Success Story: Washington State Employees Credit Union
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“(SBS) staff is well organized, quick to respond, always has solutions for our ideas and works quickly to resolve obstacles with our projects.” ~ Jill Chase, VP of Audit Services, WSECU
Client Profile:
Founded in 1957 by a handful of public employees, Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) was created to support dedicated public employees of Washington State. Today, WSECU is open to all residents in the state of Washington and serves over 200,000 customer members. WSECU offers a variety of financial services, including: savings, checking, loans, mortgages, financial planning and insurance services.
Located in Olympia, WA, WSECU invests 4% of earnings back into local communities and prides itself on supporting the areas it serves through different philanthropic programs and volunteer activities.
Challenge:
As the Vice President of Audit Services, my involvement in the WSECU election is working with our supervisory committee to ensure that the election and tabulation process is handled in a fair, open and transparent manner. Along with our supervisory committee, I work closely with the board, senior management and marketing to manage and oversee the election process – nominations, vetting candidates, promotion planning and execution of the vote.
Just like determining financial service offerings and volunteer activities with local communities, WSECU aims for involvement and open dialogue with members when it comes to voting. The goal with the election is to make sure members feel connected and that it is easy and convenient to participate in the election.
To encourage this connection, WSECU is always looking to add innovative and creative tactics to the process. Lately, this has been through the addition of digital technology to get younger members involved.
WSECU was in search of a vendor that could help realize these digital goals while still appealing to an older core audience and flawlessly handle election management and tabulation. The annual election selects directors for the board and members of the supervisory committee on a rotating basis.
SBS Solution:
I had been in contact with SBS and felt that their brand resonated with WSECU. SBS was personable, always had suggestions and showed a real desire to take elections to the next level. SBS was included in the request for proposal process and ended up being the selected vendor.
SBS put in place a paper mail-in ballot and web election process that has allowed WSECU’s credit union elections to migrate to a more digital process while not leaving the core demographic behind. Two election cycles ago, all members received both a paper ballot and the option to vote online. Last election cycle, paper ballots were only sent to those members without a confirmed email address and the rest of the membership received email notification. On the technology side, the following features have been added to online voting: a responsive election site that senses what type of device the member is using to access the election, a single sign-on capability that allows members to login to online banking and access voting right from their accounts, and embedded login links that authenticate members and allow them to participate in just one step.
Working with SBS has been refreshing. The staff is well organized, quick to respond, always has solutions for our ideas and works quickly to resolve obstacles with our projects. I especially enjoy their recommendations regarding what has worked well with their other clients. Overall, we have received excellent support from SBS on every avenue and look forward to working with them in the future.