It goes without saying that we were thrilled to have been named as one of the Best Places to Work in Maine in 2022 and again in 2023. Achieving this honor, however, was no accident. There was a time where we didn’t make the list, even though we thought we were “good enough.”
We knew we had to work to connect our team to a purpose beyond serving our members and communities — we needed to serve each other, also. This realization led us to our mission: Creating exceptional experiences to enrich your life.
Achieving the “Best Places” honor was a group effort at all levels of Acadia. We spent the year leading up to our first designation in 2022, focused on improving our company culture. A strong organizational culture leads to increased employee engagement, which has the ripple effect of an improved member experience. It is important that each and every Acadia teammate understands the value they add to the lives of our members, communities, and ultimately, each other.
In an industry and economy where people have many options as to where they can choose to work, we’re thrilled that our employees choose to be part of our Acadia FCU team. This brings us to our vision: Be the financial institution and employer of choice by creating exceptional experiences for our members, our employees, and our communities.
We also defined our core values and guiding principles. A company’s core values are the guiding light that bonds a team with a shared sense of purpose for achieving common goals. Acadia’s core values — the fundamental beliefs or traits of our organization — are: Commitment, Respect, Experience, (being) Dynamic, Integrity, and Trust. Additionally, as a standard for behavior and mindset within Acadia FCU, our guiding principles are: collaboration, empathy, excellence, fun, growth, innovation, stewardship, and success.
Lastly, we needed glue to hold all of this together: a tagline. Three simple words, “Together, we will!” embrace the sense of service, positivity, commitment, collaboration, community, and caring that we exemplify here at Acadia. These three words position us to be the institution of choice when teamwork matters, when optimism and problem-solving skills are needed, and when someone needs a partner to help navigate new, exciting, and sometimes scary life moments.
Acadia’s mission, vision, values, and guiding principles continue to be nurtured within our institution. They are our guideposts to sustainability and we are fully cognizant that they must remain at the forefront of all we do. Together, we will!
Written by Alison Smart, Acadia FCU Marketing Manager