Rene Rudder and George Nahodil consider how to make job descriptions support sales and service. Rudder is service quality leader for $325 million Barbados Public Workers' Co-op CU Ltd., St. Michael, Barbados; Nahodil is EVP/retail delivery/marketing at $1.8 billion Members 1st Federal Credit Union, Mechanicsburg, Pa.

September 15, 2010

Credit unions wanting to implement and maintain a successful sales and service culture need to hire the right people. According to Mike Neill, CSE, hiring right is a three-step process:

Step 1: Create job definitions that reflect the culture’s values and priorities.

Step 2: For each position, make a list of which qualities are “must haves” and which are “preferred.”

Step 3: Interview to find those with “must have” qualities, including doing pre-employment testing.

President of Michael Neill & Associates, Atlanta, Neill described each step in the process for attendees of the CUES School of Sales & Service™--Canada being held this week in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Step 1. Neill provided attendees with a sample job description that put the hiring CU’s sales and service culture, literally, up top.

In the first paragraph, the job description said:

The primary purpose of this position is to assist XYZ Federal Credit Union deliver on its mission/vision to (insert mission/vision here) and to create awareness of the XYZ brand in the market. To achieve this mission the position must deliver high quality service to both internal and external members. A key element in this service delivery is to identify the member’s financial needs and recommend an appropriate credit union solution.

After that, the description goes on to describe the more operational aspects of the position, saying:

In addition the position has the initial contact with individuals requiring membership, account openings and general customer service assistance. This position also requires assisting members with loan applications for credit approval or denial, inputting loan information into the loan system, and conducting loan closings with members.

“What you need to do with your position descriptions is make the sales and service aspects preeminent and put secondary the operations aspects,” Neill underscored. “The primary purpose of this position should be to assist members in improving their financial lives.”

Step 2. Next, Neill walked attendees through the process of using the position description to create a list of qualities that a successful candidate would have to have and a list of those that would be preferred.

This list was generated by the group. Those marked with an H are the qualities the group felt a CU must hire for. Those with a T are those qualities the group felt a CU could train for. (Some are marked with both.)

Step 3. Neill advocated doing pre-employment testing as a part of selecting candidates to support a CU’s sales and service initiative. In particular his company uses the customer service assessment from Profile Strategies. The 40-minute assessment can result in three reports: one for employees to read about themselves, one to match people to jobs they might be good at, and a third for the person who will coach the employee.

Neill suggested that using assessments with small groups of candidates is important but certainly not the only consideration.

Behavioral interviewing is also key, said Neill, who is lead consultant for CUES’ ServiStar program. “You’re asking somebody, ‘If you were in this situation, how would you respond?’” And then you’re matching that to how you’d like an employee to respond in that situation.

Further Reading

Read more from the CUES School of Sales & Service.

Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor.