USFS Celebrates Clawson, Great Michigan Cities with Unique Conference Rooms

How does your company differentiate its conference rooms?

With varying levels of success, organizations around the country are using themes like meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner); bodies of water (Atlantic, Pacific, Superior); and the Three Stooges (Larry, Moe, Curly).

At United Shore Financial Services in Michigan – one of the largest, fastest-growing independent mortgage lenders in the U.S. – the management team took a unique approach to naming and decorating conference rooms to make them memorable by recognizing employee hometowns.

“We wanted something that would make our meeting areas stand out and, at the same time, celebrate our home state,” USFS CEO/President Mat Ishbia said. “Our employees are our greatest asset, so choosing the cities and towns they are from or currently live in was an easy choice. And it works! I love to hear people say, ‘We’ll convene in East Lansing’ or ‘The operations meeting is in Oxford.’ “

In all, 22 cities are represented in USFS’ 140,000-square-foot headquarters. The entire workspace has a “city” feel to it with street signs, faux-grassy areas and hallway “roads.”

On the second floor are conference rooms Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, Plymouth, Flint, Ferndale, Farmington, Detroit and Berkley.

The third floor includes Rochester, Dearborn, Pontiac, Birmingham, Clawson, Lake Orion, Northville and Clarkston.

On the fourth floor are Auburn Hills, Troy, Franklin, East Lansing and Oxford.

Photos of each are available here: http://on.fb.me/15CjCOh

In addition to the unique naming, almost all conference rooms have huge murals of street scenes specific to that city. Embedded into each of the scenes are hidden gems that represent USFS and the company’s core values and beliefs.

For instance, in the Detroit room, “United Shore Financial Services” is superimposed onto the People Mover. In Flint, street flags display each of the USFS businesses: United Wholesale Mortgage, Shore Mortgage, and Capital Mortgage Funding. In Troy, a “no turns” sign a Crooks Rd. and Big Beaver is replaced with “Work Ethic & Attitude.” Finally, in Franklin, one of the USFS key pillars appears to be spray painted onto a wall: “We are relationship driven, not transaction driven.”

“People have a ‘Where’s Waldo’ moment when they go into a conference room for the first time,” Ishbia said. “Embedding these beliefs into the scenes is one of the ways we constantly and consistently stress what makes United Shore different and what makes us stand out.”

USFS currently employs more than 1,200 people and is adding staff. According to Ishbia, plans are in place to expand in the building and add more city conference rooms.

“My home state of Michigan has more than 200 cities in its 80+ counties, so we are not going to run out anytime soon,” Ishbia said. “I am sure team members will chime in with pride when the time to name more rooms arrives.”

In addition to the conference rooms, USFS headquarters features many amenities to retain and attract talent including an expanded cafeteria, state-of-the-art workout fitness center, dry cleaning pick-up/drop-off services, Starbucks, valet parking, 24-hour self-serve convenience store, and modern designs normally associated with a high-tech Silicon Valley company.

USFS commissioned metro Detroit Fine Art and Commercial photographer Kim Kozlowski from Novi (www.KimKozlowski.com)  to take all the photographs. “I photographed one full moon, one fire truck, one rainy night, one classic car and one very amazing state,” Kozlowski said. “This project certainly reminded me of what a fantastic state Michigan is. Its people and places just can't be beat.”