BH Companies
Diversity & Inclusion Award

Organization Description

• The BH Companies, BH Management Services, BH Equities, BH Construction and BH Design and Architecture, were founded in 1993 by Des Moines visionary, Harry Bookey. Recently named "Best Workplace for Diversity" “Best Workplace for Women” and “Best Workplace for Millennials” by Fortune Magazine, BH’s corporate headquarters are in Des Moines with more than 2,000 employees across the United States. Renowned for their commitment to building value for residents, owners and employees, BH has grown to become one of the largest multifamily owners and operators in the nation. BH is currently the eighth largest multifamily management company and the 11th largest multifamily property owner in the nation, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
  
  BH's philosophy is simple. They strive to provide the highest quality living environment at their apartment communities in order to retain satisfied residents. Whether managing a class b asset or an upscale apartment community, BH offers high quality homes and amenities and customer service that is second to none. BH Management Services, LLC currently manages communities in: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Number of Employees

• 2,141

Organization's Committment to Advancing Diversity & Inclusion

• At BH, we believe that our employees are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to making our workplace a supportive and equitable place to build a career for all of our employees. In the last five years, BH has been a rapidly-growing, entrepreneurial company that has high performance expectations and is viewed as a thought-leader in the industry. We hold ourselves to high standards and work hard together to reach our shared goals. We continually strive to be the best throughout our constantly changing industry, and along the way, we recognize and support the people who make us shine. BH’s culture supports and celebrates our employees as whole people with families, beliefs and lives outside of the workplace, and we have worked to adapt company policies to support our people both in and outside of the office.
  
  BH has 2,141 employees, and of that workforce, 51% are minorities. 40% of BH’s front-line managers are minorities, and 13% of executives are minorities. 49% of BH employees are women, and 75% of our executives, 70% of our mid-level managers and 51% of our front-line managers are comprised of women. 8% of our employees self-identify as having a disability, and 6% self-identify as LGBTQ. While we are a company made up of individuals from highly varied backgrounds, we aim to provide a great place to work for everyone, and we continually look for ways to improve our employee benefits and opportunities for career development.
  
  BH understands that our good customer service comes from happy and engaged employees. Part of our culture is to continually recognize those employees who go over and above to provide high quality customer service for all our stakeholders. Employee recognition plays a big part of the process and we share our employee’s achievements through annual bonus programs, quarterly recognition programs, annual management conferences, maintenance appreciation events, leasing seminars featuring guest speakers, monthly employee newsletters and regional mentors.
  
  In addition to recognizing our employee’s outstanding work, we also provide comprehensive training to all of our employees through our own training program, BH University. If an employee has the drive to work hard and advance their position within the company, we want to make their goals a reality. Opportunities for advancement come along frequently, and we try to promotive from within whenever possible. Many of our long-term employees have held several different roles within the organization, ranging from onsite experience to corporate leadership positions. By providing our BH employees with extensive training, employee appreciation, and a comprehensive benefits package, we feel that we are creating a successful and fulfilled workforce and, therefore, a successful company.

Plan for Sustaining Diversity & Inclusion Efforts

• Over the past year, we have significantly restructured our policies and programs in support of our diverse workforce. We have made, and will continue, to make changes that we believe will benefit, not just one demographic of our workforce, but all of our employees.
  
  One of the programs we recently adopted to make our workplace more supportive of new parents is our “Babies at Work” program, which allows new parents to bring their infants with them into the workplace until they reach six months of age. So far, four new moms at BH have taken advantage of the program, and the response to having babies integrated into our workplace has been entirely positive. For our new parents, the program allows for an extended bonding period between parent and child, it allows new mothers to more easily feed their children, and it makes the transition from maternity leave back into the workforce more gradual. According to BH mom Allison Nielsen, the most surprising aspect of the program was the company-wide encouragement she and her son Cole received. “BH has always been supportive of my family and I, but this is a whole new level of support. This is a ‘we are in this with you’ program where team members stop by to hear how things are going and ask if they can help in any way.” Not only does “Babies at Work” benefit new parents, it has also fostered a great deal of bonding between fellow employees, raised office morale, and increased employee loyalty and appreciation of our company as we are continually taking steps to make BH a better place to work.
  
  Another policy we have introduced to improve the workplace for our women is our Paid Short-Term Leave policy, which allows for up to eight weeks of paid short-term leave. That time may be used as maternity leave, when an employee incurs a personal illness or injury, or when time is needed to care for a family member with an illness. We also provide three to four weeks of paid time off, depending on an employee's time with the company, as well as four weeks of sabbatical leave that can be taken after seven years of employment with the company. In addition, BH allows time off for 12 observed holidays, employee birthdays, and eight hours of paid volunteer time to use at a charity of the employee’s choosing.
  
  The BH flexible scheduling policy is another way in which we have shown support for our workforce. We allow employees to adjust their hours, and utilize work-from-home days, in order to promote a healthy balance between career and family responsibilities. Over the past year, we have made significant changes to our policies and programs in an attempt to make our workplace more advantageous to all of our employees.