentals and nuances of its computer system.

Th ey can train eight or nine staff members at a time—employees log in online from one of Summit’s 33 branches—by keeping an eye on 42-inch monitors arrayed around the room.

“Trainers can see, click-by-click, exactly what you’re doing,” says Jeff McManamy, assistant vice president of learning and organizational development at the $2.6 billion asset credit union. “If you start to go down a path that might not be the right way, we can say, ‘Let’s hold on a second and re-track that.’ You’re doing real-world work with instructor interaction. It’s not like you’re going to a webinar.”

Summit employees have enjoyed the one-on-one contact the technology allows. And McManamy says the system accommodates the adult learning prefer-ence for hands-on learning to back up nuts-and-bolts training.

Employees learning via the two-year-old training system can communicate with each other, McManamy

says. “Th ey can hear each other, and they can go into a chat room and discuss something. Th e possibilities are endless, and we’re just scratching the surface.”

Th e lab also provides employees more fl exibility. Th e system is especially helpful for training peak-time tell-ers, who oft en have irregular schedules, he says.

Summit’s branches reach from Madison to Milwau-kee, a drive that can take three hours round trip. So the system saves on travel and salary costs, and allows employees to stay at their home base where they can spend more time meeting members’ needs, McMa-namy adds.

“It gets very costly to bring people into the home offi ce for activities,” he says.

Still, McManamy says the lab is not a be-all, end-all solution. Th e credit union off ers 280 hours of instruc-tor-led training on everything from personal fi nance for employees to a course in presentation skills, and has developed more than 80 e-learning courses.

Both Summit and Mission Fed use CUNA Profes-sional Development Online (CPD Online), a web-based training service that off ers an array of courses tailored for credit unions. CPD Online enables credit unions to track and report training progress, and evaluate employees’ performance as they complete

training. In the fi rst eight months of 2016, more than 26,500 students completed about 350,000 classes.

“Auditors continue to emphasize that credit unions must ensure employees have participated in and com-pleted—or tested out of—training,” Foltz says.

Summit and Mission Fed both house their e-learn-ing resources at CPD Online. Summit allows employ-ees to take CPD Online courses during work hours, and each month reviews and highlights two CPD Online courses in its staff newsletter.

Blending CPD Online courses with local instructor-led sessions also is eff ective, Barner says. “You’re not having to create something from scratch. Nobody can aff ord not to be effi cient with time and staffi ng. It’s a way of doing training more effi ciently.”

Many credit unions achieve that effi ciency by asking staff to complete remote or automated training before and aft er face-to-face sessions, Foltz adds.

Develop mobile platformsMobile platforms for learning are the next big thing, allowing employees to access training from anywhere on their mobile devices. Towards Maturity, a nonprofi t organization that aims to improve workplace learning technologies, found that about 47% of organizations

GAMIFICATION ENHANCES LEARNING AND PERFORMANCEThe “Pokémon Go” craze that sends thousands into the streets, single-mindedly peering at their cell phones in the augmented-reality hunt demonstrates the power of engagement through gamifi cation.

Matt Davis tries to engage credit union employees in a similar way, using the mechanics of games to enhance productivity and provide motivation.

“We take the things that make games fun, engaging, and addictive, and we apply those in the real world so we can actually improve behavior and outcomes,” says Davis, founder of gameFI Inc.

Through gamifi cation, Davis’s fi rm incentivizes employ-ees to perform better or in new ways. For example, gami-fi cation sets up a variety of leaderboards, showing staff how employees’ behavior compares with that of their col-leagues in specifi c tasks.

“Status is something you can get through a leaderboard. It’s sticky and it’s almost free,” says Davis, noting employ-

ees crave connectedness, autonomy, and mastery.

The company works with about 10 credit unions across three continents. At one of gameFI’s fi rst clients, the leaderboard system sparked a 60% increase in staff referrals of members to investment advisers during a six-month period.

Millennial employees are wired for this sort of continu-ous feedback, Davis says.

“They put something on Facebook and three seconds later, they have two likes and four comments,” he says. “In these people’s minds, when they do something they get a slap on the wrist or a high fi ve. That’s missing in the workplace.”

Davis underscores that gamifi cation doesn’t require cre-ating expensive, animated video games.

“You don’t need to have Mario Brothers and princesses,” he says. “What you need to ask is, ‘How do we maximize feedback?’ If you can do that and not make it look like a video game, then you’re on the right track.”

HEAR MORE FROM DAVISON THE CUNA NEWS PODCAST AT NEWS.CUNA.ORG/PODCASTS

Matt Davis

“Be strategic about how you implement technology,” advises Linda Barner, Mission Fed’s vice president of human resources and learning and development. Her CU houses a robust lineup of e-learning courses at CUNA’s CPD Online, but also believes strongly in face-to-face training that features written worksheets and supervisor feedback.

iStock

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use mobile devices for online training.Increasingly, Gilbert says, users expect to have

mobile options for training. But developing the system can be intimidating because of the new technologies involved, like HTML5.

“You must have a deeper understanding about technology, how people use their devices, and design thinking in general,” she says. “You have to understand how people hold their devices; how big to make vari-ous elements; how you can’t use a lot of animation, Flash, and clip art; and to use visual items sparingly.”

Gilbert says she uses a mobile design process for all of the e-learning programming she creates. The mobile approach also has some built-in advantages, such as the potential to incorporate geolocation.

“I can push out a course or a mobile solution and, depending on where you’re accessing the information from or what branch you’re at, it can give me appropri-ate rules, regulations, and information for that area,” she says.

Credit unions undoubtedly can leverage technology as a powerful ally in employee training. But Barner

cautions that, despite technology’s promise, the human element makes training successful.

For example, after employees finish online courses at Mission Fed, their managers ask them what they learned and how they’ll apply the knowledge at work.

“It’s not just sitting somebody down in front of a computer and having them take a class,” Barner says. “Without fail, whenever I ask someone what’s been most valuable to them, it was the conversations they had with their managers afterward.”

Resources u CUNA:

1. CUNA Professional Development Online: cpdonline.cuna.org

2. Experience Learning Live!, Oct. 23-26, Nash-ville, Tenn.: training.cuna.org/ell

u gameFI Inc.: gamefi.org

u meLearning Solutions: melearningsolutions.com

FOUR LEARNING TRENDS

UntetheredToday’s employees find themselves working from several locations and structuring their work in nontraditional ways.

CollaborativeLearners are developing personal and professional networks to gain information about their professions.

On demandEmployees access information differently today than they did just a few years ago. Often, they use smartphones to troubleshoot problems.

EmpoweredIncreasingly, workers seek training elsewhere because employers aren’t giving them what they need.

Source: Bersin by Deloitte

37%of the globalworkforce isexpected to be“mobile” by the end of 2015

of workforce learning happensvia on-the-job interactions withpeers, teammates, and managers

80%

To learn what they needfor their jobs, employeesaccess:

search engine

online courses70%+

50-60%

of workers say theyhave opportunitiesfor learning and growthat their workplace38%

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