3. Paddio

“Be passionate and have fun.”

“Deliver results with integrity.”

“Enhance lives every day.”

These are the core values of home mortgage lender Paddio. “If you take away one of those, it just doesn’t work,” says Ryan Kluttz, Paddio’s director of production.

Kluttz says these values provide the foundation for a great work environment—and a mission in which employees know they’re truly making a difference in the community. Home mortgages aren’t just about interest rates and contracts, he says. “I’m sure there’s debate about causation versus correlation, but when you take a step back at the effect home ownership has on the average person’s life in America, it is significant,” Kluttz says. “From safety to life outcomes for children to wealth generation, home ownership seems to drive a lot of those positive life outcomes for the average individual.”

The team at Paddio takes this mission seriously. That’s why Kluttz says it’s very important to hire people of integrity and character—and to nurture the relationships between its employees. Paddio encourages small groups, where employees connect with each other around the commonalities they share beyond the workplace. For example, several employees discovered they’d all played basketball in high school, so they developed a group in which they could play together. Other small groups include book clubs and get-togethers where people trade “dad jokes.”

Kluttz says those moments of connection pay off in the form of deep bonds between Paddio’s employees. “About a year in, we had an event at a Springfield Cardinals game,” he says. “I remember taking a step back and looking at our staff and their spouses and knowing that these were friends hanging out. That’s so cool, and it’s a huge win for us.”

At Paddio, Kluttz says, these relationships buffer everyone through the ups and downs. It’s especially important in an industry like home mortgage lending, where the market can be unpredictable. “Fighting alongside friends is different than fighting alongside colleagues,” he says. “We want to make sure we’re fighting alongside friends in a difficult market.”