Mungo Homes Shares Insights on Workplace Culture & Recognition

Announcer: Welcome to the Recruiting Community Podcast, the go-to channel for talent acquisition leaders and practitioners. This show is brought to you by CXR, a trusted community of thousands connecting the best minds in the industry to explore topics like attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. Hosted by Chris Hoyt and Jerry Crispin.

We are thrilled to have you join the conversation.

Chris Hoyt: Welcome back to the Recruiting Community Podcast! We do weekly updates in the form of a conversation, and these are always a lot of fun. If you’re one of our regular subscribers, you know that we typically pull from the CXR community. That’s hundreds of companies and thousands of practitioners and leaders.

Today, though, we’re doing something a little different. We’re in Las Vegas at the USA Today Top Workplaces Awards conference. We’re excited to be here with several folks who haven’t yet found out exactly where they placed in the rankings, but who have already done well enough to be invited—and that’s saying something.

I’m excited to welcome Anna Newell from Mungo Homes. Anna, before we dive in, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and what you do at Mungo?

Anna Newell: I’m the Vice President of Human Resources and have been with Mungo for 12 years now. Before that, I worked in HR in manufacturing, which was a very different environment. In manufacturing, I could walk out and talk to every team member directly. At Mungo, we’re spread out across four states, so I had to get used to not having that one-on-one interaction as often.

I’ve been in HR for just over 30 years now.

Chris Hoyt: Started when you were four, right?

Anna Newell: Thank you! Yes, let’s go with that. But truly, HR is what I went to school for. It’s what I’ve always done, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Every day is different, and there are always new and unusual challenges. I love it.

Chris Hoyt: That’s great! So, let’s talk about what brought you here. What made you decide to take part in the Top Workplaces award programs and start surveying your employees?

Anna Newell: I don’t know if there’s a specific story behind it. We’ve always thought we were a great place to work—we think we’re awesome! So, we wanted to find out how we compared to other businesses.

One of our team members—our Team Member Experience Manager—did some research and found the Top Workplaces program. We’re in four states, but Top Workplaces doesn’t survey all of them. Since we started in South Carolina, we began with that state. We did the survey and won at the local level.

Then we tried Virginia. The first year, we didn’t have enough participation, but by the second year, we did—and we won there too. Eventually, we made it to the national level. Winning locally was exciting, but winning nationally was incredible.

Chris Hoyt: I love that. One of the things we hear consistently—and we’ve mentioned this in a few other chats—is that what sets this program apart is when organizations participate not just to get ranked but to get meaningful feedback directly from employees.

So when you launched this kind of initiative—asking employees what’s working and what’s not—did you have any big takeaways or “aha” moments?

Anna Newell: We learn something new every year because things change. We have new managers each year, and sometimes we realize a particular manager might need coaching or leadership training. We have a leadership program, so we try to get them into the next class.

We also learned that our field team needed more training with our systems. We’re very tech-driven—maybe surprisingly so for a home builder. We use a lot of data and analytics, and that comes from the people doing the work. But they were struggling with the systems, so we developed training programs. That effort grew into an entire training department. Now we deliver all kinds of training across the company.

Chris Hoyt: So, just by asking what they were struggling with or valued, you ended up building a whole new function?

Anna Newell: Yes. We’ve invested a lot into training as a result.

Chris Hoyt: That’s impressive. Let’s talk about the Mungo Homes Foundation.

Anna Newell: Sure. The founder of Mungo Homes believed in giving back to the communities that supported our business. The family has always been philanthropic, but a few years ago, they formally established the foundation.

A portion of every home sale goes into the foundation, and that money stays in the local communities where the homes are built. We’ve heard through our surveys that our team members value volunteering and giving back, so we offer paid volunteer time off.

We also run a Week of Service in the spring and a Week of Giving during the holidays. Employees can volunteer anytime, but during those weeks, we organize specific opportunities for them. It gives them a meaningful way to connect with their communities.

Chris Hoyt: That’s fantastic.

Anna Newell: Last year, we had 92% participation in our volunteer time off program.

Chris Hoyt: Wow! Is that typical?

Anna Newell: It’s been increasing. We’ve really been encouraging it. We want people to feel empowered to give back, and we work with managers to ensure team members can take the time they need to participate.

Chris Hoyt: That’s great. OK, one final question: if you were in charge of USA Today and could write the headline for your organization, what would it be?

Anna Newell: Personally, I’d love it to be “Mungo Homes is Number One with Top Workplaces!” But I polled some of my team, and here are a few others they suggested:

• “Mungo Homes Tackles Work-Life Balance”

• “Mungo Homes Embraces Change and Innovation”

• “Mungo Homes Supports Employee Wellbeing”

Chris Hoyt: I love that—sounds like you’ve got the whole front page!

Anna Newell: We had some fun with it. But yes, I’m still aiming for number one.

Chris Hoyt: Well, wherever you end up in the rankings, it sounds like there’s a lot to be proud of at Mungo Homes.

Anna Newell: There is. It’s a great place to work, and I feel fortunate every day.

Chris Hoyt: As you should. Good stuff. And for anyone tuning in, if you want to hear past episodes or see what’s coming up, visit cxr.works/podcast. To check out more interviews from the USA Today event, head to cxr.works/usatoday.

We’ll see you next week!

Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Recruiting Community Podcast, where talent acquisition leaders connect, learn, and grow together. Be sure to visit cxr.works/podcast to explore past episodes, see what’s coming up next, and find out how you can join the conversation.

Whether you’ve got insights to share or want to be a guest on the show, we’d love to hear from you. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a member of the CXR community, visit us at www.cxr.works. We’ll catch you in the next episode.