Training Top 125 Best Practice: One Nevada Credit Union’s Compass Training

Compass Training is the first stop on a new employee’s journey at One Nevada Credit Union’s ONCUniversity.

Program Details

Compass Training attendees receive in-depth information about ONCU’s products and services and successful sales techniques, and participate in ONCU-themed games. Throughout Compass Training, corporate departments present material specific to their area that will help branch employees strengthen their performance. Compass Training also provides new employees hands-on time in the company’s training lab, so they are able to train on ONCU’s numerous computer systems.

Compass Training allows employees to role-play member encounters. This helps employees become comfortable with speaking about ONCU products and allows current employees the opportunity to practice a different approach. Two or three times throughout the second half of Compass Training, participants play “ONCU Heads Up!” This game requires players to describe ONCU products, services, strategic priorities, and core values. New employees leave Compass Training excited, confident, and eager to continue their journey!

Overall, employees leave knowing they have a support system that will always be there to help them. The ONCU University team follows up with employees to find out how they are doing and if they have any questions.

The next step of Compass is to get a MAP! ONCUniversity manages a valuable program called MAP (Mentoring Assistance Program). MAP coaches are employees who are nominated by their manager. These employees volunteered to be coaches and have demonstrated the ability to develop others.

MAP coaches are responsible for teaching new employees policies, procedures, and systems, so they can effectively provide service to ONCU members. MAP coaches attend a full day of training on different styles of adult learning and the importance of building rapport with their trainees. A formal certification establishing MAP coach status is received upon completion of training. MAP coaches are partnered with a new employee for a three-week period and instruct according to an established training checklist, ensuring a new employee is trained thoroughly on products, services, and, most importantly, the level of service One Nevada members have come to expect.

Both the MAP coach and the trainee have the opportunity to evaluate one another; the MAP coach evaluates the level of working knowledge the trainee has achieved during the training period, and the trainee evaluates the MAP coach’s effectiveness during the training period.

Results

With the combination of Compass and MAP, new ONCU employees have a proven “GPS” to guide them through their credit union career. To measure the success rate, ONCU looks at average tenure, which currently sits at 11 years. This is well above the average rate of 2.5 years in the industry. Furthermore, 81 percent of employees stated that the credit union is doing a good job hiring the right people for the appropriate positions. This is well above the industry average of 59 percent.

Lorri Freifeld
Lorri Freifeld is the editor/publisher of Training magazine. She writes on a number of topics, including talent management, training technology, and leadership development. She spearheads two awards programs: the Training APEX Awards and Emerging Training Leaders. A writer/editor for the last 30 years, she has held editing positions at a variety of publications and holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University.