Recruiting + Retaining Talent with Heather Breidenthal: Part 2

We're talking all about navigating the complexities of hiring and retaining talent in today's world with Heather Breidenthal, Chief Human Resources Officer at Tri Pointe Homes.  

Heather’s expertise includes strategic planning and implementation, total rewards and benefit program design, M&A activities, workforce/succession planning, leadership and talent development, organizational health, and talent acquisition.

Prior to joining Tri Pointe Homes, Heather served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for CalAtlantic Group and Standard Pacific Homes, where she oversaw all facets of the HR organization for over 17 years.

She is a former advisory board member for Chapman University’s Leadership Services and Extended Education division, and an active member of the National Human Resources Association. Heather received her B.S. in Business Administration from California State University Long Beach.

Connect with Heather and Tri Pointe Homes

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):

You're listening to the housing innovation Alliance podcast in partnership with the university of Denvers Franklin L burn school of real estate and construction management. The housing innovation Alliance is a nationwide community of game changers. Driving the future of home delivery through crowd accelerated innovation. We represent thought leaders from dirt to dwells with a focus on the production builders business environment.

Alexandria (00:34):

Thanks for joining us. I'm Alexandria, a student at the university of Denver school of real estate and, and construction management. This is episode two of the Heather Breidenthal interview. If you missed part one, go listen to learn about Heather's background in the home building industry. This episode will cover topics such as innovation in the industry, recruitment, talent needs and expectations. Listen in as our own Betsy Scott executive director of programs and engagement chats with Heather.

Betsy (01:12):

Hi, I'm Betsy Scott. I'm here today with Heather brightens all the chief human resources officer for try point homes. So I would like to focus on a few things with you, how your expect for talent have changed over the last few years, how you're navigating recruitment and retention. As people are really reevaluating their careers. There are a lot of different roles that people can play. Some of the best people I've seen in the industry over the years are people who've been able to kind of move around. It's like you can evolve your career over time. Yeah.

Heather (01:43):

I mean, we, you call those folks utility players, right? Exactly. These are folks that can slot in depending on what the needs are. And as you go through cycles in the industry, those folks are like the gems, right? Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, you're going to hold onto them and you're gonna plug them in wherever they can add value. And I think that's something that I've certainly personally, as them learned in my career is mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's not just about the typical HR stuff, right? Yes. You gotta make sure people get paid and they have benefits and compensation, but it's really about how do you really help people work better together. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And how do you think about how the jobs intersect with each other and try to streamline that as much as possible, but it's funny cuz early in my career, I thought, okay, well these are the, all the jobs and this is how they work and here's the job description.

Heather (02:32):

And <laugh> what I've learned in home building is depending on the size of the operation that you're looking at, we have 15 divisions across the nation. Some are very small, some are really large and the jobs do differ depending on the size of the division. And, and sometimes it's really great to work in a smaller division where you're in the mush pot of everything. And that's certainly something that I benefited from, from starting when, when San Pacific was 350 people and we grew to, you know, close to 4,000 team members across the nation, you watch how the jobs flex and change and the more flexible you are at learning new things, the better you're gonna do in the industry.

Betsy (03:11):

So what would you say to the next generation leaders that might be looking to get into housing or even someone reevaluating where there are, there are a lot of really good places to transfer into the housing space from. So what advice would you give now that you've been in the industry for a while for somebody who's considering housing as a career path?

Heather (03:31):

Well, it's interesting because I have a couple of open positions in my HR team right now. I'm having to try to influence people from other industries to join. It's kind of what we were talking about earlier, once it's in your blood, it's really hard to imagine working in and the other industry, the, the, the types of roles that sit within it are so diverse. What I love is you've got, you know, the construction team, that's very different from the sales team. It's totally different from customer service, which has evolved tremendously over the 20 years. I mean, we're bringing in talent from other industries on the customer care side that really is elevating our game in terms of the full experience we provide. But then you also have land acquisition and land development and architecture and market getting, which is more important than ever two, because there's such an online need.

