Welcome to the Transform Awards Winner Spotlight Series, celebrating innovation and leadership in reshaping industries and workplaces globally. These awards commend both individuals and companies who are at the forefront of transformation, setting new standards and challenging the status quo. Recognized for their people-centric and visionary approaches, our awardees are the global changemakers pioneering advancements in business, entrepreneurship, and beyond. This series shines a light on their achievements and the impactful ways they’re moving the world of work forward.
About Transform Team Magnet: Talent Strategy of the Year Award
This award recognizes the company with the most exciting and exceptional approach to recruiting, onboarding, and growing, both internal and external talent.
About Our Transform Awards Winner Progress Residential
Progress Residential is the leading provider of property management services for nearly 100,000 single-family rental homes in more than 30 markets across the US. We harness the power of data and technology and continuously identify opportunities to innovate and invest in the leasing and living experience for the residents we serve. Progress is proud to play a critical role in the housing ecosystem, expanding access to secure and stable housing and empowering residents to live in communities of their choice. Together, our 3,000+ Progress team members are redefining home.
Initiative Background
Q: What is a brief description of Progress Residential’s award-winning Talent Strategy initiative?
A: Since the early 2000s, the United States has faced a significant shortage of skilled trade workers (hundreds of thousands), specializing in HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and general construction. At Progress, we renovate, lease, manage, and service single-family homes across the country. A significant population of our talent is in the skilled trades, which are serving our residents and their rental homes.
As a result of the ongoing skilled trades talent shortage and Progress’ significant growth strategy, we created a sustainable Workforce Development Program to encourage and develop the next generation of skilled workers.
What is truly special about our Workforce Development Program is our commitment to building long-term, deep-rooted relationships with our communities through strategic partnerships. These partnerships range from high school, vocational, and community colleges to non-profits and military transitioning services. These strategic partnerships allow us to inform, educate, and influence the next generation while also encouraging those considering a career transition.
We are providing entry-level career and professional advancement opportunities, resulting in long-term career paths for recent graduates and contributing to the economic mobility in the communities we serve. Through this program, we have presented to over 2,000 students while providing education and training to over 70 apprentices across the country.
Q: How does this initiative impact workplaces, team cultures, or communities?
A: The program has not only created viable opportunities for those in our communities, but it is also providing opportunities for our current front-line leaders and technicians to teach, mentor, and train the next generation of skilled workers and that has and is providing developmental opportunities for their careers as well.
The impact on our communities is what makes this program so special. One of our key partnerships is with the Home Builders Institute and the DoD Skillbridge program which provides training and opportunities to our transitioning service members across the country. We have hired, trained, and graduated several service members from our Workforce Development program and have significant plans in the future to expand this important and impactful partnership.
We are also extremely excited about our partnership with organizations like She Built This City in Charlotte, NC, who are empowering women, transforming communities, and building a future of equal opportunities in the skilled trades.
Another exciting example is our partnership with HANDY, Inc. (Helping Abused, Neglected and Disadvantaged Youth) and its sister organization, HOMES, Inc. in Florida, who provide comprehensive services to foster care youth in the form of counseling, career exploration, job readiness, life coaching, case management, and low-cost transitional housing, until age 23.
Progress Residential recently partnered with business partners from the Building Talent Foundation, Junior Achievement of Southeast FL, and organized with much effort by Owens Noel Jeune, a HANDY/HOMES beneficiary and alumnus of Progress Residentials Workforce Development Apprentice Program for the skilled trades in the renovation of four residential apartments which serve foster care youth as they transition into their independent living journey.
Initiative Journey
Q: What inspired the creation of your internal/external Talent Strategy initiative?
A: Brandon Parise, our Chief Human Resources Officer, and Trevor Gelder, VP Talent, had experience building similar programs at other companies and understood the investment, effort, team, patience, and commitment that would be required to successfully deploy and sustain the program. As our talent strategy and needs were evaluated, we quickly recognized the significant gap in our skilled trade needs versus what was going to be available in the market and this became the launching pad for the program. We wanted to create and develop our future talent as opposed to waiting for others to do so. The opportunity to solve a significant business challenge – talent shortage – while building up our communities that we call home, and providing meaningful, long-lasting career options for the next generation was born.
Q: How does this Talent Strategy initiative align with your company’s mission and vision?
