Brett Martinez refers to his financial institution, Redwood Credit Union, as “a story-telling operation.” The CEO says RCU hires people who “are not all about themselves,” and who get to improve the lives of members every day in any one of its 19 branches around Northern California. “I can guarantee you that we just changed somebody’s life today, and all of us share in these accomplishments,” says Martinez.
RCU has grown exponentially since it was founded in 1950 with seven employees, and particularly within the last 10 years. Today, with $7 billion in assets, it employs 750 people who handle the needs of 385,000 clients, known as “members” at RCU.
“One of our core businesses is lending, which is growing fast and creating all sorts of new opportunities within the organization,” says Martinez. “Success brings growth—as many as 40% to 60% of our employees are promoted each year. If an employee is the right fit and wants to move up, the opportunities are pretty wide open.”
RCU doesn’t experience much employee turnover for a financial institution, according to Kristina Derkos, senior vice president of people. “What we have is ‘churn’—a lot of internal movement and in-house promotions. Traditional banks see more turnover among their employees, but our employee retention has been strong for decades.”
People, training and systems
The most important decision to help achieve that, says Martinez, is to hire the right people from the get-go. “Three big things—the right people, great training and our sophisticated systems—account for our success. Our mission statement is a different thing in this organization because we really live by it. I’m crystal clear that even though we are a membership organization if we don’t take care of our employees, they can’t take care of our members.”
Derkos says RCU’s rapid growth and success have been expedited because of its brand. “We have to make sure that all the things that have made the credit union wonderful don’t get lost as we continue to grow. We don’t want to lose what we’ve all done amazingly well at in the past, but we also want to know how we can do things better.”
RCU is known for its comprehensive benefits packages for employees, with several different health plans to choose from, vision and dental care, wellness resources and tuition reimbursement. In addition, investment advisors are available to talk with employees (at no charge) about their financial health and wellbeing, and a home loan discount program is in place for first-time buyers, as well as numerous other perks. “We have pages of benefits,” says Derkos. “Just as we help our members prepare for all stages of their lives, we also help our employees in the same way.”
One of the newest benefits for employees, she says, is a third-party technology called Employee TalkSpace. “This came about because physicians around the nation saw that mental health issues were doubling among their patients during the pandemic. So we asked our employees what we could offer to give them the right tools and resources and to take the stigma away from needing help for these issues.
“TalkSpace goes beyond traditional Employee Assistance Programs, and any employee can talk, text, or email around the clock, seven days a week, to get hooked up with help right away,” Derkos adds. “We also conduct Wellness Wednesdays to give employees tips and tricks for coping, and we began a Mental Health Day benefit so they can spend a day doing what they need to, to refresh their souls.”
TalkSpace, adds Martinez, is a place the staff can reach out to at any time. “And that’s critical these days. Sometimes you need a complete stranger that you can talk to, because it may be the only way to feel comfortable.”
Fong Nguyen, lending operations manager for RCU, says her family and friends who work elsewhere are amazed that she has such outstanding employee benefits. “When I tell someone that I get this benefit or that, and a ‘mental health’ day or a ‘me-day,’ they realize the benefits where they work are not so great. And this happens to me all the time.”
High employee engagement
RCU consistently ranks high in the annual Gallup survey that tallies the scores of highly engaged employees in the United States. “The average around the nation is 36% of employees who say they are highly engaged in their work,” says Martinez. “But I can’t even imagine such a low score because RCU has been at 95% and 96% over the past few years. Even the best of the best companies in the U.S., if they have scored over 50%, they’re really rocking it.”
From these Gallup scores, Martinez works with an employee advisory group to look at the three scores that rank lowest among RCU employees, and from there they come up with a plan to improve them. “We ask [each employee], ‘What can we do to recognize you more or use your talents more?’ We are an organization that’s all about continuous improvement.”
A monthly meeting of all team members keeps employees informed and includes a discussion with CEO Martinez, who oversees a question-and-answer session. “Brett believes in being transparent,” says Derkos. “At the end of these meetings employees can speak with him about what they would like to see happen. They pick his brain about what’s going on in the credit union industry. That’s one way we get valuable feedback from employees––they know they have a safe space to ask questions. It helps them feel more connected and more comfortable with the direction of RCU. Psychological safety is paramount.”
To keep improving their processes and systems, internal training of employees continuously takes place at RCU, adds Martinez. “A significant amount of time, money and energy is devoted to leadership training, for teaching our managers how to be great leaders.”
A couple of years ago, RCU also took a hard look at the living wage in Sonoma County and made changes mostly to better support their employees at the lower income levels. “We take care of our employees first because they are part of the community and must be able to afford to live here,” he says. “So we increased their wages. ”
Volunteering, community involvement
Teaching financial literacy to young people is a major goal of RCU through its Bite of Realty training. “All of our employees have taken this training, and we’ve visited 34 high schools in our service area to teach teens how to budget their money and spend wisely,” says Martinez. “We also take the training into colleges and nonprofits, and the staff loves to do it.”
“Our employees are highly engaged out in the communities we serve, and when they are hired we tell them that if they want the full benefits of working for us they should get involved,” adds Martinez. “Get out into your community to volunteer, use the benefits of the wellness program, or take on one of our many green initiatives because we are a green company. They can do one or do them all if they want the value of this organization.”
