Leaders learning how to be supportive coaches can help stop trend of people leaving the industry
The mortgage industry has lost workers over the past few years due to various factors. One reason is the high-interest-rate environment, but a challenging work climate also contributes. One industry veteran believes a strong, supportive work culture is the key to changing the trend.
Chris Allen (pictured top), the newly hired chief culture officer at Nationwide Mortgage Bankers Inc. (NMB), says it’s critical to create a supportive work environment, especially in the stressful mortgage profession.
“My passion is to create a culture and an environment where people can thrive,” Allen told Mortgage Professional America. “Statistically speaking, when you look at the current environment across the workplace, Gallup says that 21% of the global workplace is actually engaged in their work, while 62% are actually partly disengaged, or what they refer to as quietly quitting.”
He believes that employees suffering from stress will carry that into their personal lives as well. His goal is to prevent this.
“And then you look at stats like loneliness and anxiety and stress, and you look at people who are suffering and they're leaving work where they'll spend about a third of their lives, and they're going back to their loved ones, and I just believe we can change that,” he said. “We want to create a culture where people are actually leaving work and going home better.”
Seven factors for culture change
He said that when considering the factors that lead to satisfaction, both in the workplace and at home, he considers a variety of points.
“When we think about people thriving, we look at it across seven different factors,” Allen said. “We not only want them to thrive professionally, but we want them to thrive in their families, in their relationships, physically, financially, mentally and spiritually. That's the whole person. So when NMB has a value, like people matter, then we need to make this practical. And so those are a few of the things that we'll be doing right away.”
Allen noted that the mortgage industry has had a tough couple of years, with high interest rates and affordability challenges for buyers making deals challenging. Brokers and loan officers are so reliant on closing deals to pay the bills that it is important that they have the support they need.
“People are looking for three things in work, and in psychology, it's referred to as self-determination theory,” he said. “People want to feel competent. They want autonomy, and they want relationships. And what happens is in the mortgage industry, when you have market-driven results, the highs are really high and the lows are really low.”
In search of those highs, and to find the right working environment, people will jump from one company to the next.
“When I got into the mortgage industry in 2015, it almost felt like we were trading people like baseball cards,” Allen said. “So, people just jump from one company to another. If it gets hard at one company, another company promises you money, competence, autonomy and relationships. And so, you jump over there, and then people just sort of jump back and forth.”
News headlines have reflected high interest rates and low affordability in the mortgage market, frustrating potential mortgage customers and brokers. Three industry pros believe that a change in perspective can help overcome those negative views.https://t.co/vBe9IdAOVf
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) June 11, 2025
In addition to trying to keep good people in the mortgage industry, Allen said it’s important for the industry to be able to attract new talent to replenish losses from recent departures.
“They're people who may have left mortgage entirely, but there might be an opportunity to train up some young people, the next generation, who are coming out of college or see this career as an opportunity, but don't even think about it as an actual job,” Allen said. “We want to actually attract people who might not know much about the industry as well. Some of these people who are on the sidelines right now, let's make sure that they know we're building something great.
“That gets back to the attraction piece. Let’s make this so attractive that we've got 100 people coming after every job opening, saying, ‘I want to be a part of this.’”
Bringing the band back together
Formerly the chief talent officer at Movement Mortgage, Allen’s move to NMB allowed him to reunite with a former colleague at Movement: current NMB president Michael Brennan.
“Mike Brennan and I had the opportunity to work together at Movement,” he said. “And part of this whole opportunity is a little bit of bringing the band back together again. And what Mike did in the Northeast, and my involvement in those years, was just to create opportunities for people to learn and grow. So, my expertise, or at least my passion, is to create a culture and an environment where people can thrive.”
Allen hasn’t wasted any time with NMB, as he has already started the company’s leadership academy. One issue he sees in the mortgage industry when it comes to leadership is the lack of supportive coaching.
“This leadership academy is really to help the leaders of NMB understand what it means to be a coach,” Allen said. “One of the biggest issues I see in workplace culture is that leaders aren't taught to be coaches. A coach believes the best in somebody. A coach's main intent is to bring out the best in every single player or athlete, and the athlete will accept the feedback, negative or positive, because the athlete knows that the coach has their best interest at heart.
“They get afraid to have really direct conversations. And if we thought of ourselves as coaches who are really trying to bring out the best in every individual for the betterment of the team, it would change cultures.”
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