91
employees over four branches
94%
of employees use forms feature each month
#1
Solar Financing Lender in San Diego
Summary
- Wheelhouse Credit Union created a centralized space for policies, procedures, documents, news and events, reducing reliance on emails and newsletters.
- Using the forms feature, a system for regulatory compliance was created, and member requests are quickly addressed.
- Purpose-built software ensures proper record keeping of all communications, making audits a breeze.
About Wheelhouse Credit Union
Wheelhouse Credit Union was founded in 1934 as San Diego Metropolitan Credit Union, serving city employees. In 2018, the credit union was re-established as Wheelhouse CU, helping all San Diegans achieve their financial goals with a full suite of financial services. Wheelhouse Credit Union prides itself in being the #1 Solar Financing Lender in San Diego and is constantly giving back to the community through scholarship opportunities, volunteering, and more. The credit union serves the community of San Diego with four branches, 91 employees, and a corporate HQ, all spread over the greater San Diego area.
The problem: a static, siloed, and underutilized credit union intranet
At the start of 2020, the team at Wheelhouse CU knew it was time for a better intranet solution than the static, siloed, and underutilized Passageways/Onsemble platform they were using, which essentially a “employee newsletter,” rather than a fully fleshed-out credit union intranet. In hindsight, the onset of the pandemic was no place for what they described as a “static webpage” in which departments created “intranets within intranets” without cohesion or common branding, and many features were underutilized. The leadership team recognized the issue, and there needed to be a better way to communicate to employees across branches—bringing a centralized hub for news, events, and communications.
So, the team at Wheelhouse CU began looking for a credit union intranet that would better suit their needs, centralize communication, and aid in compliance and policy management.
The solution: Intranet Connections’ credit union intranet software
As luck would have it, the new VP of Marketing at Wheelhouse CU had used Intranet Connections‘ (IC) credit union software at her previous organization. As the team evaluated IC’s intranet software against competitors, it became clear that this purpose-built software ticked every box the team at Wheelhouse CU had for creating efficiencies and centralizing communications and compliance.
Onboarding their new credit union intranet was a breeze for the Wheelhouse CU team, thanks to IC’s hands-on support. While they admit that they needed “a lot of handholding,” IC’s expert team was in contact with Wheelhouse CU’s IT team during implementation, and Manix Phayvanh, Electronics Services Manager at Wheelhouse CU, made updates to centralize all the documents and communications. Thanks to the intuitive UI of the IC platform, centralizing and standardizing everything on the new intranet was easy for the marketing team at Wheelhouse CU to accomplish.
“We needed a lot of handholding, and the IC folks got in touch with our IT department for implementation, [while I] made updates to centralize information. The platform itself doesn’t require programming skills, and [the IC team] helped with backend and frontend setup.”
Manix Phayvanh, Electronic Services Manager, Wheelhouse Credit Union
The result: dynamic, customizable credit union intranet software
IC’s credit union software provided the team at Wheelhouse CU with many efficiencies, freeing up employees’ time by ensuring critical communications are seen by everyone in the organization and creating a single location for internal processes. Being a purpose-built credit union intranet, IC’s platform is designed to require minimal IT knowledge or experience, allowing employees across all departments to intuitively use the intranet and take ownership of their department’s pages—freeing up IT’s time! In addition, powerful features like forms and workflows were built with credit unions in mind, allowing organizations to centralize documents, policies, and form approvals. Finally, the IC platform is built to ensure compliance and makes record-keeping a breeze, which is especially helpful during audit time.
Wheelhouse CU made quick use of the interactive homepage on their new credit union intranet, providing employees with a quick overview of all the current news and events occurring at the credit union when they clock in. They also quickly set up team sites for each department, online interactive forms, an employee directory, and hundreds of other pre-built apps and widgets.
Two years later, RED (Resources Education Development), the name given to Wheelhouse Credit Union’s intranet, is the first thing employees see every day when they log in.
Communications are centralized onto RED, and employees can access individual departmental sites. In addition, submitting forms, searching for information, learning about the latest news and upcoming events, and having quick access to contact information for other branches and employees is simplified thanks to RED.
