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Access Credit Union banks on committed employees

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This article was published 12/03/2024 (567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since joining Access Credit Union four years ago as an assistant branch manager, Sukki Brar has been promoted to a managing partner, overseeing three of the organization’s Winnipeg branches.

“What I enjoy most about my work is the opportunity to make peoples’ lives better,” says Brar. “It can be about helping people deal with challenges, including financial distress or the loss of a loved one. Or helping them mark milestones, like weddings or the purchase of a first home. Through our regular interactions, we get to be a part of all that.”

Access is the province’s largest credit union and the sixth-largest in Canada. After several recent mergers, Access now has 60 branches and more than 200,000 members.

“We’re a large organization, but we started out significantly smaller,” observes Brar. “We still collaborate and communicate in a very tight-knit, supportive way. It’s an environment where everyone is cheering for each other’s success. We know the success of one is really the success of the whole.”

Brar says she appreciates the emphasis Access places on both continuing education and community outreach.

Brar is one of many Access team members who is working towards her MBA in her spare time, with the full financial support of the organization.

Access also gives her plenty of opportunities to volunteer and support organizations like Harvest Manitoba and Habitat for Humanity.

“It’s one of the best parts of my job,” says Brar. “It gives you the feeling that you are part of something bigger and helping improve peoples’ lives. For a lot of employees, it’s a sense of pride.”

Access president and CEO Larry Davey says support for continuing education and community outreach encourages an employee base that’s engaged and committed.

It’s also rooted in the organization’s concisely stated four core values: do good, be better, own it and move forward.

“We want to make a positive difference and we always want to get better,” explains Davey. “At the same time, we want to own up to any mistakes we make and learn from them, and our focus is future-oriented.”

Davey is proud of the fact that some 25 team members either completed or were working on their MBAs over the past six years.

“We are also proud of how well our team members have done in what’s called the young leader program for the credit union system, both provincially and federally,” says Davey. “We’ve had staff members chosen among the top young leaders in Canada, reflecting the strength of their understanding of our business and of leadership as well.”

As CEO, he adds, he takes great satisfaction in seeing team members grow their careers, observing that up to 40 per cent of staff have been promoted over the past six years.

In terms of community outreach, Davey says “it’s part of our DNA.”

He estimates that over 95 per cent of staff get involved in volunteering and charitable fund-raising.

Access makes significant donations to community initiatives, both small and large – including major support recently given to two separate Winnipeg hospital foundations to help build an emergency centre and purchase new surgical equipment.

When it comes to new hires, Davey says Access looks for people who fit with the organization’s culture and values, and who are comfortable with change.

“Credit unions are merging rapidly and changing the ways they deliver services and employ technology. We need people who are flexible and adaptable as we move forward through those changes.”