(Photo courtesy of Hayden Homes)
Prestigious Award Won Second Year in a Row
Established in Redmond in 1989, Hayden Homes has been impactful in many ways. Aside from providing over 25,000 new homes to price-conscious, value-driven homebuyers in underserved, secondary markets throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, Hayden Homes has also been providing employees with a healthy and supportive workplace environment; so much so that they have now won a prestigious award for the second year in a row.
Hayden Homes has been certified again by Great Place To Work, a global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation.
The prestigious award is based entirely on what current team members say about their experience working with Hayden Homes, which is the largest private homebuilder in the Northwest. The certification is entirely based on anonymous employee surveys, allowing for maximum accuracy and honesty without any concern on the side of the employee.
According to Great Place To Work research, job seekers are 4.5 times more likely to find a great boss at a Certified great workplace. Additionally, employees at Certified workplaces are 93 percent more likely to look forward to coming to work, and are twice as likely to be paid fairly, earn a fair share of the company’s profits and have a fair chance at promotion.
For employees at Hayden Homes, 98 percent said people at Hayden Homes are given meaningful responsibility; 98 percent of all team members said they feel proud of what they accomplish; 98 percent of all team members said they are proud to tell others where they work; 98 percent said people at Hayden Homes care about each other; 99 percent said when you join the company you are made to feel welcome; 99 percent said they feel good about the ways they contribute to the community; 100 percent of women and minorities polled said Hayden Homes is a great place to work.
Patti Murphy, the vice president of Employee Experience at Hayden Homes said the following when asked about the recent certification, “First and foremost, team member satisfaction is a key part of our strategy. We strive to create an environment where they feel fulfilled in their work, and have access to growth and development along their chosen career paths.”
Murphy continued, stating that it is important for group cohesion and overall satisfaction for the entire company to be aligned behind a shared strategy, goal or philosophy.
“We measure that through the voice of our team members,” Murphy said. “The Great Place To Work survey is a great assessment that tells us how our employees feel about our culture. We always say that our culture is a definite advantage, and looking at the recent results, this proves it.”
The survey is not just a chance to shine and be recognized as a great place for employees to work, but it is also a very strong and effective way to gauge employee feelings, satisfaction and overall happiness with their work. This allows leadership at Hayden Homes to hone in on issues, highlight strengths and overall, evaluate their workplace culture to keep it healthy and happy.
The survey includes 60 rated questions (where employees are asked to rate different aspects of their workplace on a fixed scale) and two open-ended questions that allow employees to freely express how they feel, outside of a fixed scale.
“Those 60 questions also break into 20 focus areas like collaboration, respect, integrity and more, and then this data allows us to determine where to focus our energy,” said Murphy.
Speaking more on the effectiveness of fostering a shared purpose, Murphy spoke about the Give As You Go philosophy.
“We all exist to give as we go, build a strong community and lead fulfilled lives. We provided homes and a very important, basic need, but we believe in doing more than that. We want to be part of the community that we build homes in, and we want to contribute to the health and happiness of that community,” said Murphy.
Hayden Homes states, “It’s our goal to build quality homes and stronger communities in equal measure,” and they do so by investing in communities, supporting their employees’ charitable efforts and partnering with nonprofits.
In addition, Hayden Homes offers a home purchase discount program, 401k match of up to $10,000 per year and up to 16 hours of paid volunteer time per year, encouraging team members to contribute directly to nonprofits in their communities. Team members are also active participants in uplifting events such as wall raisings and key dedication ceremonies for First Story– a nonprofit founded by Hayden Homes in 1998 that provides homeownership opportunities to under-resourced families, breaking cycles of generational poverty. The company offers a 100% match for team member paycheck contributions to First Story, totaling more than $1.8 million dollars to date, with more than 85% participation from team members.
Reflecting on all the good news and satisfied employees, Murphy said, “It all goes hand in hand with customer satisfaction. Happy teams make happy customers, and that keeps employees satisfied. Happy employees are better workers, better with customers, they have higher rates of retention, reduced training costs, and improve the sustainability of the company by having longevity and more experience.”
Lastly, she said, “Everything improves when employees feel valued, and actually want to work where they work.”