Heather (04:25):

And for that digital sort of presence that has changed dramatically over the last 20 years since I've been in the industry, I remember print marketing was like back then. And then what's really interesting is sitting at the home office or, you know, some people call it core. We call it a home office is we have all your typical corporate roles. So we've got HR and legal. We've just recently centralized our accounting function. Our it group has changed the most, I would say in, in just the last five years, innovation is really important now more than ever, the way people look or review evaluate and, and even purchase homes has changed. And there's so much of it done online. So good example is we've, we've brought in somebody who used to work at Amazon that understands the customer experience, how you generate leads online to really work with our it team and our set L and marketing team collaboratively to really figure out we're going on a digital customer journey is what we're calling it. So it's like, how do we think about the touch points that people have both online and when they come in person and how do you weave all those things together to make it a better experience for everyone. And technology's really changed the, a way we do things as an industry, but when you compare us to like the automotive industry, I think there's a lot we could learn from them and maybe even, you know, have a copycat strategy around <laugh>.

Betsy (05:54):

I configured my car online and you know, we've been talking the last few years, we should get to the point where you can really not just look at the features that are available, but actually configure your house online. And I think the tech folks could actually help on the technology side pave the way you know, of digitizing what we've been doing as an industry, making the process better. One of the next things I wanted to talk to you about was how talent needs and expectations have changed for you over the last 25 plus years. If we just look at everything that you've faced over the course of your career, you've been through a lot of things. You went through the housing boom and the early two thousands where people were buying anything just to get it. And then the boss that followed and a recession and 19 little mergers and a couple of big mergers <laugh> and now with everything that's been going on with people wanting to work from home, what are the implications there, both in your internal team and with your customers, can you speak even more specifically to how the jobs to be done and skill sets that you're looking for have changed?

Heather (07:01):

Absolutely. So, you know, what's interesting is the basic principles of home building really haven't changed that much, right? How you build a home is, is largely still the same. But the technology that you use to improve the quality and the efficiency and the communication side of it, with all the parties that are involved in building the home have changed dramatically. So, and how we've engaged our customers and our homeowners in the entire process has changed. You know, they're with us every step of the way, and they wanna know what's the of their home. And so how we communicate, I would say has probably been one of the biggest ways that how work gets done has changed, what gets automated, you know, what gets streamlined has changed. So when you look at other industries like the automotive industry, you can see how we've changed. Similarly, a need to potentially continuous improve, you know, how we search for and purchase homes, how people shop, how they design mm-hmm, <affirmative> what they're looking for.

Heather (08:09):

And that speed of technology is constantly moving faster and faster. <Laugh> and customers are adopting it faster than ever. I think, particular the last two years in the pandemic, a lot of people, and I'm just gonna generalize here, but sitting on their couch, right. Using their computers, looking at stuff and also evaluating, well, where do I wanna be? Where do I wanna live? That whole experience online was where they started first, cuz the foot traffic changed dramatically. So their expectations of what they see when they go online and how they engage with our team members, our new home specialists, which are really our online sales counselors in, in some other builders, that's what they call them. And we're more important than ever to really figure out how do we emotionally connect with customers? How do we make sure we're responsive when they're reaching out and how do we get them set up with, you know, the community or the neighborhood that they're most interested in and the particular home that they're most interested in.

Heather (09:06):

And it has to be as close to real time as possible. <Laugh> people want immediate responses. So it has required us to think about it and innovation and how it's woven into everything we do in my 20 plus years in the industry, I've watched the entire flip from really having almost no technology. Quite honestly, mm-hmm <affirmative> to watching when we first put in E R P systems, CRM systems. And you know, when we first tried to implement those things at standard Pacific, <laugh> the people in the field like it was like the body rejecting the organ. It was like, I do not want this thing. I just wanna do it the way I've always done it. And now I think it's almost absurd if you don't have a really a great tool for your field team members that are customer facing to engage with customers and keep track of all their progress.

Heather (10:02):

They finally view it as this is my tool that makes me really effective mm-hmm <affirmative> cause that's what it was meant to do all along was to improve how you do your job and really that's what technology should always do. So it matter of are we involving the right people in designing the technology? Is it really streamlining the way they do their work? Are we doing a good job when we change things to train them? That's a lot of discussion we've had here of how do we improve the training and the change management to help people through just the human behavior change that has to happen with all of that. So when you ask, well, what are you looking for in terms of talent and skills? I think, you know, if you've got the tech savvy skills and you love using technology to improve the way you engage with each other at work with our trade partners, with our customers, that's fantastic.

