When they have a few minutes to spare from their regular duties at Central Wisconsin Credit Union, CEO Frank Hunt and Accountant Nick Helbach don work clothes and head outside to trim the hedges.

Along with the other seven employees of the Plover, Wis., credit union, Hunt and Helbach pitch in to clean their own offices and handle the landscape maintenance as cost-cutting measures initiated when the economic downturn began in 2008. “Even as president, I clean toilets, just like everyone else,” Hunt, a CUES member, says. “I have to do it at home, and I can do it here, too.”

What Central Wisconsin CU employees have not done is undergo layoffs—or give up pay raises. This year as in the recent past, salary boosts at the $25 million, 3,400-member credit union average 3 percent to 4 percent.

As in previous years, Central Wisconsin CU’s compensation committee, which includes Hunt and two directors, reviewed pay and bonus trends for peer credit unions using the CUES Employee Salary Survey and incorporated that data along with employee performance feedback to settle on pay increases.

The committee also reviews the employee benefit package to assess that costs are commensurate with the benefits provided. For example, for 2010, the credit union dropped its short-term disability insurance because employees would not receive compensation under that plan until they return to work, which “did not make sense,” Hunt says.
“Since we already provide paid sick days up to a maximum of 480 hours, we dropped the short-term coverage and shortened the waiting period for our long-term disability coverage from 90 days to 30 days.”

Central Wisconsin CU seems to have followed the same path as many other credit unions that have been weathering the economic downturn in passable fashion—avoid layoffs, maintain benefits as much as possible, and look for ways to reward employees for providing supportive service for existing members and doing their part to welcome new members.