Business View Caribbean | November 2019

47 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN NOVEMBER 2019 GENERAL EMPLOYEES CO-OPERAT I VE CREDI T UNION L IMI TED human face of GECCU. So, we try to make sure that that happens.” Yet another initiative is an upcoming job evaluation exercise, wherein all GECCU’s current 62 employee’s positions will be weighed for their worth and importance to the credit union. “We will go through a process of responding to the value of these jobs through a compensation exercise, as well,” says Bowman. “That is going to assist us in creating better efficiencies and paying greater attention to our human resource base. Where I sit, talent acquisition is on the front burner all the time. Credit unions are becoming more complex, and we now have to fight alongside the best-in- class industries for the same talent. St. Vincent is not a huge place, so how we win and retain that talent is very important to us as we move forward.” “Another issue we are focused on is perfecting our data analytics practices,” Bowman shares. “We are looking at the cost of investing more heavily in data analytics because these are essential tools that we need to understand our customers and their behavior so that we can deliver products and services that they truly want, need, expect, and demand. Then there is the ever-increasing burden of the cost of compliance to regulations, which are focused on making sure that we are an efficient and effective organization which is safe and sound and that our members’ money is protected. That issue of regulations is very important.” All of these initiatives will help GECCU stay ahead of the curve and ahead of the banks, fintech, companies, other credit unions, loan sharks, and lending clubs that make up the competition in the small island nation. “The way we deal with them is that we always employ strategic thinking at all levels of the organization,” Bowman states. “That means that we are in a constant review in a quarterly and half-yearly basis, scouting the environment, looking at things that we have not yet done or things that we may not have achieved. We look at the reports of our regulators when they do onsite inspections, and what our external auditors do. That’s how we keep current on issues