American River Healthpro Credit Union

Communication is the Foundation to Successful Merger ...

With 5 branches and 80 employees, American River HealthPro Credit Union (ARHCU ) is the sixth largest credit union in Sacramento, California. It was the result of a merger in 1998 between American River Credit Union, originally founded to serve Aerojet employees, and HealthPro Federal Credit Union, which served the healthcare profession. Today ARHCU boasts 24,000 members and $250 million in assets.

Challenge: Bob Steponovich knew firsthand the challenges of the Sacramento credit union market. Bob was the CEO/President of American River Credit Union. With over 26 credit unions in the same geographic area, maintaining growth and a solid employee base in this saturated market was difficult at best. He knew that in order to survive, he needed to differentiate his organization from the competition.

At an executive luncheon, Patty Moore, CEO of HealthPro Federal Credit Union, caught Bob’s interest as she addressed the same concerns Bob had about the Sacramento market. After the luncheon, Bob and Patty met several times to continue the dialogue and realized they shared more than the same business and market challenges; they shared the same vision. That combined vision ultimately led to the merger that created American River HealthPro Credit Union.

With Bob as CEO and Patty as President/COO, the goals of the newly blended company were to:

In order to accomplish their goals, Bob and Patty knew there were two key issues they needed to address. First, it was critical for the business to change from a transaction- based to sales-driven culture. This could only happen with the right people (i.e. proactive, service oriented employees) in member-facing positions. And second, the credit union was experiencing high turnover, especially with employees in their first 12 months of hire, and that needed to be rectified.

The Foundation for Culture Change: “Job Fit” The success or failure of a merger frequently depends on how well the people issues are identified and addressed in advance. ARHCU chose the Predictive Index (PI), an assessment tool that reveals drives and motivations that influence workplace behavior, to help guide their decisions when combining their workforce. PI offered the executive team insights into their own leadership styles as well as an understanding of the behavioral strengths of employees throughout the organization. With this knowledge, ARHCU could place people in positions where they could achieve a high level of success, and the credit union could build its competitive difference.

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