Ashton Woods Homes, one of the nation’s largest private home building companies, was recently named a “Best Place to Work” by Atlanta Business Chronicle. The home builder, with its corporate office in Atlanta, earned the No. 1 ranking of medium-sized companies. The award was bestowed on both the Corporate and Atlanta Division offices.
“This is a wonderful honor for our employees,” said Ken Balogh, president and CEO of Ashton Woods Homes. “We do a lot of fun events here and, to me, it’s an everyday thing. I believe that if you enjoy being with your colleagues and love what you do, work will be fun.”
“Our employees are the backbone of our company,” added Michael Malloy, vice president of sales and marketing for the Atlanta Division of Ashton Woods Homes. “Without them, we could not be successful. We believe that if we have happy employees, we will have happy home buyers.”
To achieve the top ranking, Ashton Woods Homes’ employees first nominated the company and then participated in an independent survey by Quantum Workplace. The survey covered various employer attributes, including people practices and work environment, and the rankings were based solely on the voices of the employees and the data collected by Quantum.
A sample comment from the survey stated, “The senior management here is the best I have seen in all my years working in corporate America. They are not afraid to make big, bold moves to constantly keep ahead of the competition.”
The Atlanta Division has been taking “big, bold moves” in its recent developments intown and around the metro area.
Communities such as Alderwood in Sandy Springs, The Gramercy in Dunwoody, Provence in Cumming, Stoney Creek in Woodstock and Savoy at Town Brookhaven all have innovative designs. Ashton Woods Homes even partnered with Cecconi Simone Inc., a Toronto-based top design firm, to design the new models at Savoy. This collaboration resulted in truly unique Atlanta new home designs that make the builder stand out to buyers.
In addition to having a strong leadership team, the company was recognized for its extracurricular activities and events. Frequent trips to various sporting events, company-wide sports teams and spa days are some examples of the fun events the company organizes for its employees. This strategy of putting extra time into employee satisfaction is paying off for the home builder.
“Surviving the past five years of what was, for many of us, the worse time in our careers and having a good time doing it, that’s pretty unique,” said Balogh. “I don’t know many companies that can say they’ve had a lot of fun the past five years, but we sure did.”
In addition to being the Best Place to Work, Ashton Woods Homes has been named among the Top Ten Private Builders in 2011 and the No. 1 Most Trusted Home Builder in America in the Lifestory Research Most Trusted Builders in America Study.SM The Atlanta Division also has received the Atlanta Service Excellence Award from GuildQuality.