Joan Marcus-Colvin’s life irrevocably changed on June 17, 2014, when her husband of 27 years, John, was struck by a car and killed while riding his bicycle near their Laguna Beach home while training for an Ironman Triathlon.
Marcus-Colvin, senior vice president of sales, marketing and design for the New Home Co., recalls that her good friend and boss, Larry Webb, chief executive of the company, rushed to be with her and her two daughters.
“‘Whatever you need, you’ve got it,’” she remembers him saying.
Her co-workers were there, too, bringing her meals, running errands, and providing listening ears.
“My work family came to my side,” she says. “It wasn’t just that week. It was weeks and months, and even today. Grief comes in waves and milestones. I cannot explain how their support really saved me.”
That kind of friendship and caring among co-workers isn’t found everywhere, she said reflectively, adding that those kinds of relationships are the foundation on which the New Home Co. is built.
Culture of Caring
The homebuilder is the 2015 winner of the Business Journal’s best places to work in the midsize-company category.
It ranked No. 21 on February’s Business Journal list of the 30 biggest homebuilders based in Orange County. The company had 42 sales in Orange County last year.
It was founded in 2009 by Webb, Wayne Stelmar, Tom Redwitz, and Joseph Davis, all longtime veterans of the Southern California building industry.
It started near the official end of the Great Recession, though the dark days were just beginning at that point. Still, it quickly found its footing. Its main stated goal was to build homes of the highest quality and craftsmanship, homes that people would love to live in, whether they were starting out, raising families, or looking forward to retirement.
Webb said he knew that in order to be successful, he and his partners needed to build a strong internal team.
“At the core, you need to have smart, passionate people who believe strongly that building homes for people to raise their families in is a good thing to do with your life,” he says.
Webb and his partners recruited the “best, most talented, knowledgeable, and passionate people in the building industry.” Among them were Marcus-Colvin and Mark Kawanami, now senior vice president.
“We essentially worked for free at first,” Kawanami says, “because we truly believed in Larry’s vision.”
By January 2014, the company was ready to launch its initial public offering. Now, six years after the doors opened in a tiny office Webb was able to secure rent-free, the company is poised to deliver 1,000 new homes and estimates revenues of just under $1 billion, according to Webb.
It’s now headquartered in Aliso Viejo and has offices in Walnut Creek and Roseville in Northern California.
The company’s slogan is “Build a Better Life.” For the people who spend their days creating New Home Co. communities, those words mean that they hold themselves to the highest possible standards, both in their careers and in personal lives, according to a company brochure.
The company has grown rapidly, particularly in the year and a half since it went public. The organization tripled during that time from 80 employees to 240.
Webb says that as with any company that grows fast, people were tested at times. He says the senior leadership team—which includes him, Marcus-Colvin, Kawanami, and Fabienne Smolinski, vice president of human resources, plus other division heads—work together to create an encouraging atmosphere in which employees interact freely with managers and are given the freedom to develop solutions.
Kawanami is quick to credit Webb with inspiring the close relationships that result from the supportive management approach.
“Larry really deeply believes that happy, well-balanced people make terrific employees who drive success.”
Beyond ‘Employee Benefits’
Smolinski, who joined the company a year and a half ago, echoes Kawanami’s sentiment.
“What sold me on the job was meeting with Larry. When I met with him, he talked about how much he cares about his employees. A lot of CEOs say that, but with Larry, it is really heartfelt.”
Creating an environment that supports balance between work and private life is key to a company’s success, Webb says.
“We try to do everything we can to show our team members that we understand what their lives are about.” Employees have the option of leaving work at 3 p.m. on Fridays. They can also in collaboration with their managers incorporate flex time into their schedules to accommodate family obligations. Yearly bonuses are part of the package, along with healthcare and other perks.
Those benefits and others make the New Home Co. a strong competitor for talent in the building industry, though the leadership team said that for the people who work there, it’s not about the recompense. It’s more of an intangible “something” that makes the office environment so appealing, they say.
Employees have the opportunity to learn how to build a house, for example.
Every month, Vice President of Operations Patrick Dibble invites employees to a job site to learn about an aspect of homebuilding, whether it be laying the foundation or installing siding.
“We build houses for families,” Marcus-Colvin says. “What better way to understand this than by learning about the process?”
It’s not all about work, though, says Smolinski.
“We have ‘fun days’ a few times a year when division heads take their team members on big outings, like a day at the Del Mar Fair. Our division leaders are given a lot of leeway to reward their team members. If it’s been a tough week, they can decide how to show their people that they’re appreciated—like an afternoon of bowling.”
New Home Co. also is the biggest supporter of Interval House, a nonprofit organization based in Seal Beach that runs crisis shelters and centers for victims of domestic violence. The team also supports HomeAid Orange County, which works to end homelessness, and Webb serves on HomeAid’s board.
“We have an incredible, supportive environment,” Kawanami says. “And this is what makes us so good at what we do—building homes that we take pride in and where people can live a better life and raise their families.”
Proud of All They Do
The company environment is so important to employees that there was great consternation when it went public as employees worried that the office culture they loved so much would be altered.
“People were uncertain, worried that the quality of our homes would slip, that we would be run by accountants,” Marcus-Colvin says. “So we tried our very best to include the entire team on the process of going public. We explained in detail what an IPO was and why we were doing it. It was all about communicating that nothing was going to change, that all of the things that we pride ourselves on—both as a company and as home developer—would still be the same. And they are.”
Becoming a public company, as it turned out, made the team stronger than ever, according to New Home managers. The inflow of cash allowed the company to buy land and expand.
Webb, looking back on the last six years, reflects, “We’ve enjoyed great success. And it all starts with hiring the right people.
The most successful homebuilding companies are the ones where the people respect each other, work well together, and believe that what they’re doing is important and makes a difference.”
