Our values-based work culture stands out from the financial-services crowd, and our employees inspire us daily as an organization. We're committed to the financial health of our over 2,600 employees and their overall well-being, feeling of belonging and professional fulfillment. Here's what we achieved together to make BECU—and the world—a better place in 2021.
Elevated Exceptional Employees
To attract and retain excellence, BECU offers work-life balance, great benefits and a culture that values unique skills and talent, equity and inclusion. Thanks to our employees, we're a national leader among credit unions. A few 2021 examples of how we hired, encouraged, celebrated and nurtured our employees from hiring to promotion:
We welcomed 650 new employees to BECU with our New Employee Virtual Onboarding. Employees attended a virtual orientation regarding BECU's story and benefits, then delved into e-learning courses on credit union philosophy, BECU culture and core values, performance expectations and more.
The sixth-annual Being BECU Awards recognized 16 employees who significantly impacted members, the community, or BECU. The nearly 240 employee nominations shared inspiring member-focused and inclusivity stories. Awardees spanned multiple departments—including legal, member service and technical support—and continue to elevate us by embodying BECU values.
We're shaping the next generation of dedicated and thoughtful credit union leaders. This year marks our first-ever virtual summer internship as part of our 14-year summer internship program. In 2021, our 16 interns learned about cybersecurity risk management, credit systems analysis, enterprise fraud and public relations while providing member value. Five of the 16 interns continued with full-time BECU roles.
Interning at BECU was a transformative experience as I got to immerse myself in a professional work environment and truly got to understand what it’s like to work at a company with amazing people and culture.” —Renae K., 2021 Summer Intern
BECU is lucky to have intelligent, creative employees with great ideas. In the past several years, employees have advocated for alternative ways to use paid time off (PTO). Our new PTO Exchange program offers new ways for employees to recharge and renew, including:
- Reimbursement for qualified education expenses
- Funds to pay down student debt
- Cash to build up emergency savings
In this second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 70% of employees worked at home to serve members virtually and by phone. We also protected the health and safety of everyone visiting and working at Neighborhood Financial Centers by providing personal protective equipment and following CDC guidance and state and federal requirements.
Rewarded Employee-Inspired Giving
Our BECU Cares program encourages employee giving and volunteering through matching donations, paid time off and more—just some examples of demonstrating our values. In 2021, over 500 BECU employees contributed to nonprofit organizations they care about by donating $457,000 to 880 causes. And that was just the beginning.
Gift Match. BECU matches employee charitable giving to eligible organizations, showing our shared commitment to causes our compassionate employees care about. BECU donated over $690,000 to nonprofits on behalf of employees through our gift-match and rewards program. Example nonprofits include:
- Hunger-relief organization Northwest Harvest
- Education-focused Seattle Colleges Foundation
- Homebuilding nonprofit Habitat for Humanity Seattle—King and Kittitas County
- Real Rent Duwamish, supporting the Duwamish Tribe
- South-Sound-based Raising Girls, providing necessary hygiene products to girls in Western Washington
Community Time Off. BECU employees get up to 24 hours of paid time off annually to volunteer. We're proud that employees volunteered more than 12,000 hours with 355 causes in total last year through the program and in their personal time—a vital, hands-on contribution in a challenging year.
BECU Cares Day. On one day, nearly 2,500 BECU employees assembled 26,000 kits for nine Washington and South Carolina organizations. Kits included school supplies for underserved Washington students, new-home kits for Habitat for Humanity of King County homeowners and personal care kits for a number of organizations, including South Carolina's largest homeless service providers.
Our BECU Cares Day is a way for employees to live out our values and give back to local nonprofits that are making significant differences in our communities. While much has changed in recent years, the credit union philosophy of ‘people helping people’ is as strong as ever.” —Benson Porter, BECU’s chief executive officer
Created a More Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive BECU
Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion improves BECU, provides better member service, and creates a positive community impact and sense of belonging for all our employees at BECU.
As we continue our journey, our Equity & Inclusion Working Councils focus on membership, community engagement, employees, and culture and communication. In 2021, we developed structures to advance our equity commitments for employees, members and the community.
Last year, we took meaningful action in the following ways:
BECU employees expanded their learning through over 80 enlightening and educational events, including Employee Resource Groups, equity-focused working councils, training and programs to encourage leadership.
During 2021, we officially created the Office of Equity & Inclusion—solidifying our commitment. We expanded this team to include a vice president and director, who work with key partners across BECU to embed equity and inclusion in all areas of work.
We expanded our Employee Resource Groups (ERG), which aim to garner great inclusion, create community, celebrate shared cultures and histories and offer resources to all our employees. More than 1,000 employees participate in educational discussions, career development, networking and volunteering opportunities through our ERGs. This year we added four new groups, which resulted in a total of nine ERGs:
I’m so thrilled to be part of wonderful Employee Resource Groups and look forward to all of the impact we can collectively make.” —Shelby D., BECU Employee
Throughout the year, we offered learning opportunities for our employees to grow in their personal equity and inclusion learning journey:
- In November, 270 employees participated in our inaugural Equity Summit. The event showcased influential keynote speakers and workshops on industry-wide equity and inclusion best practices. Keynotes included: Former Seattle Seahawk and community leader Doug Baldwin who spoke to us about grounding our work from a place of humanity and love; and Mehrsa Baradaran, author of “The Color of Money,” who challenged BECU to consider the racial wealth gap and offered credit unions ways to address long-lasting inequities.
- Our new Equity and Inclusion Speaker Series hosted social justice thought leaders to help educate and create an open space for discussions on race, racial identity, allyship and anti-racism for our leaders and professionals.
Beginning in October, Neighborhood Financial Center employees can now choose to pin on new BECU-branded pronoun buttons. The red and white buttons have four options: she/her, he/him, they/them and “My pronouns are ___" for pronouns. BECU joins several other companies offering employee pronoun buttons, such as Nordstrom, Walmart, Netflix and Mayo Clinic.
We are committed to reflecting the diversity of our membership and our local areas and to providing equitable access to all employees. We welcome all employees who are committed to the financial well-being of our members and our communities. In our internal dashboard, we compare the demographics of our employees to the counties we serve to find opportunities to further expand our commitment. Overall, BECU closely reflects our communities based on race and gender. Yet, we recognize we have opportunities to ensure we reflect diversity at all levels of the credit union.
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Read other sections of our 2021 Annual Report: