Pulte Homes Drives Job-Site Quality and Efficiency
The Client
“You have done an absolutely outstanding job for us. On a scale of one to ten, working with you has been a ten. You are excellent at what you do and my experience with you has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Chris Haines, Division President, Pulte Homes Inc.
Pulte Homes, Inc., one of America's largest home builders, has racked up a number of industry awards in its long history, including “Best Place to Work” and top rankings in customer satisfaction. The company has built more than 500,000 homes across 27 states, and employs 12,400 people.
The Goals
In the construction industry in this region, there are a large number of Spanish-speaking employees and contractors – up to 99% in some trades. Quality home-building depends on continuous understanding on job sites. Superintendents estimated that there are thousands of dollars in errors made daily due to communication gaps with the trades. In order to reduce costs, improve efficiency and improve customer satisfaction, Pulte needed to heighten collaboration among Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking team members.
The Solution
International Advantage has worked with Pulte Homes and its Del Webb brand numerous times with clear results. Because of that track record, Chris Haines, Division President, again brought in Lisa Koss.
“Lisa did an outstanding job of performing field interviews to help us understand, for the first time, how our current management techniques were impacting the Latino workforce.”
Lynn Schuttenberg, VP of H.R. for Del Webb Corp.
International Advantage designed and delivered a series of working sessions for Pulte supervisors, superintendents and executives called, “Leading a Latino Work Force in the Construction Industry.” To develop the sessions, Lisa interviewed supervisors and contractors on job sites and learned the business. In turn, she created forums that truly addressed where communication was breaking down, differences in cultural expectations and conflict resolution practices.
The Strategic Advantage
Tailored workshops at Pulte helped improve job site communications, contributing to the quality that Pulte is known for. At the same time, better understanding among team members drives efficiency, on-time completion and profitability. Attendees surveyed, on average, stated that they would be 50% more effective because of their new understanding and communication strategies, with some reporting that they would now easily by 100% more effective than they had been the day before.
“We always receive outstanding value for our cost when we work with International Advantage,” Haines said. “They are part of our success plan as we continue our dominance in the homebuilding industry, as evidenced by J.D. Powers’ #1 ranking and as a “Best Place to Work.”