12-11-2022 Top Workplaces - Flipbook - Page 22
MIDSIZE COMPANIES
Employees at Primary Residential Mortgage enjoy their annual Halloween luncheon at the Joppa branch. PHOTO BY LLOYD FOX
NO.2 Primary Residential Mortgage
Potential hires at Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. are given a primer about the values that
drive the team.
First, their Towson workplace is “where one
can truly be themselves,” Dean Johnson, division
president, said.
Second, everyone is encouraged to bring a positive attitude to the office.
“We believe our culture is the sum of the billion
small interactions that occur between teammates,” Johnson said. “We strive to make all interactions — big and small — positive ones.”
Founded in 2002, the Salt Lake City-based
home mortgage outfit currently has 170 employees in Baltimore.
Laura Nagel, division marketing manager,
described her colleagues as a “fun” and “caring”
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group.
“We care about each other, and we care about
the community where we live,” she said.
To wit, the staff recently hosted a Red Cross
Blood Drive to support a co-worker and her family.
“We were able to help 84 individuals because
our team came together,” Nagel said. “This came
as no surprise, as we have always stepped up to
help, internally and externally. The long list of
local nonprofits we have supported lives in our
culture each day.”
That adage about working hard and playing
hard applies to the team of mortgage loan officers
and fellow professionals, who like to say, “We put
the ‘fun’ in ‘funding.’”
Over the years, they’ve organized backyard
barbecues, chili cook-offs, trivia nights, potluck
meals and a Halloween costume party. There’s
an annual holiday gift exchange that is touted as
“legendary.”
“We hear teammates discussing that they
already bought their gift, all throughout the year,”
Nagel said. “Everyone tries to outdo each other
with the most memorable or laughable gift of the
year.”
Overall, Johnson and fellow leadership want to
ensure that individual and team efforts don’t go
unacknowledged.
“Red Shoes” Awards are bestowed upon those
team members who stand out in positive ways,
likened to “a bright-red pair of shoes.”
Last but not least, there’s a yearly sales incentive
trip for top performers. Destinations have ranged
from Miami to Jamaica.