UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE present in the office during working hours , and it believes the benefits outweigh the cost .
“ We are all on one campus and we do not have hybrid work ,” Jason Bressler explains . “ All of our team members that work at this company are in the office every single day . From a technical standpoint , that has allowed our level of collaboration to be so high . It really is our secret sauce , having everybody in the office every day and not dispersed around the country or around the world .”
Bressler laments the social interactions we lost during lockdown – a hangover that many hybrid or remote companies are still dealing with . Instead of sending a message over Teams or Slack , employees at UWM have the security of knowing that they can just turn around and ask the question instead . There are signals that staff pick up on in the office that just aren ’ t available when everybody ’ s working from home .
Of course , this policy has its toll . “ At times it hurts ,” Bressler says . “ But it was too important to the culture of what we had already built over those first 31 years before the pandemic hit that when we felt it was safe to have everybody come back in , we did it .”
Emergence of high-tech reflects a city in transition It makes it harder for UWM to recruit . After all , the company only has access to the local jobs market in southeast Michigan , while other lenders have an unlimited pool of talent open to them internationally . It ’ s even enough to put some local jobseekers off . But Bressler is unrepentantly committed to continuing with this approach , saying that it helps to ensure new hires are a good cultural fit for the organisation among other benefits . Besides , there are plenty enough graduate prospects nearby : as well as Bressler ’ s alma mater , the University of Michigan and Michigan State University are both within a 60-minute radius , offering courses in both technical and engineering disciplines .
The Detroit metro area used to be known as ‘ Motor City ’, owing to its legacy as the centre of America ’ s automotive industry . Indeed , the suburb where UWM is located lends its name to one of the most iconic auto brands the US has produced , eventually being subsumed by General Motors in 2010 . Slowly , as auto jobs have packed up and left , a burgeoning technology sector has taken root . Today , the area is sometimes dubbed ‘ Automation Alley ’. As well as car makers , there are 17 Fortune 500 companies in Michigan and the state ’ s economy is worth almost US $ 500bn a year .
“ All of our team members are in the office every single day . It really is our secret sauce ”
JASON BRESSLER CTO , UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE ( UWM )