Policy Management Tools and Technologies for Credit Unions: A Comprehensive Guide

Financial institutions such as credit unions and banks are tasked with maintaining extremely strict policies and operational protocols. This uniformity and standardization make it far more difficult for “insiders” to commit crimes such as theft and fraud. But actually implementing and maintaining these policies, processes, and protocols is much easier said than done. Enter: policy management tools and technologies, such as policy management software solutions and business process automations.  

What is Policy Management Software? 

Policy management software platforms are designed to simplify and streamline an organization’s official policies. In fact, this is especially important for credit unions, banks, and other financial institutions. Organizations in the financial space demand well-defined policies and procedures, making policy management software a mission-critical technology. 

Policy management software platforms typically include the following features and capabilities. 

• Policy hosting – A credit union’s formal policies are published online, with updates and changes immediately visible in the form of a dynamic, “living” document.  
• Policy management – Credit union leaders can leverage policy management tools to create, update and maintain policies using live, cloud-based documents. 
• Policy tracking – A financial institution can use a policy tracking tool to determine who has viewed a new policy and/or who has viewed updates to an existing policy. 

These are a few of the tools that you’ll find on a policy management software platform. Financial institutions such as banks and credit unions can benefit from these features and functionalities since they provide a defined structure for policy management. 

With these policy management tools in place, a financial institution can ensure that each employee is aware of both new and existing credit union policies. This is essential for maintaining consistency and uniformity across a credit union’s various operations and processes. Credit unions and other financial institutions routinely rotate staff through different positions as an operational risk management and mitigation measure. This makes it particularly important to have consistent policies, procedures, and protocols in place. 

Required Reading for Credit Union Policies, Protocols, Processes, and Training

Credit unions and other financial institutions can leverage training software platforms that guide an employee through required reading or a video tutorial. The written material or video content is typically viewed in sections. After reviewing each section, the individual is tested using multiple-choice answers. The test questions are administered in an effort to confirm that the individual has absorbed the information in question. 

These automated tutorials are ideal for required reading such as essential company policies and mission-critical company protocols. These digital training tools can be used in conjunction with traditional workshop and lecture-style training sessions, which allow for additional reinforcement. This reinforcement is critical for cases where you have mission-critical processes and extremely important protocols that must be followed in a precise, exacting manner. 

A credit union may opt to include training modules that exist within a larger policy management software platform. This technology can be deployed as a stand-alone feature too. 

Leveraging Business Process Automation Technology

When consistency. efficiency and accuracy matters, business process automations — also known as BPA — can prove to be very advantageous. Processes that are repeatable and consistent can be automated in a manner that maximizes accuracy, speed, precision, and productivity. You can also eliminate human error from the equation when you automate processes at a credit union, bank or other financial institution. 

Through business process automation, you can even negate the need for certain policies and procedures. This is achieved by shifting tasks away from human staff members using process automation technology. 

It’s also possible to leverage process automations to improve overall productivity levels. Some processes may not be fully automatable from start to finish; you may only be able to automate a segment of a larger process. In these cases, you will have a human performing the non-automatable portion(s) of the process. 

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used to streamline process automations and improve efficiency over time.  Machine learning technology can analyze data over time to identify opportunities for improvement. Machine learning-driven AI technology is widely regarded as an ideal mechanism for pinpointing beneficial algorithm changes, 

Process automation technologies can also be used to remove simpler, rote tasks from an employee’s to-do list, thereby freeing human staff members to focus on higher-level tasks. This approach can improve more than just productivity levels. You’ll also see improved employee morale. That’s because routinely performing repetitive, low-level tasks has been associated with boredom and overall poor job satisfaction. Offloading these tasks using BPA technology frees employees to focus on more engaging, dynamic tasks and projects that bring about greater job satisfaction.  

Superusers for Policy Management and Training

Superusers can serve as part of a highly-effective training strategy that can be leveraged in conjunction with policy management tools. Superusers are individuals who are selected to undergo intensive training ahead of the training sessions or workshops that are offered to the broader population of employees. Then, these individuals complement formal training efforts, working to help colleagues through new policy rollouts and enterprise software deployments, amongst other things. 

The best superusers tend to be individuals who currently act in a leadership role within their respective departments or division. The training that superusers receive is advanced and at a level that aligns with trainers when all is said and done. When selecting superusers, you’ll want to choose fast learners who are comfortable guiding and instructing their colleagues. 

Technology for Improved Security Measures 

Credit unions and other financial institutions must consider security when implementing and deploying new technologies. By establishing a policy management software platform, you can effectively centralize data stores, policy documents, and training modules. This approach allows for integrations whereby data automatically streams into the platform from a variety of third-party platforms. It’s generally much easier to protect a single integrated platform versus multiple stand-alone platforms. A single platform also allows for an improved response to possible security breaches. 

Digital security is especially important for credit unions due to the sensitive nature of the personal and financial data that these financial institutions collect. A high level of security is also required for achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance. The financial sector is one of the most heavily regulated and noncompliance can lead to significant fines and penalties. This makes security a key consideration from a risk management perspective too.    

Developing Policy Management Tools and Technologies for Credit Unions

Custom policy management software solutions can streamline operations for a credit union, bank, or other financial institution. In fact, the iTech team specializes in the development of policy management software platforms. Our team works directly with the client to gain a full understanding of their needs and requirements. This can entail site visits and comprehensive breakdowns of an organization’s processes and operations. Our team works to understand a client’s policy management needs, pain points, and challenges. Then, we use this insight to architect a platform with the features and functionalities that a credit union needs to succeed. These digital transformation projects involve a problem-and-solution approach to development, with the policy management software architected in a way that solves problems and improves operational efficiency. We invite you to contact the team at iTech today to discuss your credit union’s policy management needs.