Vancity Stands Out for Employment Practices
There are good reasons why Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity), the largest credit union in Canada, made the list of the country’s top 100 employers in 2015. For one thing, it happens to be the largest employer in Canada committed to what is known as a living wage—a minimum rate of payment that is currently about double the legal minimum wage in British Columbia. Credit unions are owned by their members. Vancity offers all the services you would expect to find at a financial institution, in part because it owns Citizens Bank of Canada, which gives it the ability to offer credit cards, foreign exchange, and some other restricted services. Its growth was fuelled by smart moves back in the 1980s, and its website lists a number of services it has introduced ahead of other financial institutions in Canada. Vancity has more than 2,000 employees, some of whom have worked for the credit union for over 40 years. Apart from being committed to a living wage, Vancity offers health plans, defined benefit pensions, employee discounts, and even tuition subsidies for employees attending university, along with all the other benefits one might expect from a great employer. Unique benefits includes a bonus week of vacation on the staff member’s tenth anniversary with Vancity and a co-op training program in Italy. Its head office is on the Skytrain route, and it makes sure all its locations are near mass transit to save time and money for staff and to protect the environment. Vancity offers in-house training to help employees do better on their annual evaluations. Those evaluations include feedback systems that allow staff to make confidential comments on their managers. Pay, promotion, and other awards are tied to performance. General employee morale and commitment are checked through independent surveys. The 500,000-plus Vancity members own the company (anyone who buys five shares at $1 each can join), but it’s run through an elected board. Anyone interested in a career at Vancity you can watch videos of current employees saying how much they love their job. Beyond the standard “this is a great place to work” message, the employees talk about their outside work activities and how they mesh with their jobs. For example, Bhavesh—a Vancity small business specialist— is also a yoga instructor, which he believes is complementary to his work. At work he helps build financial literacy and peace in his clients regarding money concerns and after work he helps people build inner peace. Like Bhavesh, most of Vancity’s employees are committed to their communities, volunteering thousands of hours each year supported by their employer. About 25 percent of Vancity workers are unionized. Most of these employees are in member services and the Visa Call Centre, both located in the same building in Vancouver. This unionization could be a sign of some unrest at the lower levels of the hierarchy. Employee reviews on Glassdoor.com seem to show a split of opinion, with managers being happy and some staff not as content. For example, a senior financial service representative says, “Company culture is great!” But an account manager reports, “Very confused organization. Really bad at prioritizing what’s important. Policies change like no tomorrow. Bad management in some branches and departments.”