How to Connect a People Strategy to a Business Strategy

BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi | January 08, 2025

Lennar Corporation, a housing construction company based in Miami has over 13,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of trade partners. How does it maintain a strong group of staff with diverse skills and talents? Drew Holler, chief human resource officer at Lennar, says what plays well in recruiting and retaining thousands of employees is promoting a personal connection to the business.

Holler spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Miami conference. He and moderator Tim Padgett, Americas Editor for WLRN spoke about how HR leaders can connect people strategy to business strategy to hire, train and retain employees.

Developing an Emotional Connection to the Mission

What attracts people to Lennar is the industry it’s in: housing. Holler says that because a majority of people have a home, people can relate to the industry through the personal significance of becoming a homeowner or having the goal of home ownership.

“When you buy a home, it’s the biggest asset that you’ll ever buy in your life,” said Holler. “There’s this emotional connection to the business that really plays well and then it’s also as people understand the growth potential in this industry.”

Tim Padgett, Americas Editor, WLRN, NPR News, right, interviewed Lennar Corp.'s CHRO

Lennar is able to recruit and retain employees by maintaining this deeper connection between the staff and the company’s mission. It allows them to effectively bring in the diverse talent that is necessary for Lennar to function.

The company is also known for building affordable housing across the nation in states such as California, New Jersey, Arizona and Texas. Much of the nation’s population can understand the struggles of rising housing costs. As Lennar works toward building more affordable homes, people can relate to the company’s social mission. “We really do feel like our role is helping America build a more healthy housing market and to do that, there are a lot of different elements. One huge element is more attainable housing,” said Holler.

AI Drives Human Creativity

Like most corporate companies, the use of AI technology has become more common and embedded into the work within the industry. Holler says in the HR sector that AI has allowed for mundane tasks to become automated, freeing up time for workers to put their creative focus on other things.

“There’s been little pockets where I’ve seen this already, in our business of individuals that were very heads down, doing the same repeatable tasks, that now can put their head up a little bit, not all the way, but a little bit, and so now they’re spending 50% or more of their time really adding value,” said Holler.

Lennar also uses AI to generate training videos based on HR Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This process centralizes text based information into a video for people to digest in a different format.

HR is transforming under the growth of AI technology and as the economy and corporate industry grows, Holler says it’s important to have the talented staff that will support the company in the coming years.

Building a Social Mission

Lennar’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts directly blend into the work it does for consumers and staff by making sure that everyone feels included. Holler emphasized that there’s an existing feeling that everyone wants to belong and the company upholds this by connecting with its team, mission and work.

“If you want to have a great workplace that's productive, you want to have a workplace that actually takes care of customers’ needs. You need to have engaged employees, and the best way to do that is to make sure they feel included with their teams and with their work,” said Holler.

Lennar’s mission to serve communities that need affordable housing dives into this effort towards welcoming and including all people. The company builds single-family, multi-family homes as well as housing for rent. Holler acknowledges that the “life-cycle of a consumer,” can look different for everyone and the company strives to meet the needs of all types of people.

“It’s an exciting time to be in this space. You have an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Holler.

Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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