With 100s of pre-built apps, documents, and policies, RED houses the most crucial tools needed for onboarding, tracking member requests and complaints, and storing records of communications to comply with industry regulations. By making the RED the place for employees to clock in and out, Wheelhouse CU can boast a near 100% adoption rate and ensure that employees see the latest updates.
Intranet forms: compliance, simplified
Being in the financial industry means compliance is top-of-mind for Wheelhouse CU, and they want to ensure that the tools they use enhance compliance at the organization. IC’s purpose-built software does just that.
The team at Wheelhouse CU needed a system to track and record member complaints, front-line feedback (including from online or telephone interactions), and member requests for compliance reasons. IC’s powerful forms feature proved to be just that system. The member feedback form is easily accessed from RED’s homepage, allowing staff to quickly submit feedback as it comes in, enhancing efficiency and saving time. And up to 94% of staff use the form monthly, showing the true value of having a centralized place for member complaints and feedback submissions.
Using the workflow feature in IC’s platform, Wheelhouse CU also set up automated alerts, ensuring the correct approval managers are alerted and approve each form submission, further enhancing security and compliance.
Streamlining compliance, being audit-ready, and keeping everyone informed
Since the launch of RED, the credit union’s intranet has become the place to go whenever there is an audit. The platform is purpose-built for the financial industry, allowing the storage of dated forms and communications. That means that when the auditors call, everyone knows exactly where to find organized, compliant credit union communications records.
Having a centralized, dependable place to find documents, policies, and other important information also helps ensure that all employees work with the most up-to-date resources, further aiding and promoting compliance. Employees can quickly find the newest numbers on RED when current interest rates change. Likewise, important news, documents, and files are also stored on the intranet—and with IC’s search function, all can be quickly accessed by all employees.
The homepage also uses the vibrant storyboard builder built into IC’s credit union intranet platform. That means the Wheelhouse CU team can easily create colorful, eye-catching news articles that help draw staff in and keep them informed. Whereas staff relied on email to communicate vital information in the past, critical updates are now shared right on RED. For example, IT system issues are now published on their respective departmental page and pushed onto the homepage, creating efficiencies for the IT team and anyone affected by the system issue.
Finally, the quick links widget on RED’s homepage means that employees can access every policy, procedure, newsletter, or other resource at a click—no more emails back and forth confirming a policy or searching through an inbox to find last week’s newsletter. Manix and the team at Wheelhouse CU indeed achieved their goal of having one centralized place for all communications and resources.
“[The intranet] allows us to store dated forms and communications, and that plays a role when we have audits and helps with the legal process. Any auditor can come in, and we can answer those calls with confidence, because we can go back to the intranet and refer to those past documents.”
Erin Roberts, Digital Marketing Specialist at Wheelhouse Credit Union
A credit union intranet that brings employees together and improves member experience
In addition to the compliance and efficiency benefits RED has brought to Wheelhouse CU, the credit union intranet also helps unite employees across branches, making them feel connected to a singular goal and vision. Upcoming events are highlighted on the intranet’s homepage, giving employees a chance to kick back and mingle in one of San Diego’s beautiful parks or spend some time giving back to their community through the CU’s organized volunteer events.
The employee directory lets staff quickly find colleagues’ contact information at Wheelhouse CU’s four branches. The contact information for each department at each branch is highlighted right on the homepage, further streamlining communication.
Additionally, each department takes ownership of its departmental sites, with marketing’s help to keep everything on-brand and cohesive. This has made information so much more accessible across departments. For example, upcoming marketing campaigns are shared on the intranet, so everyone can easily see what’s happening and how it impacts members. The ease of use in working in the software and making updates has also benefited Wheelhouse CU, as it has freed up IT’s time—and the intranet can be updated without their help!
Finally, the intranet has also helped improve member experiences by storing all their requests, complaints, and feedback in one central location. Wheelhouse CU can quickly act upon problems as they arise, especially the rare critical issue that needs immediate attention, and ensure that each issue is quickly and automatically sent to the necessary managers.
Learn how you can begin your credit union intranet software journey
Interested in learning how IC’s credit union intranet software can aid compliance, streamline communications, and create a central hub for your organization as it did for Wheelhouse Credit Union? Book a demo and discover how our expert team can make your credit union intranet intuitive and easy.