During the pandemic, RCU branches didn’t close for a single day, he says. “We sent 90% of our back-office workers home to work remotely, and we did everything possible to protect our branch staffs and make safety changes. About 30% to 40% of those who worked remotely have now returned to the offices, and many of our branch safety protocols will remain in place indefinitely.”
A special group
Last year, the RCU team took on the huge task of processing the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications for companies impacted by the pandemic. “Our employees worked for hours and hours handling these applications and, at one point, we had to ask them to stop for the night, even though they wanted to keep going,” says Martinez. “It was all about doing what they could to help our member businesses and the people who work for them. This doesn’t just happen naturally—it’s a special group of employees.”
Tuition Reimbursement Benefit
As branch experience manager of the Sonoma branch of Redwood Credit Union, Jose Alvarez appreciates RCU’s tuition reimbursement benefit for furthering his education. “I began studying for my business degree about two and a half years ago through the program, and it’s been a great opportunity for me.” Alvarez is pursuing his degree part-time through online study and Zoom-based meetings while taking advantage of the summer school option to rapidly complete the few units he has left.
“The tuition reimbursement benefit speaks volumes to the investment that RCU makes in its employees,” he says. “I want to make a difference in my community, and having this opportunity to learn more helps me deliver better service to our members and offer a wider range of knowledge.”
Alvarez joined the RCU staff in 2013 after hearing it was a great place to work. “About 10 years ago I visited the branch on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa to apply for a loan. I asked the representative who helped me how the credit union differed from banks because I had only worked for banks before. Her eyes just lit up as she explained how wonderful it was. After that, I began watching for job opportunities with RCU.”
As an employee, Alvarez has taken advantage of RCU’s other generous employee benefits, such as free financial planning consultations. “My wife and I recently sat down with a financial advisor to ask about saving for college for our young kids, and we opened a couple of investment accounts for that purpose. RCU also helped me get my mortgage, and mortgages are serviced in-house. It’s like having a big family you can trust.”
Listening and Volunteering
Fong Nguyen says she is regularly surprised by “wow moments” in her role as lending operations manager for Redwood Credit Union. “You would think that after working here for 11 years I wouldn’t be surprised by ‘wow moments,’ but I’m always impressed when RCU rolls out a new benefit for our members, like allowing us to offer 0% loans,” she says.
Nguyen’s job encompasses team support for RCU’s lending partners; handling mortgage, business and consumer loans. “The team documents and funds all the loans RCU makes, and services the loans throughout their life.” She joined the staff of RCU as a teller in 2010, then later helped start a centralized funding team. After joining the business services team she was able to learn another side of lending—the commercial and Small Business Administration side.
Though RCU has guidelines it uses in daily decision-making, Nguyen says the staff really listens to each member’s personal scenarios and situations when needed. “I don’t think most people know about that or see it happen, but it’s a part of RCU’s culture and service to say ‘how can we help this member?’ It’s an internal process to review the needs of our members and try our best to help them, and it happens in the background.”
One of the benefits Nguyen enjoys most as an RCU employee is “the great wellness program.” It’s not just for your physical health, she says, but reminds you to be aware of your mental health, too. “It’s a well-rounded program that also offers employees a review of your personal credit reports and retirement plans for your financial health and well-being.”
Nguyen is eager to return to volunteering in the community now that it’s safe again to do so. “I really want to get back out there and be with people, working at the Food Bank and the Children’s Museum. Hands-on volunteering is a big part of what we do in the community, and I love it.”
A Mission and a Vision
The financial wellness advocate at Redwood Credit Union, Wrynn Valentine, remembers joining the institution as a member when she was only 8 years old. “I’d just learned how to write in cursive and that’s how I signed my membership card. The people who worked there seemed happy and were so helpful.”
Valentine now helps other members in her current RCU role with “what it means to handle and understand finances and execute them in a way to help each member family reach the life they love,” she explains.
An RCU employee since 2004, Valentine started as a teller with the goal of working her way through college to earn a teaching credential from Sonoma State University. When the Great Recession hit a few years later, she had moved up through the ranks and realized it was probably smarter to stay with a financial institution than become a teacher. “Who would have guessed that was one of the best moves I could make? It wasn’t just a job anymore—it was a mission and a vision.”
Representing RCU, Valentine spent four months immersed in learning about the many nonprofit organizations in Sonoma County, speaking to local groups and companies to encourage their members and employees to give their money, time and voice to help nonprofits. She then transferred to RCU’s financial assistance department, “which does the difficult and heartfelt work of helping people in hardship,” she says.
After a stint in the training department, Valentine took a position created for her to conduct community presentations on financial wellness.
“Working at RCU, sometimes I just stop and look at what we’re accomplishing for the community and how we are adding to our members’ lives,” she says. “We celebrate the wins, give each other pats on the back and focus on across-the-board recognition. We will say to each other, ‘I saw that little thing you did to put a spark in that member’s day.’”
Through the Years
Number of Employees:
7 (1950)
33 (1985)
189 (2000)
318 (2010)
750 (2021)
Membership Milestones:
5,000 (1975)
50,000 (1996)
100,000 (2001)
150,000 (2011)
225,000 (2013)
270,000 (2016)
300,000 (2017)
385,000 (2021)
Asset Milestones:
$100 million (1990)
$500 million (2000)
$1 billion (2004)
$2 billion (2012)
$5 billion (2019)
$7 billion (2021)
