How to Retain Your Best People by Creating a Winning Culture

by Dave Savage, CEO, The Mortgage Coach

If you want to be a successful mortgage manager, you can’t do it all yourself—you need to create a culture throughout your company that puts your customer's long-term goals first. In other words, the mortgage planner mindset needs to be practiced across your entire organization.

During two conversations in 2006, one with Jeff May, CEO, and the other with Stacey Harding, Senior Vice President, both of Cherry Creek Mortgage, we discussed several topics. One of the questions I asked them was, “What are your goals and strategies for attracting and retaining top sales talent?”

They both said the same thing independently of each other—that it’s about the culture and putting your people first. At Cherry Creek, they have a very clear vision that they “are in business to create one of the best companies to work for in America,” and every single thing they do, they do it with that culture in mind.

Part of fulfilling on that promise is ensuring that their employees aren’t just satisfied—their goal is to make them excited about being part of a GREAT company, a company that is making a positive difference for the customers it serves.

During my conversation with Stacey Harding, he said something very profound. He told me there are five key things employees constantly ask themselves that he focuses on to create a people-first culture from an employee's perspective. These points have been stuck in my head since our conversation, because of their significance in making the difference between success and failure. They are:

1. Do you care about me

2. Do you recognize me

3. Ease of doing business

4. Will you help me grow my business

5. How will you pay me  

If you were to solicit feedback from your employees, how do you think they would respond to these questions?

I recommend that all leaders of origination teams and mortgage organizations create a scorecard around employee retention, morale and production levels. Then analyze them monthly or quarterly and use those metrics to continuously improve your employee relationship management strategies.  

Running a successful origination team and mortgage business takes more than individual salespeople. It takes your entire team and/or organization working together for a common cause. A culture that personifies both your employee's and customer's needs will give you an advantage over your commoditized brethren. Building a culture that creates value for homeowners vs. selling price is a competitive weapon in today’s marketplace.

©2009 Mortgage Coach. Reprinted with permission.