Inclusion Matters

Working towards a common goal unites employees and promotes inclusivity

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employee experience and inclusion director

Establishing a culture where everyone has an opportunity to make an impact is paramount to the success of any business, including those in the mortgage space. Individuals and teams are empowered to contribute when an organization cultivates an environment that celebrates the diverse skill sets and perspectives of their workforce.

Aligned with these values, it’s critical that organizations position their strategies and approach to an inclusive workplace through the lens of multiple groups, viewpoints, and intersecting experiences. For women in our industry, it’s important that they know there are visible growth opportunities, access to resources, and organizational policies that support their current and future experiences.

To achieve this, buy-in and support from every level of an operation is necessary. Your organization must be an active partner to advance inclusion, and promote effective ways to recruit, develop, and retain underrepresented groups in our industry, including women.

It is essential that this commitment extends to every level of your organization. To that end, at ServiceLink, more than 50% of our leadership is comprised of women. According to Zippia, 35% of top management positions were held by women in 2022. However, in 2023, women held only 10.4% of leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies. Yet, statistics show that companies with women executives are 30% more likely to outperform other companies.

This reinforces the need for companies to position their inclusion strategies as business priorities. As employee experience and inclusion director at ServiceLink, I found that it is vital to take a holistic approach to inclusion, where we align with industry best practices but fit them around the needs of our company, employees, and partners, which leads to greater innovation and team performance. To succeed, we constantly challenge ourselves to be better. No matter where you are in the process, here are strategies and best practices that I found helpful for establishing a plan of action to advance our inclusion goals.

Create A Benchmark

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel for this one. In fact, it’s helpful to reference industry leaders in the field and customize best practices to meet the needs of your organization.

At ServiceLink, our proprietary inclusion benchmark serves as a unified strategy and tracks companywide progress within identified key areas of inclusion. Our benchmark was guided by the design parameters set forth by leading organizations and indices such as the Mortgage Bankers Association’s DEI Best Practices.

To craft an inclusion benchmark, engage with organizations who are the experts in the field. Ask questions. Then cater these recommendations to meet the needs of your organization. Stay true to your organization’s goals and mission and hold the company accountable to meeting the priorities laid out through your benchmark.

A Companywide Focus

Ensure that every division has a stake in the plan. Set goals and strategies that can be implemented at all levels, from executive leadership to management and individuals. At ServiceLink, we created an executive steering committee that oversees our inclusion benchmark. The committee is comprised of senior executives from multiple business lines. Partnering with decision makers has helped to ensure inclusion is embedded into existing and future operational strategies. Their buy-in reinforces our culture and creates excitement surrounding our plans.

Concentrate Your Efforts

Our inclusion benchmark is designed to align with industry best practices while leaving room to innovate new ideas unique to our organization’s needs. We regularly look at where we can advance efforts that make an immediate impact, while also working towards long-term goals by taking incremental steps that lead to sustainable change and lasting outcomes. Concentrate your efforts on core areas that will have the most impact for your business. For us, these include workforce, workplace,
and community.

Employees are five times more likely to climb to the next level in their role with a company mentor.

Workforce

Focus on sourcing the best possible talent for your organization, drawing from large and diverse candidate pools to widen your talent pipeline. At ServiceLink, we actively partner with organizations such as the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA) to advance efforts around recruiting and retaining underrepresented groups within the industry.

Promoting ServiceLink-produced thought leadership pieces featuring inclusion topics impacting the mortgage and finance space helps extend our efforts beyond our organization and is another way to reach a broader candidate and talent pool. Elevating your visibility throughout the industry and community helps to establish credibility and reinforces your culture and values to candidates.

Representation across several demographics is key to building diverse and innovative teams. Recruiting early talent to the industry is an additional focus and is reflected in our decades-long workforce model within our flood division. We partner with local colleges and universities to offer flexible part-time roles to students who are looking to gain insight into the field. This approach has also expanded to other groups such as mothers and retirees and can easily be replicated in other companies.

Workplace Mentorship

Create strategies to develop, engage, and retain talent you already have. How are you engaging with them? Provide your employees with the resources to succeed, such as mentorship programs. Our ServiceLink Mentorship Program has hosted around 200 employees, and roughly 90% of participants have stated that the experience has supported their growth and development at the company. Effective and accessible mentoring relationships are critical to supporting the advancement and retention of women in our industry. Employees are five times more likely to climb to the next level in their role with a company mentor. Women have accounted for over 60% of mentee roles who have completed our mentorship program, despite the research showing that on average only 42% of women have a professional mentor, according to Gallup. Increasing access to career development opportunities is important to retention and is part of the reason the average tenure for both men and women at ServiceLink is 14 years.

Set The Tone

Evolving our ServiceLink onboarding experience has been an important focus to ensure our new employees feel welcomed, understand our values, and are confident that they can be successful in their roles. Defining your culture of belonging and inclusion for new hires on Day One is critical. Ways to do this include providing managers with resources to support their new employee’s onboarding experience beyond Day One orientation.

Inclusive Foundations

Regularly review policies to ensure they are inclusive, transparent, and accessible to employees. At ServiceLink, this has included assessing items like our reasonable accommodations process, training methods, evaluating job description language, reinforcing pay transparency practices, accessible technology, and promoting opportunities for employees to share feedback about their employee experience. Look at your current policies and practices with fresh eyes and champion inclusion by updating areas where invisible barriers may exist to create an even greater level of trust and equity for your employees.

Community

Ensure that your organization is making a sustainable, positive impact in the community. At ServiceLink, one way this comes to life is through promoting employee volunteerism. Employees are provided with up to two additional days of paid time off each year to spend volunteering at organizations they are passionate about. Make sure that your employees know that their interests matter. Company-sponsored volunteer activities also provide employees with an impactful way to make a difference. From making care packages for veterans, scarves for children in the hospital, to hosting high school students during the nationally recognized Disability Mentoring Day, strive to give back in several community areas.

Show Up

Take steps to actively participate in opportunities that promote inclusion in the industry. Show up to demonstrate your commitment and make a difference. From increasing access to the appraisal profession, expanding efforts around supplier diversity, to championing women leaders, we continuously work to engage and participate in these critical areas to amplify inclusion throughout the industry.