Dr. Cheryl Travis Johnson, COOWhile conversing with the COO of VRM and co-founder of the CIFS, Dr. Cheryl Travis Johnson and Dr. Phyllis Wright, its SVP of HR Strategies for VRM, HR Magazine learned how VRM, VRMU, and CIFS utilize their experience and in-house expertise to assist clients in their diversity and inclusion strategies.
Could you give a brief overview of your company?
VRM is a full-service real estate and mortgage services company that provides clients an end-to-end solution from mortgage loan originations to the sale and disposition of REO properties. VRM also serves as a loan sub-servicer, helping clients handle day-to-day administrative, compliance, and financial servicing activities related loan portfolios. VRMU the training division of VRM, offers a wide variety of training solutions to help real estate and mortgage professionals enhance industry knowledge and improve performance.
How is VRM’s journey toward achieving diversity and inclusion part of its business model?
Embracing diversity and inclusion is a core foundational element of VRM’s business strategy. VRM understands that diverse and inclusive enterprises statistically outperform peer organizations and therefore workforce and supplier diversity and inclusion is a non-negotiable priority. A diverse workforce brings economic strength and diversity in culture and thought, VRM seeks to maintain a balance in selecting people. VRM has an extremely diverse employee base, which consists of three generations—baby boomers, GenX, and millennials. From a supplier sourcing perspective, VRM ensures that it selects vendor partners from the same communities it serves in order to cater to the needs of the people well in those communities. These vendor partners also act as a representative of their community while enhancing the VRM’s operational efficiency.
Could you talk about the strategies adopted by VRM to help achieve a diverse and inclusive workforce?
VRM adopts a comprehensive approach to assist clients with their diversity and inclusion goals, making the company unique from rest in the industry. Relative to employee selection, VRM works in cooperation with an OFCCP compliance and diversity recruitment outreach organization, the LocalJobNetwork, to identify diverse talents from across the nation. Selected candidates go through comprehensive panel interviews and screening to minimize bias in the process. Once a candidate is hired, he/she along with every VRM staff member participates in the performance management process which includes semi-annual and annual performance reviews.
Annual performance calibrations take place at the beginning of every fiscal year and prior to the delivery of annual performance reviews. Prior to the beginning of each year, managers are expected to share goals as well as the pre-calibrated competency information.
VRM, while leveraging VRMU, offers a wide variety of training solutions to help real estate and mortgage professionals enhance industry knowledge and improve performance. Guided by a dedicated C-suite team and industry experts, VRM has evolved into the most sought-after partner organizations
Calibration is performed to minimize bias in the performance review process by allowing more perspectives to be shared regarding individual performance rather than relying solely on one individual’s (the manager’s) decisions about how a person will be evaluated. VRM also works with managers to review the talent potential for leadership roles within the organization. Unlike other organizations that do talent planning at the top levels of the organization, VRM looks for leadership potential among the entire workforce. This helps VRM identify the right talent within the organization and frame a retention plan which includes selecting internal mentors to assist the advancement of employees’ career trajectories.
In VRM’s leadership academy, tools such as Hogan assessments allow talent to self-identify blind spots and strengths. With a comprehensive summary report provided after the assessment, employees learn how their strengths can be potentially used to continue the forward momentum. VRM utilizes organizational development interventions associated with performance management and talent planning to develop individual skills to enhance their current performance and to prepare for future roles.
What are some of the challenges VRM encounters when incorporating a diversity and inclusion initiative?
As it relates to vendor partners, sourcing teams at VRM often struggle to reach diverse groups of potential vendors or contractors. Nonetheless, the organization has been successful achieving and exceeding its socio-economic goals.
VRM supports clients with change by providing a nimble platform capable of responding to sudden adjustments in business needs. As a company with a customer-centric approach at its core, VRM deploys dedicated teams for each client.
What are some of the solutions that VRMU provides to clients?
VRM offers custom solutions to its clients. Through VRMU, VRM has created a robust training and educational platform and an assessment tool for enterprises to identify challenges around diversity and inclusion within their organization. Upon completion of the assessment, the tool provides useful information to help organizations eliminate biases and other barriers potentially affecting company operations. VRMU has also created cultural sensitivity and diversity and inclusion training to help learners understand the significance of diversity and inclusion and to identify and minimize biases.
What are the upcoming plans for the future?
Moving forward, VRM has plans to further diversify its business model. With the COVID-19 outbreak, which has affected the entire business realm, enterprises need to figure out ways to modify business models to align with the new paradigm. VRM is built and fully equipped to work remotely and as such its operations remain unaffected.
