As we move through 2025, credit unions are facing increasing workforce challenges, compounded by shifting economic conditions. From rising retirements and talent shortages to increasing compliance pressures, financial institutions must take a proactive approach to workforce challenges, or risk costly disruptions.
A recent America’s Credit Unions report outlines key economic trends shaping the financial services industry this year. But what do these trends mean for HR leaders at credit unions – and how can they prepare?
Economic Trends That Will Impact Workforce Strategy
1. Workforce Costs & Budget Pressures Are Increasing
What’s Happening? Credit unions are expected to see a 6.5% share growth rate in 2025, with much of this growth concentrated in share certificates. This will strain the cost of funds, making budget planning even more critical.
What This Means for HR: Labor costs – including compensation and benefits – will come under increased scrutiny. HR leaders must balance hiring, retention and employee engagement strategies within financial constraints.
Potential Risks:
- Hiring freezes, slower salary growth, and increased competition for talent could make it harder to retain key employees, especially in specialized roles like risk and compliance.
- Disconnected workforce and finance data make it harder to track labor costs in real time, leading to inefficient resource allocation. In addition, tying business outcomes to HR decisions and programs is nearly impossible.
Proactive Strategy:
- Workforce analytics can help optimize staffing decisions by providing a real-time view of labor costs and hiring trends.
- Centralized workforce data eliminates silos, ensuring HR and finance teams work with accurate, up-to-date insights.
2. The “Silver Wave” of Retirements Will Widen Leadership Gaps
What’s Happening? In 2025, a record 4.2 million Americans will turn 65, marking a significant demographic shift. This trend is expected to impact financial services, leading to leadership gaps and knowledge loss.
What This Means for HR: Credit unions need to proactively identify and develop employees to fill key leadership roles before retirements occur. Many credit unions rely on manual processes and siloed HR systems, making it difficult to identify where critical expertise resides and ensure it’s transferred before employees exit.
Potential Risks:
- Operational Disruptions: Unaddressed retirements can lead to interruptions in service and decision-making processes.
- Increased Recruitment Pressure: A surge in retirements may necessitate reactive hiring, potentially leading to rushed decisions that don’t align with long-term needs.
Proactive Strategy:
- Leadership Development Programs: Invest in internal training and mentorship initiatives to build a robust leadership pipeline.
- Data-Driven Workforce Intelligence: Fragmented workforce data makes it difficult to anticipate future leadership gaps. Workforce analytics can forecast retirement risks, ensuring HR teams plan succession strategies proactively instead of scrambling to fill leadership roles.
3. Loan Growth is Declining, Leading to Talent Shifts
What’s Happening? With high interest rates and a slowdown in home sales, credit unions may see lower loan growth in 2025. This will shift demand for different skill sets within financial institutions.
What This Means for HR: Some departments may need to restructure or reskill employees to focus on different business areas, such as member engagement or digital services.
Potential Risks:
- Without a clear workforce visibility strategy, credit unions risk misallocating resources, leading to overstaffing in some areas and understaffing in others.
- Disconnected HR and business data make it difficult to identify skills gaps or track workforce redeployment efforts effectively.
Proactive Strategy:
- HR leaders must invest in internal mobility programs, cross-training, and skills development to ensure employees can transition into new roles as business needs shift.
- A centralized workforce data platform eliminates hiring blind spots – helping credit unions assess workforce readiness in real time instead of relying on outdated reports from separate systems.
4. A War for Talent: Credit Unions Are Competing Beyond Banks
What’s Happening? The competition for top talent is no longer just among banks and credit unions. Fintech startups, big tech companies, and non-financial organizations are offering higher salaries, career growth opportunities, and flexible work environments—drawing talent away from credit unions.
What This Means for HR: Credit unions must rethink their employer branding, hiring, and retention strategies to remain competitive.
Potential Risks:
- Without a modernized, data-driven recruitment approach, credit unions risk losing high-potential employees to more agile competitors.
- Recruiting and retention efforts are often scattered across multiple systems, making it harder to track hiring trends and engagement data in a meaningful way.
Proactive Strategy:
- Use recruitment analytics to improve hiring efficiency and track retention trends.
- Unify HR, recruiting, and workforce data to create a holistic view of hiring performance.
5. Compliance & Risk Pressures Are Intensifying
What’s Happening? Compliance and risk management challenges are evolving as new policies from the administration take effect. Credit unions must stay ahead of regulatory changes to avoid financial penalties.
What This Means for HR: A lack of workforce visibility can lead to compliance missteps, especially in tracking employee certifications, regulatory training, and workforce risk factors.
Potential Risks:
- Without a centralized workforce system, HR teams struggle to track compliance-related workforce data efficiently.
- Regulatory audits require accurate, real-time workforce records – but disconnected systems create gaps in reporting and time-consuming exercises in data gathering.
Proactive Strategy:
- Workforce Analytics for Compliance: Track compliance readiness, audit workforce data, and ensure training programs meet evolving regulations.
- Eliminate Data Silos: A centralized workforce data platform ensures that compliance tracking is automated, accurate, and easily accessible for audits.
How Workforce Analytics Helps Credit Unions Stay Ahead
To navigate these challenges, credit unions must move beyond reactive workforce decisions and take a data-driven approach to workforce planning.
With ZeroedIn’s analytics platform, credit unions can:
✔ Gain Workforce Visibility – Eliminate data silos and track key workforce metrics like turnover, skills gaps, and succession planning.
✔ Optimize Staffing Decisions – Align workforce costs with financial goals and prevent unnecessary spending.
✔ Strengthen Leadership Pipelines – Identify high-potential employees and proactively plan for retirements.
✔ Ensure Compliance Readiness – Maintain real-time workforce records to meet audit and regulatory requirements.
✔ Improve Retention & Engagement – Leverage sentiment analysis and workforce trends to reduce turnover.
The Bottom Line
Credit unions face growing workforce pressures, and reactive decision-making leads to costly disruptions. Without real-time insights into labor costs, leadership gaps, compliance risks, and hiring trends, credit unions may struggle to adapt in a competitive environment.
The key to future-proofing? Eliminating workforce data silos and making decisions backed by analytics.
Is your credit union ready to take a proactive approach to workforce challenges?
🔍 Let ZeroedIn help you turn workforce challenges into strategic opportunities with data-driven insights.