Heather (10:57):

And then more than ever, because it's been so heavy tap focus. What I'm seeing in HR is the people skills are starting to need a lot more work <laugh>. So we we're fortunate here. We have people with very good people skills here at try point <laugh>. But in the next generation, I'm just seeing people are so over comfortable using technology where sometimes they forget about the face to face interaction, the teamwork aspect of things, the collaboration that's needed. So when we're out looking to fill a purchasing role, or maybe it's a land role, sure the skills are important. You know, it'd be great. You find people who have done this before. So they know the steps to get whatever that job is done. But the competencies behaviorally are more important than the skills. And I mean, everybody says that, but it's true now more than ever mm-hmm <affirmative> is you don't have the relationship skills and you're not sort of learning how to use technology and communications and relationship skills. No matter what role you take, you won't be as effective as you would be if you just had a killer combination of those things.

Betsy (12:09):

Yeah. I think people tend to rely on technology to the point where they don't think through what they're gonna say using that technology. They're using it as a shortcut and you can do a tremendous amount of things when you digitally enable it, but you still need to have the communication there, make sure that you're on the same page with people that you're working with and that they understand why you're trying to do what you're trying to do or the technology it's not gonna do you as much. Good.

Heather (12:40):

Yeah, it won't, it won't solve everything. You still have to have good communication skills. And one thing we realized early on was leadership really matters, right? When technology is moving faster every day, you know how our leaders develop relationships and encourage people to use technology, but also partner with each other and communicate effectively in person matters a lot. And there was this huge pen up demand over the last two years because I think a lot of companies weren't engaging as much in leadership development and we saw it here too. You know, it was a little bit of drinking from the fire hose. There was this great pause in early 2020, where it was like, what's gonna happen? How is this gonna affect the industry when the pandemic first started? And then the light switch went on and we were off to the races and it's been like that for about two years now.

Heather (13:34):

And we've been and adding people, all of us that every home builder in the industry for the most part is growing. And we've been able to promote a lot of people from within, but we haven't done a lot of upskilling of our existing team because we've just been trying to serve our customers and build the neighborhoods in the communities, get the homes built. And so this year we're really investing heavily in leadership development and we've rolled out a lot of new resources and many of which are available to anyone in the company and they're on demand. And so it's not like we're just inviting select groups to all of these trainings. We're sort of carving out multiple avenues for people to be able to continue to learn and grow. Even if they're not in a leadership position today, maybe they want to prepare for one.

Heather (14:27):

So we've really focused on development in response to a team member survey that we did last year. There were two things that they told us that they wanted. They said one we wanna get back together in person, which was pretty cool. I mean, but it was loud across the survey. It was like, we get it, it's a pandemic, but we miss each other. We're like family, we wanna get back together. We're all been back together in person for a very long time. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and they said we want learning and development. So we've really had to figure out how do you customize that and create an individual development plan for each person. So mm-hmm, <affirmative>, we've changed the way we do our midyear performance review discussions. It's really more of a one on one around development. So we ask them three questions about, you know, what training and development are they looking for? What are their career goals? And then we're trying to marry that with what opportunities do we have in terms of jobs or roles, but also are there learning and development opportunities that they could sort of engage in over the next year that we'd be supportive of and getting them hooked up with those

Betsy (15:34):

Things? I think that a lot of the job jumping that we are seeing is that people don't know how to raise their hand and say something isn't working with me. I don't feel like I'm getting the opportunities that I need. I'm frustrated currently. And don't know how to either deal with an issue that's facing me or say that I want more opportunity. So it's great that you guys are looking at how do you not lose the really great people that you have and allow them to grow from your middle management into your future leaders. I'm curious to how you've navigated issues that have come up over the last, last few years, like the me too movement and black lives matter and the pandemic and vaccination really complicated issues that everyone is facing in every industry. You seem to be very progressive in how you engage your teams. If there are any tips that you have or, you know, any things that you've learned on that front over the last few years, I think would be interesting.

Heather (16:36):

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are kind of things that have always been part of my personal DNA. That also part of all the companies that I've been part of. So while there've been spotlighted for sure over the last few years, and certainly ESG has grown in terms of importance, not just to internal team, but external investor bases and how the analysts review our company. You know, we've really focused on making sure that we're more intentional at how we create an action plan. And are we hitting on five key areas? One is, do we have dedicated time sort of set aside for a think tank that we've developed of HR professionals that sit in different areas of the business and are responsible for certain pieces of our culture, so to speak and, and, and what people experience. So it's, it's how do we think about the regular activities and the cycle of, you know, how all the touch points with our employees and our team members and how do you have a DEI and belonging?

