Coast Central Credit Union

Credit unions operate across multiple locations, making easy team collaboration essential. However, Coast Central struggled with an outdated intranet that didn’t meet modern communication and documentation needs. 

Learn how ThoughtFarmer helped them overcome these challenges.

Coast Central company background

Coast Central Credit Union is a $2 billion California-based financial cooperative with approximately 300 employees working in 11 different Member Services Branches as well as departments throughout multiple cities. For a long time, the credit union relied on an outdated intranet to distribute news across their teams.

As they expanded, the limitations of their intranet, named Coastnet, became very obvious. Because it was solely used for news, Coast Central wasn’t receiving the usual benefits of intranets—like improved culture, document storage, and organization charts. As a result, internal communication suffered, inefficiencies multiplied, and the workforce became disengaged.

Wanting more from their intranet

The team started on a new quest to find a new and improved intranet option. The Marketing Department carefully researched several vendor options and made a recommendation to Senior Management, Kandis Basinger, the organization’s then Training Manager. 

It was essential to the senior team that its intranet serve as a single source of information—a one-stop shop for important news, policies, and documentation, as well as employee events and activities. 

Most importantly, what was severely lacking previously was a more dedicated support team, for immediate technical support and assistance.

ThoughtFarmer was chosen above other competing solutions due to its:

• Quick and knowledgeable response to critical issues
• Ease of use
• Customization capabilities
• Simple navigation
• Overall look and feel

Successful adoption of the platform was a primary priority for the organization. To ensure this went smoothly, Coastnet was configured on employees’ home screens at the start of each day and Kandis conducted introductory training for all employees.  As new employees joined the credit union, they were introduced to a 30-minute tour to help them become acquainted with Coastnet from their first days on the job.

Benefits Coast Central experienced after transforming Coastnet with ThoughtFarmer

Using ThoughtFarmer has greatly improved Coast Central’s internal communication and workplace culture.

Coastnet became the single source of information

Coast Central’s intranet is now their primary and sought-after source for all employee information and news. 

To ensure news and information doesn’t get buried or lost, Senior Marketing Coordinator Cathryn Noel-Veatch relies on the auto-archiving feature within ThoughtFarmer. Automatic archiving allows them to plan ahead and remove content automatically, before it becomes stale. This has also improved the search functionality, making information retrieval even easier.

The Coast Central team eliminated the use of paper forms

One of the strongest benefits has been the automation of forms and elimination of paper. “We don’t have to have hard copies of things, not to mention there is less margin for error with electronic forms,” noted Cathryn, who relies on forms for various items including business cards, or vacation requests. 

Now that all forms are on Coastnet, notifications help keep her alerted as to when to order more items. She also enjoys the reduction of paper. “The California girl in me loves the environmental benefits,” said Cathryn.

Strengthened community and connection across branches

Coastnet has allowed Coast Central to bridge the culture gap. Cathryn explained, “Even though I don’t talk with every team, I can open up their page and see who’s part of that team in seconds. I can see job titles and extensions, which helps keep those lines of communication open.”

CEO announcements no longer go unnoticed, as they are posted to the daily news and pinned to the top, helping employees at all levels feel included and informed. “Everybody has a page—every Member Services Branch and department is included,” Cathryn added.

When a long-term employee recently retired, the team posted pictures from the party onto Coastnet. “Even if people weren’t able to attend they could see that it was happening and leave well wishes in the comments. That’s one of the best things about Coastnet: everyone gets to see what’s going on with employees all over the organization,” said Cathryn.

ThoughtFarmer has also helped Coast Central’s community and volunteer spirit. The “Coast Central Perk” page (like Friends’ Central Perk) is a place for employees to chat, sell items, take polls, share recipes, and post event photos. This creates a feeling of belonging and keeps employees connected across different branches.

A theme for everything made Coastnet fun and engaging

Coast Central is a huge fan of themes within ThoughtFarmer. Themes allow users to customize the look and feel of their intranet site, including logos, icons, images, colors, and fonts, making content management a breeze. 

For Kandis, having this level of customization allows her to keep Coastnet fresh and creative.

“I lean on themes every single month, and use a different theme and background. I think it just brings a little bit of fun to our employees, especially if it’s a challenging day.”

Local and responsive support made troubleshooting easy

The team, as well as its Technology Department, have been extremely impressed with the customer support from the ThoughtFarmer team.

Thanks to the usability of the ThoughtFarmer platform, the team at Coast Central doesn’t have to reach out to support often. 

Bringing together employees with ThoughtFarmer intranet

Changing Coast Central’s intranet from an outdated system to ThoughtFarmer’s easy-to-use platform has brought great benefits. The switch fixed support and communication problems and also improved the company’s culture and employee engagement. 

As Cathryn noted, ThoughtFarmer achieved the perfect intranet trifecta: maintaining open communication, being user-friendly, and having an attractive design.