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DETROIT NATIVE SUN
DETROIT NATIVE SUN
By Valerie D. Lockhart
SUN EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Prominently displayed messages are written on walls in the Operations Department at United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM).
The messages known as the six pillars (People, Service, Relationship Driven, Thumb Pointers, Continuous Improvement and Fun and Friendship) serve as a visual reminder that employees should work with “integrity”.
Integrity is also mentioned in UWM’s Code of Conduct, "You are required to perform your duties and responsibilities with honesty and integrity and to comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations." it also asks, "even if it is legal, is it the right thing to do?"
It continues, “As we seek to grow our business and build upon our proprietary and exclusively licensed technology platforms, superior service and focused partnership with the Independent Mortgage Advisor community, we must do so with integrity. It is unacceptable to cut ethical or legal corners for the benefit of UWM or for personal benefit. No one should take unfair advantage of anyone else through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of facts or any other unfair practice.”
Despite of the documented policy, some employees lack comprehension and require clarification and enforcement of its definition.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change.”
Children learn integrity from listening to and watching their parents’ behavior when they interact with government officials, employers, bill collectors and the IRS. They also learn the meaning of the word “no” from parents refusing to compromise their faith, decisions and values.
Those same values of trust and honesty are reinforced at school when teachers hold students accountable for doing their own work, taking tests and writing essays. Plagiarism and cheating are forbidden. Report cards reflect grades earned by the individual student and are not based on someone else’s performance.
Those same traits are applied in the workplace. Paychecks reflect the hours worked by an employee. Bonuses are “supposed” to be rewards for exceeding company goals and for performing exceptional work.
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.,” Oprah Winfrey said.
Courage and integrity go hand in hand. Like our parents, we say “no” when someone or something seeks to compromise our integrity.
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity,” - W. Clement Stone, a businessman and philanthropist, said.
Leadership at UWM’s Operations Department apparently never grasped the meaning of integrity as a child or progressing into adulthood.
The Operations Resolutions Team implemented a policy that allows employees to take credit for work performed by other employees. This is creating a hostile work environment that some have referred to as the "Wild, Wild West."
“Whenever there’s a change, run with it. If you reach out on a file, you’ll get credit (1/2 point) when it’s approved. If you reach out on a file and approve it, you’ll get a full point,” Norman Haidous, AVP Post Closing said. “Trust the process. You’re getting credit for the files you’re reaching out on. Before you weren’t. What’s best for our business is what’s best for our people.”
Leadership’s response to criticism regarding the policy appears to be one of “numbers over people.”
“Ultimately, the goal of the new process is to ensure that we’re assisting our clients in the quickest and most efficient way possible, which is why there is a larger emphasis on completes and getting through the Salesforce cases quickly as opposed to ensuring the person who did the initial outreach to the Title company is the same person to complete the process,” Jackie Jabero, AVP Team Relations said.
Nevertheless, this way of thinking conflicts with the citation in the Code of Conduct that says, “It is unacceptable to cut ethical or legal corners for the benefit of UWM or for personal benefit,”
Each team member is given a daily commitment goal. Bonuses are awarded to those who exceed this goal. Conditions (requests) are placed on each file that could have multiple conditions. To earn a point toward the goal, employees must contact title companies via email and phone to acquire corrections be made to existing loan documents or to obtain missing documents. When title sends the requested items, members are awarded a point for each approved condition.
The entire process could take a few hours up to a few months, depending on title companies' response. Therefore, a file could require multiple emails and calls made to title companies, loan officers and brokers to obtain needed results.
Initially, the person asking for specific documents or changes was given three hours to respond to emails containing the requested items. When the Service level Agreement (SLA) expires, other teammates are free to respond to the message that is sent in Salesforce and via Outlook.
Recently, leadership changed the rules eliminating the SLA and allowing anyone to go into Salesforce and respond to emails. Documents that were requested by the initial team member are uploaded into a document Hub and approved to earn points for each condition, allowing someone else to take credit for work they did not perform.
The new process allows the person initiating the request to obtain ½ point, and the person uploading the requested item and approving the condition to receive ½ point.
Apparent flaws in the new process continue to create a hostile work environment.
1. Individuals initially assigned to a loan are removed, and it is reassigned to the person approving the condition. This allows the person approving the condition to receive full credit.
2 There is a delay in emails sent to Outlook that notifies the initiator of new emails containing the requested documents. Salesforce obtains the email response first, preventing the initiator from responding and receiving full credit.
3. Instead of working from the top to the bottom in the queue or oldest to newest email, employees are working from the bottom first to gain full control of documents coming into the queue.
4. There are no reports generated with loan numbers and the name of the person assigned to the file to determine on which files ½ points were awarded.
5. The person assigned to the loan is removed, so that no name appears. This allows the person approving the condition to receive full credit.
6. Following in the footsteps of leadership, some people refuse to work with integrity and value numbers over people. Others, who know it’s wrong, follow protocol in fear of losing their job.
UWM is one of my multiple side jobs that I’m employed at to supplement my income and offset taxes. I learned from my grandfather, who was a retired veteran, city of Detroit employee and entrepreneur, to always have multiple streams of income. Don’t rely on one basket to get eggs. Spread it out. If one’s empty or defective, check the next basket.
As an investigative reporter, newspaper editor, publisher and soon to become a journalism teacher at a middle school, working with integrity has always been a “no brainer”. I’ve never taken credit for an article written by another writer, even if I had to rewrite the entire story during editing.
My grandmother, Bertha Barnes, who was a member and steward in the Service Employees International Union, and my grand Uncle, Theodus Lockhart, who was president of the NAACP in Kansas, showed me through their actions how to stand up and speak out against injustices. And, most importantly I’ve learned to never allow fear to overshadow faith.
The word “INTEGRITY” boldly written in all caps should be centered above the six pillar messages for all to see; for “words are powerful. They have the ability to create a moment and the strength to destroy it.” And, with integrity, you’ve gain something greater than a pay check. You’ll have peace of mind.
Integrity? What's that at UWM?
