PONTIAC, Mich. - Imagine you're sitting at work and need a break. You get up and go play volleyball, or go to Starbucks for a coffee break, or even take a yoga class. All of that is one metro Detroit office building where more than 4,000 people work.
For workers at United Shore, their day can range from dodgeball to a workout class in between crunching numbers and turning out mortgages. In the middle of it all, a Starbucks and the work stations, and conference rooms with their own local flair. It's an entire city, complete with dry cleaning and a doctor's office. It all sits on the sprawling campus of United Shores Pontiac office just off of Martin Luther King Blvd.
About 4,300 people call it home for 40 hours a week. The CEO of the company believes the balance between work and life can be met at the same place.
"We don't have a patent or a special lower interest rate than anybody else, we just have better people that care about clients. And if you care about your team members, they're going to care about your clients. So we built it slowly from 12 to 4300+ and it's by taking care of your people and the people take care of the business," said Mat Ishbia.
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United Shore operates a different kind of work space
United Shore is the largest wholesale mortgage in the country, but that's not what they're celebrating today. Their 4,300 employees enjoy a company that has redefined the workplace for its workers. The CEO has long pushed a balance of work and life, believing that can be struck both on the job and off it. The mortgage company's campus hosts anything from volleyball and dodge ball games, to a dry cleaners and doctor's office.
United Shore is the largest wholesale mortgage company in America for the fifth year in a row, and they're hiring almost 1,000 new employees. Sales, underwriting and leadership coaching -- that's the new role for former MSU basketball star and Piston Mateen Cleaves.
"Family culture, I think that's what makes it special," Cleaves said, "and it starts from our leadership all the way down to any team member that comes through these doors on a daily basis."
There's a salon and a place to help with quitting smoking. Laura Lawson is the chief people officer.
"I think that it is (the future of workforce) and I hope to see more forward thinking companies this way because when you put your people first, you can do these things and it becomes a community of good," Lawson said.
"...gym membership you can do it here and you can save that cost. If it's something where you're on the way home 'I need to grab milk for my boys,' I can stop at the convenient store and do that here," she said. "Instead of having to drop off dry cleaning in the morning, I can do that here."
All of this to make life better for the hours spent inside these walls. They say they ask that one work more than 40 hours a week - a kind of culture that's growing quickly here.
"If you're a CEO, whether of a small or big company, you're chasing every dollar all day? That's a losing mentality," said Ishbia. "We're all about winning and success. The way we think about it is that money follows success, not the other way around."