Citizen Inc. Q&A: Stephanie Johnson

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SBJ Podcasts

Stephanie Johnson, a senior human resources business partner at Paddio online mortgage lender, is the guest for Citizen Inc., Episode 6, from SBJ Podcasts. The following Q&A is from the show, co-hosted by Springfield Business Journal’s Eric Olson and United Way of the Ozarks’ Greg Burris and recorded at ADsmith Studio.

Eric Olson: What is the culture of the company and the philosophy toward community engagement?
Stephanie Johnson: At the root of it, it is to enhance lives. It’s our job in the day to day (to be) passionate about helping people find homes – living those values out in integrity and respect for one another, not only in our company lives but out in our community. If we can enhance the lives of our employees and those that we serve, hopefully that can ripple out into the areas that we live and serve every day. That’s what we’re trying to change in the corporate environment.

Greg Burris: Why?
Johnson: Because you spend a lot of time at work. And those are the people who are coming from your community to work for you. So, if you want to attract and retain good employees, you’re going to give and take care of the community they’re serving and a part of and show them they’re also responsible for doing that. That’s what today’s workforce is looking for. They’re looking for that cultural competency and cultural responsibility of organizations. They’re kind of demanding it upfront. They’re wanting that to say what are you doing so that what I do in the day to day, the work that I’m doing, how can you show me it’s having impact elsewhere?

Burris: Is it working? Do you find people are attracted to that kind of culture?
Johnson: Over 74% of our application pool is from our own employees, which speaks highly to saying we’re creating a place that our employees want to be at and they want their friends to be at and their family to be at.

Olson: What does that look like? How does it play out tangibly?
Johnson: A lot of different capacities. We’ll start with education. We have a program called volunteer matchmaker. It identifies areas and opportunities for people to give back in their community. And we’ll help set up that time for them and help organize it … based on what they’re trying to be passionate about. We also have our affiliate company, Veterans United, so we do a lot of veterans support. Whether that’s building veterans small homes or our recent Thanks to Veterans campaign to pay off 11 mortgages for veterans. We let employees nominate each other for internal recognition. Another tangible way is to ask for support for someone through tough times, whether that’s a surgery or funerals. Our employees really rally around that.

Olson: I’m hearing that first you’re building community within the company and what you say and care about matters to us so that it’ll pour out from here. Is that fair?
Johnson: Very accurate. We really do try to take feedback of what people are passionate about to get engaged. But also encouraging one another. When you see someone doing something good, send them a little gift, a thank you note. We’ll pay for it and take care of that, but we’re going to let you give them things for recognition. But we do give them time, too. We have volunteer hours that they can go out and use individually or collectively as a team. That’s another tangible way for our teams to bond but do it while you’re serving the community.

Burris: As an HR professional, what is the secret sauce during the interview process that allows you to identify those people who have that community mindset?
Johnson: I can’t give that away. [Laughs.] No, it’s not just asking about the hard skills. But also how do you emulate our values and tell me the why? And give me some examples of how it resonates with you, or does it?

Olson: In that interview process, can people fake it?
Johnson: They do. And they can. But that’s where it comes to the retention part. We have to be as protective of the performance management side of our culture. It’s a hand in hand thing. As long as you don’t separate those two, then you’re going to have a strong culture.