Heather (17:42):

I always add that mm-hmm <affirmative> to those touchpoint rather than making it feel like it's something separate and distinct. It needs to be embedded in part of all your regular practices. So when we think about our practices, one is first communication and education. You know, it's DEI is a sensitive subject for some people. It just is. And leaders in particular, sometimes aren't super comfortable with, how should I, I talk about it, how, you know, I'm not even sure how am I comfortable about how I think about it <laugh> and so we've focused over the last year on really developing some robust leadership training and conversations with every single division leadership team that gave them, you know basic construct of how to think about diversity or representation, equity sort fairness, and then inclusion and belonging. There's a video that we actually share that talks about inclusion starts with I and how do you think of the behaviors that you demonstrate every day mm-hmm <affirmative> and are you being inclusive or are you not we've enabled any robust sessions?

Heather (18:51):

They're, you know, anywhere from three to four hours with each leadership team, they get into some very personal conversations. It's facilitated, our HR leaders are trained and sort of how to help them work through those conversations. And it's really about how do you create awareness and even a sense of better inclusion and belonging in the leadership team so that they actually then go and start applying it to their own departments and groups. So we're set to roll out similar training this year for, to all of our employees. So, but the communication and education piece is so important because I think a member of our board actually asked, gosh, should we have a head of diversity equity inclusion? Should we have like a P? And I said, you know, it's everyone's job. So I'm just nervous that if we were to hire somebody and give them that title, that there might be a perception that, oh, it's their job.

Heather (19:42):

Now, maybe that's not the right way to think about it, but at least that's how I'm thinking about it. Now. I'm like, how do we build the capability in our, every single leader? That's, we're really gonna influence the way they think and the way they deliver the team member experience every day mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, and then the other lenses are recruiting and talent act. You have to have a lens on diversity and equity inclusion. When you're looking at talent, what pools are you fishing in? And if you're always fishing in the same pools and in home building, we do that. We all, we all want home building experience, but we've done a better job. I would say over the last four or five years of really thinking outside of the box of what are related industries or what are maybe not even related industries, but for this job, you could get a completely different, more diverse perspective.

Heather (20:33):

If we went to a different industry, where would we go? And it's showing up. We, you know, we have an ESG report that we published our inaugural report last year. And I think we're one of the very few home builders that actually shares diversity representation data in our ESG report of nice. This is what our representation looked like three years ago. This is how it's changed over three years, largely from awareness training and a big portion of it is making sure you have a DEI lens in everything you're doing recruiting, promoting compensation, you know, even your review process, succession planning, all of it. It has to be woven into everything

Betsy (21:16):

That makes sense. Do I share the opinion with you that if you make it somebody's job, then it feels like one person has to do this and it's not gonna happen unless we have this leader of it where it should be woven into everything that you're doing, and it should become part of the culture, not somebody's job. We try and have more women represented more people of color, people of different backgrounds that are coming into the industry as experts in what we're doing, just so we have a richer conversation. So very interesting that you guys are doing that from a, from a, a cultural perspective and starting it with your HR people is kind of like an incubator for it. So I would certainly be interested in looking at that ESG report from last year,

Heather (21:57):

It's public information it's available on our website. And it's interesting. It's been really kind of cool to read the other public home builder ESG reports, because it think we can learn a lot from each other on how do we think about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And it's more than just statistics. It's really your culture. Overall. I love talking to people in the industry. There's a couple of my peers that I really respect. I know Pty has just some amazing DEI initiative is I call Michelle over there all the time. <Laugh> and then, you know, even though I said, personally, I don't, I don't know that we would sort of say, Hey, I'm giving somebody a title of the head of diversity equity inclusion. There's a person in the industry, Corey, over at toll that is just phenomenal. And that is her title. And she's leading initiatives across toll brothers. She's an amazing sounding board. And there's actually a networking group that we have where we get together and we share ideas across the industry. And I think that's, what's kind of great is yes, we're competitors, but when it comes to DEI and the industry overall, I think we can work together to improve it. And it's all about execution, right? It's you can share ideas it's but that execution is the hard part

Speaker 1 (23:17):

On behalf of the housing innovation Alliance and the university of Denver. This is Dr. Eric Holt. Thank you for being part of our journey. This is where innovation calls home.