Addition by Subtraction By Ski Swiatkowski
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’m going to bring up an idea that might not be very popular with mortgage company management in the current environment. And it won’t be the first time people have thought that I’m crazy. But, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be carefully considered as a viable people strategy within the mortgage industry.
Despite health, social, political, and economic upheaval, the mortgage world recently experienced a record-setting year for revenue and profit. This was true for the vast majority of individual loan officers as well. I believe we know this was a major windfall and had little to do with good management or good origination strategy, but that is a separate discussion. In the process of achieving this record volume, companies were falling all over themselves to find additional operational staff and loan officers, loading up to handle the massive demand and maximize the opportunity. Seems to make good sense, right?
Warning: If you are a company owner, corporate executive, or manager who is only focused on origination volume and doesn’t give much value to company culture, the remainder of this article is probably not going to resonate with you. Several years ago, I had read about an idea Jeff Bezos introduced in the annual letter to the Amazon shareholders. His insights described an approach they were adopting which would offer employees between $2,000 and $5,000 to leave the company if they didn’t want to work there anymore. He also restated his belief in long-term market leadership and developing the right culture rather than short-term profitability. “A word about corporate cultures: For better or for worse, they are enduring, stable, hard to change,” he wrote. “They can be a source of advantage or disadvantage. You can write down your corporate culture, but when you do so, you’re discovering it, uncovering it — not creating it. It is created slowly over time by the people and by events — by the stories of past success and failure that become a deep part of the company lore.” Am I suggesting that mortgage companies should pay employees to leave? Well, ....yes.
Unfortunately, by trying to “make hay while the sun shines”, many companies were bringing on anyone and everyone in their mad dash to profits. Worse yet, many of these hires were the wrong people. I don’t just mean people who were Think about it. Right now, companies should be flush not completely qualified for the position. I’m referring with cash. Offering a bonus for unhappy, disgruntled to individuals who were a bad fit for the company culture. employees to leave would provide several benefits. I know it was difficult to stick to your hiring standards when processing time continued to increase because of volume and your existing staff was overworked and stressed to the max. But this type of decision-making often becomes the foundation for future company problems. 12 NAMB.ORG | SPRING 2021
First, it would do the right thing for the employees. If we brought people on board during our hiring frenzy who were not a good fit and are dissatisfied with us (for whatever reason), we can now incentivize them to take the opportunity to go into the marketplace to find a
