The most recent article covered the benefits of data on the member. This article will highlight the benefits organizational data has on the credit union.
Data Love #1: Building a data capability
This is HUGE! Building a data capability is a formal way to develop talent skills and abilities to create data insights and generate actions from those insights. Specifically, this is the formalized pathway to build data confidence in talent so they can continually stay curious and increase their data consumption and data-generated actions.
Data Visualization:
The data storytelling and how graphs and charts are used to communicate the impact/status of a condition or environment is a significant point in creating a data consumption proficiency.
The first thing that was fairly quickly created was a simple goals-tracking dashboard. This dashboard is provided to our entire team weekly and is discussed during our weekly all-staff meetings. Other larger data analysis programs, like those tracking member service estimates and products per household, are developing much more slowly.
It's also been a challenge to break from the day-to-day activities and dedicate time to ensuring that our metrics are as accurate as we would like. This process has been very slow and iterative, and it's not nearly as far along as we would like. But it has been making steady progress. The staff seems to be very motivated by the weekly goals dashboard. This is especially true for the lenders, who have consistently met and exceeded their monthly goals since this dashboard was rolled out.
CEO - Midwest
Data ownership:
An excellent indicator that a data capability is being built is seeing data ownership develop.
The biggest surprise we had surrounding successes was that employees were taking ownership of their data across the credit union. Since our BI team developed the dashboards and reports based on input from each department, they had usable reports that impacted their jobs daily. Having this data daily was a new way of thinking, but it also transformed their use of the data. When a report looks "off," employees dig in immediately to identify the error and correct the data before it becomes a larger problem or is published in a monthly executive dashboard. Once they understand the way the data is presented, how it helps the business, and where their role is in the creation of that data, they have a deep sense of ownership to making sure the data is clean and accurate.
CTO - South
Collaboration
Data can drive powerful alignment and problem-solving skills, delivering deep insights.
Empowering business owners by sharing daily insights for the branch, department, or product area they lead using dashboard data visualizations and other reporting tools. When Covid first hit in the spring 2020, we quickly created dashboards to share with leaders on what was happening, how members were responding & engaging with us to help support decisions for the organization.
We were partnering with our Marketing department and using data to automate onboarding journeys and other outreach to our members. This has helped provide timely, personalized communication and alleviated a lot of manual effort for employees.
And finally, the ability to share member insights with our Sr Team and Board of Directors, building our understanding of the membership we serve by combining insights from multiple data sources along with business knowledge.
Data & Analytics Manager -Midwest
Data Love #2: Increased Efficiency& productivity
One success happened when we consolidated reporting to the data analyst. With the lift, it gave everyone else, they quickly understood the value it brought to the organization. It also helped our data analyst understand the data needs of the organization.
One specific example was our monthly member experience report. It was generally coming out three weeks after the month end and was very time-consuming to compile. With some focused attention, we were able to have it come out in the first week and take less effort overall. You can gain a lot of efficiency by taking the time to understand the data and what you can get out of it.
Because we are emphasizing more on why data is important and what you might need it for, the organization in general started thinking more about it and is much more a part of the conversation than it used to be. There has been a cultural shift that will help in the future as we move things forward.
Chief Information Officer - Midwest
This is only the tiny scratch on the surface of the impact of data, data insights, and data management on a credit union. Data is not the challenge for a credit union, it is how to activate it and leverage it that is.
Looking for More?
We believe that data activation doesn't have to feel overwhelming or expensive to be impactful. After helping over 600 credit union leaders launch their data journeys, we have identified several consistent knowledge gaps. We have worked hard to fill these gaps with a variety of educational offerings:
Activation Sessions
There is something for everyone!