UWM Is Newest Training Hall of Fame Member

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) was inducted into the Training Hall of Fame in 2022.

One new company, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) was inducted into the Training Hall of Fame, joining the ranks of 16 other organizations named to the hall since its inception in 2008. These 17 companies earned Top 10 spots on the newly rebranded Training APEX Awards list for four consecutive years. UWM was formally inducted into the Training Hall of Fame during the black-tie Gala held February 28 during the Training 2022 Conference & Expo. Members remain in the Training Hall of Fame for a minimum of three years. They can remain in the Hall of Fame by adhering to specific guidelines or they can opt to reapply for Training APEX Awards consideration.

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM)

For the seventh consecutive year, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is once again the nation’s #1 wholesale mortgage lender. UWM underwrites and closes residential mortgage loans originated by independent mortgage brokers, correspondents, small banks, and local credit unions throughout the United States.

UWM is the country’s foremost advocate for wholesale mortgage broker channel growth. The company fuels that growth by raising consumer awareness and fervently developing its internal team members and clients. Because of UWM’s focus on client and team member development, the company helped more than 600,000 borrowers achieve their dream of home ownership, while also closing more than $200 billion in mortgage loans in 2021.

In the last six years, UWM’s wholesale mortgage market share increased from 12 percent to 36 percent. This continued growth has created a focus on making team members the best they can be by adopting a companywide mindset aimed at continuous improvement (CI). The main driver? The 256 fulltime trainers spread across UWM’s seven Learning and Development (L&D) teams. All of them committed to the focus of CI for 9,000 team members each and every day. UWM’s team members have received on average, more than a million hours of total training over the last three years. Last year, UWM team members received 1.7 million total hours of training (more than 240 hours per team member), and approximately 500,000 CI hours.

Team members also have monthly YourTimes with their direct leaders (team leads). In these, team members may discuss anything they want to with their leads, while also focusing on team member strengths and opportunities for team-driven and individual training. Ultimately, YourTimes give team members the opportunity to be regularly praised and coached up by their team leads on topics of their choosing. This daily and monthly focus on continuous improvement, team member engagement, and genuine care—combined with the sheer volume of training and coaching UWM provides its team members—resulted in 2,200- plus promotions in 2021 alone.

UWM’s CI efforts can be felt across the board within the company. The company’s success has mirrored its L&D successes over the last decade. Leaders like to say that UWM is a training company that just happens to “do mortgages.” It’s no coincidence that over the last six years as UWM has been climbing the ranks of the APEX Awards (#92, #44, #8, #9, #5, and finally #1), the company simultaneously has been the #1 wholesale lender in America (UWM closed $179 billion in loans in 2021).

As CEO Mat Ishbia is fond of saying, “Results follow,” and UWM’s business results have followed its investment in the company’s greatest asset over the last decade: its people. UWM is truly a workplace geared toward training and transforming people into the best version of themselves, and all of its success has followed that.

Click HERE to see the 2022 Hall of Fame Members.

Lorri Freifeld
Lorri Freifeld is the editor/publisher of Training magazine. She writes on a number of topics, including talent management, training technology, and leadership development. She spearheads two awards programs: the Training APEX Awards and Emerging Training Leaders. A writer/editor for the last 30 years, she has held editing positions at a variety of publications and holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University.