A: Not only does the Workforce Development Program respond to the ongoing skilled trades talent shortage in the U.S., but it also aligns with our 2024 strategic objective to create a high-performance culture and a great place to work, by creating a platform to cultivate the next generation of skilled workers. Through this holistic approach, we not only addressed immediate workforce needs but also contributed to the sustained growth and prosperity of our organization and communities.
Q: What were the biggest challenges your company faced and how did you all overcome them?
A: This program is the first of its kind in the industry and required us to build a strategic business plan to create awareness, understanding, belief, and commitment over time, both internally and externally. We also needed to move quickly so the challenges were more about balancing the pace of building a brand-new program but allowing the organization and others to understand and embrace it and their role in its success. A successful program requires the entire organization to embrace it, from the practitioners to the students, to the trainers, Operations leaders, and many other support functions. This truly is a team effort!
Impact and Benefits
Q: Who benefits from your Talent Strategy initiative and in what ways?
A: Our communities (residents, schools, organizations), apprentices, team members, and others benefit as we provide meaningful and value-added career development opportunities and education to those who may be underserved or have limited access to career training and development programs and employers.
Q: Can you share examples of the positive impacts your Talent Strategy initiative has made on your company/employees/candidates/customers?
A: Another exciting example is our partnership with HANDY, Inc. (Helping Abused, Neglected and Disadvantaged Youth) and its sister organization, HOMES, Inc. in Florida which provide comprehensive services to foster care youth in the form of counseling, career exploration, job readiness, life coaching, case management and low-cost transitional housing, until age 23.
Progress Residential recently partnered with business partners from the Building Talent Foundation, Junior Achievement of Southeast FL, and organized with much effort by Owens Noel Jeune, a HANDY/HOMES beneficiary and alumnus of Progress Residentials Workforce Development Apprentice Program for the skilled trades in the renovation of four residential apartments which serve foster care youth as they transition into their independent living journey.
Insights and Learning
Q: What have you learned from the communities or teams you’ve worked with through this Talent Strategy initiative?
A: We understood the significant talent shortage and need, but it became more prevalent as we worked within our communities and strategic partnerships that we need more employers creating sustainable workforce programs to support and provide long-term career development opportunities for entry-level individuals.
Growth and Future Plans
Q: What are the future plans for your Talent Strategy initiative? How do you plan to expand or evolve?
A: This program is a long-term strategy at Progress. Our goal is to continue building our partnerships, supporting education initiatives, and providing access to meaningful career opportunities across the U.S. Over the course of 2024, we will have graduated over 40 additional apprentices across our organization.
Advice and Reflections
Q: What advice would you give to other companies looking to create similar positive impacts on their Talent Strategy?
A: Understand first what the business needs and challenges are and develop a program or strategy that is clear, targeted, and sustainable and demonstrates a path towards achieving the expected business outcomes.
Q: What is a specific lesson or challenge your company faced during this Talent Strategy initiative and how did you address it?
A: We launched our program with an accelerated approach, so it took time to ensure we had the right awareness and understanding in each market. One thing we quickly recognized and created was a certified “Train the Trainer” program to ensure we had program ambassadors and specialists who were providing localized training to our apprentices every day in the field.
Industry Insights
Q: What significant trend does your company believe will shape the future of workplaces, team cultures, or communities?
A: We must ensure that we are providing access and opportunity to those who may not have the same level of access or opportunity in our communities. We need to support our schools, non-profits, and other organizations with support and access for their students to encourage and educate the next generation that a college degree is not the only path and that one can build a successful career in the skilled trades.
Reflection and Vision
Q: Describe a memorable moment or achievement during this Talent Strategy initiative that your company is particularly proud of.
A: There are too many to mention but the success and sustainability of the program became clear when we provided an opportunity to a transitioning service member who graduated from the apprenticeship, transitioned to a leadership role, became a certified trainer, and is now training our up-and-coming apprentices.
Q: What is your company’s vision for the future in terms of industry transformation?
A: Our vision is that soon we will have multiple workforce development initiatives across the organization supporting and providing opportunities for positions across the company (i.e., Service, Customer Service, Construction, Property Management, etc.).
Check out our other Transform Spotlights on the blog to learn more about our Global Ambassadors. People-First Leaders, Authors, Award Winners, and more!