It is important to discover how to stay relevant as a legacy employee. Have you been with your community bank or credit union over 20 years? Do you have a lot of knowledge that few employees have in your institution? Do you remember how “things were done” 20 plus years ago? Then you are what I lovingly call a “legacy employee.” You are valuable!

Do you find yourself trying to keep up with technology? Are the “new people” changing everything you used to do to a new way of doing things? Do you sometimes feel lost in the sea of information and don’t know where to begin to stay on top? Then you are what I respectfully call a “legacy employee.” You are in transition!

If you have been with your organization for 20-50 years, and want to learn how to stay relevant as a legacy employee, below are some tips that will inspire you to enjoy this season in your career:

Willingness to learn.

One of the keys to being a successful professional is to adopt a life-long learning attitude. The moment you lose the ability or willingness to learn, you start lagging. Attitude is everything! Your continued willingness to learn will open new doors of opportunity within your organization and you will experience less stress on your job.

Share your knowledge.

When you are willing to share all the amazing knowledge you have accumulated over your career with your coworkers, you will become a most valuable asset! It may seem that if you share information you will not be needed anymore. But it works the other way around. The more you share, the more others will seek your advice and input.

Mentor others.

Mentoring is taking someone under your wing and sharing your experiences with them. Mentoring is different than training in that mentoring is more informal, and you choose to mentor someone. Most likely what you mentor others on is not in any book because it’s based on your own life experiences. As you start thinking of your next adventure in life, you will find that leaving a legacy of knowledge is very satisfying. Your organization will keep you for as long as you want to because you are voluntarily creating your own succession plan.

Be open to new jobs.

Often workers who are contemplating retirement, want to stay put those last 3-5 years and not be bothered with having to move to a new position. They feel scared to learn and may feel threatened by others who have more technological knowledge. But taking on new jobs can help you stay sharp and may open new doors to stay in the workforce longer than you planned—not because you had to but because you want to and enjoy your new responsibilities. You may fill a need in your institution precisely because of your longevity with the organization.

Be coachable.

Typically, you may think of coaching the new generation or emerging leaders. However, being coachable simply means being open to doing things in a different way. Additionally, and regardless of age, some people may always need coaching to improve their communication or interpersonal skills. It takes humility to stay coachable throughout your career but it’s very rewarding to see your continued improvement.

It is important to discover how to stay relevant as a legacy employee. I hope these tips inspired you to act and continue to learn as you enjoy your present season in your career.

Adding new products (or eliminating them) should be a regular part of the product lifecycle at your institution. To help with this task, we’ve developed a new product launch checklist for banking products designed to get you or your product management team thinking in the right direction.

Does your new product solve a customer need?

Solving a need (either an obvious need, a latent need, or an unknown need) is an important step in your product launch process. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Does your new product solve a need for the customer? Can your sales team match the need with this new product? If this product solves an unknown need (I didn’t know I needed that!), how will you convey the unknown need and how will your sales team uncover that unknown need?

What is the purpose of this new product?

While your product needs to solve a need for your customer (see above paragraph), internally, you need to state the purpose of this product. The purpose will be the internal way the product is described so your sales and operations teams are clear on the outcomes your client’s will receive when using this product. If your internal team does not know the outcomes, it will be difficult for them to match a customer’s needs with the product and the product will fail.

What is the target market for this product?

The target market for this product generally falls within your institution’s target market. If your institution services 90% consumers and you are introducing a business product, you might have a product-target-market mismatch. An exception to this would be if you are looking to increase the percentage of business customers.

When building your new product, fully define the target market. For instance, if we are introducing a remote deposit capture product for business, you could define it as: The Owner, CFO, Controller, Accountant, or Office Manager at a Businesses with between 1 and 10 million dollars in sales, processes over 25 deposits per month (daily deposit), who has offices over two blocks away and values faster cash available balances.

How are you going to market this product?

Your new product won’t sell by itself. “If You Build It, He Will Come” never works. You have to tell your target market about it. Building a full marketing plan for your new product generally does not fall to the product management team, any help you can give to the marketing team is appreciated and helps.

Are there branding opportunities for this new product?

Most of your products (if not all) are outsourced to third party providers. Many of these providers can brand them to your institution’s branding. Logos, single sign on, and customized prompts and dialog boxes are just a few of the branding points you may want to consider.

How are you going to train your sales and operations staff?

Training generally falls into to two areas: Sales and Operations. Many times, we see product managers train the sales team on how to sell the new product. Sometimes they bring in a third-party to train the sales staff. The operations and customer service personnel who support the products must be trained as well—not only on how to properly implement/setup the customers on the new products but also how to maintain the product itself in the system.

We recognize that there are many other steps that could (and should) be added to our new product launch checklist, but we hope this is a good starting point for your next product or service launch.

Have any good ones to add? Let us know.

Looking for ideas to expand your Treasury Management reach to new business customers? Look into the TMClarity Framework, our comprehensive and transformative training and Treasury Management business management system that leads to greater sales success, higher margins, and increased customer retention in a competitive marketplace.