Pros
The culture at HFCU is the most inclusive it has been since I started. We have experienced a good amount of change in the past two years. Several executives including the CEO retired around the same time and new leadership has come in since then. It is clear in some of the reviews here that some people don’t like any change, and in fairness to the new leadership people, I don’t think anyone new would have made the people complaining happy, because a lot of them were complacent and didn’t want any new ways of thinking. They just wanted to do the same exact job the same way they have always done it forever. Their way or no way. Unfortunately for them the economy and the world changes and successful companies need to change too. Most of these people have left HFCU, but are having a hard time moving on and are trying to sabotage our company’s reputation through anonymous reviews like the ones on here by claiming to still be employed and unhappy at the company. I wish they would understand that by trying to hurt HFCU they are also trying to hurt those of us still here, your former colleagues and friends in some cases! Sorry this wasn’t for you, but please support our success just as we support you moving on to your next job. Many of us like the new leadership and modern direction of the company, even if you didn’t. Also some of you were holding us back sorry to say. I have enjoyed my time at HFCU both before the changes with the old leadership and with all the changes since the new leadership started. The two problems before new leadership came in was that the culture was very siloed with departments rarely interacting unless we needed to for job reasons. It was a stuffy old school banking culture and there was a lot of passive and aggressive behavior, which I personally hated. I liked a lot of my coworkers and the CEO was very nice, but I would not call us a family culture back then at all. The second issue was that we had an attitude of “this is the way we do things at HFCU so don’t try to change anything.” No one wanted to hear about better ways to do things even back when I started. Some of the past male leaders were bullies if you tried to challenge anything with new ideas. Because of this, our technology was very out dated until just recently and processes were extremely manual across the entire organization. The joke when I started was “I pick things up and put them down.” This mainly meant stacks of paper. Enter new leadership pushing process improvement, accountability which we never had here before, and innovation. Some of our colleagues could not handle this and were never open minded about it. Many of us are enjoying the evolution of HFCU though. The new CEO and CIO are very forward thinking if you take the time to actually listen to them talk about innovation, which I understand is scary for some, but some people would not even give their ideas a chance from day one. We are actually seeing innovation starting to happen for the first time here at HFCU with our new branches, technology like Microsoft teams and Glia, working from home is so much easier now (before the company made us bring desktops home! Not laptops, DESKTOPS!), and improvements to online banking for our members is supposed to be coming next we were told. Without these changes, we probably would not have survived in the long run, which some refuse to accept. Yes the new leadership has brought in some of their own people, but that is to be expected, because it happens at every company. Also, when other CUs and banks were laying people off last year, our new CEO announced that we would not have any layoffs, and we didn’t. Some people had to move into new jobs, but they still had a job at HFCU! Another nice change is that most of our executives are women now, which is a HUGE shift from two years ago. I personally think it is an exciting time for the company. The reviews that tell you to stay away are from people who wish it was still 1999 and are mad to learn that it’s not. Sorry, but it’s true. A LOT of great people have stayed and we are excited for the future, and it’s not just new people coming in for leadership roles, because many of us who were already here have been promoted too. I also love working with the new people that have joined some of the departments here. The IT department team is great now, because not only will you actually get a reply if you contact them, they also have a smile on their face now, and our risk department (especially our CRO and SVP that have been here since before the changes and both were promoted by the new CEO) are the best, and I love working with our HR staff! They have been so supportive during this period of changes. Also, our new executive overseeing Operations, I think she has made a point to personally speak to every single one of us, and it’s a big department. Our former COO never even said hi to me in the halls unless he was trying to get gossip from me.
Cons
Some departments are still struggling more than others. This is the reason for my 4 stars instead of 5. There is still some resistance and negativity in a couple of areas, which includes my department. It is not everyone, not even close, but there are some who try to bring down the mood, and it gets hard to listen to them cry about every little thing. Sorry, but this is also true. They will say that the new leadership doesn’t care about people, but meanwhile it is them who are the ones being toxic, and saying mean and criticizing things about every new person who walks through the door before even giving them a chance.