Building Culture Through Feedback & Empowerment at Hunton Group

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: All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Recruiting Community Podcast. If you’re dialing in, we typically bring you insights from talent leaders within our own community. That community’s made up of hundreds of companies and thousands of practitioners and leaders who specialize in talent acquisition.

But today, we’re doing something a little different. We’re in Las Vegas at the Top Workplaces 2025 USA Today Awards Conference, and I’m excited to be sitting with Mitzi Coil. We’re going to talk with winners who are being recognized for their workplace environments. These recognitions are a result of a survey that goes out to employees, and the feedback comes directly from them.

So, Mitzi, let’s start quickly—hi!

Mitzi Coil: Hi! Hello! Thanks for having me.

Chris Hoyt: Of course. Why don’t you start by giving us a little background? Who is Mitzi Coil?

Mitzi Coil: Yeah, who am I? I’ve been in the marketing and advertising space for about 25 years. I’ve worked at places like Coors Brewing Company, Philip Morris, and I even had my own advertising agency for a while. I started with Hunton Group 17 years ago and helped build their marketing department. I began as a marketing coordinator in my twenties, and now we have a team of 10. I’m very blessed with leadership that supports what we’re doing and where we’re going. It’s been a lot of fun.

Chris Hoyt: That’s impressive. Can you explain how big Hunton Group is and what exactly the company does for those who may not be familiar?

Mitzi Coil: Absolutely. Hunton Group is a family-owned company based out of Houston, Texas, covering the southeast territory. We’re everything to do with the indoor environment. We’re one of the largest distributors of Trane air conditioning—so HVAC, controls, conditioning spaces, keeping them safe. We were essential employees during COVID, just to put that in perspective. We condition, clean, service spaces—AI for HVAC, things like that.

Chris Hoyt: Little robots running around in the HVAC? Is that what’s going on?

Mitzi Coil: We’re almost there! I like to say we’re innovative—we’re getting close.

Chris Hoyt: Not sure if I want little robots speaking through the air vents, but okay. Talk to me about this program. Why participate in Top Workplaces? It’s a survey that goes out to all employees—you might get some tough feedback. Some leaders see that as risky. Why dive in?

Mitzi Coil: Great question. We’ve actually been a Top Workplace for 12 years and have won it nationally three times. When we started doing the surveys, the important part was listening to the feedback and doing something with it. We really wanted to understand what our employees were thinking—what we could improve on. That was our “why.”

At first, people were concerned—“Is this really anonymous?” But we adopted a culture of honest feedback. We take it seriously. The gold is in the comments. Yes, we break down the numerical ratings with our leaders, but the real insights come from the written feedback—like “we don’t feel heard,” or suggestions on how we can improve communication or better appreciate field employees. It’s about giving our people a voice and taking action. It also helps with recruitment—people want to work at a top workplace.

Chris Hoyt: I love that you’re going through the data—not just grabbing the badge and sticking it on the website. Any “aha” moments from that feedback? Things you realized needed to change, or things you realized you should double down on?

Mitzi Coil: Absolutely. One thing we’re proud of is participation. We track engagement and participation rates in the survey. One aha moment was realizing there was a discrepancy—some employees felt included by leadership, others didn’t. Why is that? Where’s the disconnect?

One example: we added an anonymous suggestion box on our intranet. That came directly from survey feedback and was easy to implement quickly.

Chris Hoyt: If you can build a culture that shows you’re listening and that it’s a safe space for feedback, that’s impressive. You’ve also got something else going on—can you give us an overview?

Mitzi Coil: Around 2014, when I became marketing director, myself, HR, and our CEO Richard Hunt really wanted to focus on building a strong internal culture—being strong internally so we could be strong externally.

It started with health and wellness, then grew into peer-to-peer recognition with a “You’ve Been Noticed” program. We created a points-based store, and employees can earn points by attending training, things like that. We have a community arm called Hunton Cares.

We also do things like virtual visits with marketing. Every month, we highlight a product or service from one of our six divisions. It’s about 30 minutes, and people really log in. We feature business leaders, the CEO, even our founder. It’s been very successful. People notice when we skip a month—they ask where we’ve been!

Chris Hoyt: It really sounds like you’ve fostered a culture of being part of the company—not just working for the company. That’s impressive.

Mitzi Coil: Yeah, I like that way of saying it. We hire the best people, and then we empower them to do what they’re passionate about. Being family-owned helps. There’s trust, empowerment, doing the right thing—those are our values, and they’re embedded in our culture.

Chris Hoyt: So, Mitzi, we’re asking everyone this as we wrap up. You get to be in charge of USA Today for a day. You get to write your own headline. What’s the headline on the front page?

Mitzi Coil: That’s a lot of pressure! I love it. Let’s see… I’d have to put in my name—I’m in marketing, after all. So, something like:

“Hunton Group: A Top Place to Work – Encouraging and Empowering Our Employees While Fueling a Culture of Innovation.”

Okay, maybe that’s a long headline—we’ll make it the whole above-the-fold!

Chris Hoyt: I love it! Congratulations again. What you’ve done is really impressive. Way to go.

Mitzi Coil: Thank you. I appreciate it!

Chris Hoyt: All right, that’s a quick wrap. If you want to see future episodes of our podcast interviews with leaders, or check out any past episodes, go to cxr.org/podcast. And if you’d like to see more USA Today leadership interviews, visit cxr.works/usatoday. We try to keep it easy for you.

Until next time, thanks for dialing in.

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