Kevin Henry, Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer at PulteGroup

Show Notes

Episode Summary
What does it take to lead a people strategy for a 7,000+ employee organization across 45 markets—and still put people first? In this episode of HR Voices by All Voices, Emily Fenech sits down with Kevin Henry, Chief People Officer at Pulte Group, one of the largest home construction companies in the U.S. Kevin shares how his team drives culture, engagement, and trust in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

Kevin opens up about the biggest challenge facing people leaders today: supporting the emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing of employees amidst economic, social, and environmental uncertainty. His leadership approach emphasizes intentional communication, providing “the why” behind decisions, and creating safe spaces for transparency and connection.

Listeners will walk away with powerful insights on the shift from work-life balance to life-work integration, how to build trust at scale, and why consistency—and caring—wins the race.

Key Timestamps

• [00:35] – Introduction to Kevin Henry and Pulte Group’s people strategy

• [02:14] – The power of listening and meeting employees where they are

• [03:11] – The top challenge: supporting wellbeing in uncertain times

• [04:38] – Why context and transparency matter more than ever

• [07:46] – The blurring of work and life—and how leaders should respond

• [09:37] – Building intimacy and trust within teams

• [12:24] – Valuing differences: a personal story on perspective and inclusion

• [16:54] – Final advice: be bold, be wise, be people first

Takeaways

• Communicate the “why” behind decisions to create alignment and engagement

• Recognize and support the whole person, not just the employee

• Build trust through intentional leadership and vulnerability

• Create psychologically safe environments that encourage real conversation

• Value different perspectives to unlock team potential and belonging

• Consistency beats intensity—lead with patience and purpose

Our Sponsor

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What is HR Voices?

HR Voices is a scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who’ve actually had to make the call.

Each episode brings experienced HR and People leaders into realistic, anonymized workplace scenarios—the kind you recognize immediately. Performance issues. Messy conflicts. Investigations that don’t fit neatly into a policy box. Instead of talking about their own companies, guests react to outside cases and walk through how they’d think it through in real time.

There are no right answers here. What you’ll hear is judgment: how seasoned leaders balance risk, fairness, legal reality, and humanity when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious.

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Emily Fenech (00:01.079)
Welcome to another episode of HR Voices by All Voices. I'm Emily and today we are joined by Kevin Henry, the Chief People Officer at Pulte Group. Welcome, Kevin.

Kevin Henry (00:12.088)
Thank you, thank you, Emily. Good to be here.

Emily Fenech (00:14.849)
Yeah, we're so glad that you're here. So Pulte Group is one of the largest home construction companies in the U.S. operating in over 45 major markets. And how many employees do you have?

Kevin Henry (00:26.414)
over 7,000.

Emily Fenech (00:28.94)
Can you tell us a little bit more about what it's like to lead the people strategy at such a massive organization at scale?

Kevin Henry (00:37.228)
Yeah, it's a real honor and a privilege. I'll start there. And I'm very humbled to have the opportunity to collaborate with

other members of the executive team and leaders across our great company in setting that agenda, which is really informed by what we refer to as our culture story, which encompasses our missional reason for being, our values, our goals, what we want to be known for. And so again, I'm in the position and the role where I just have the opportunity to help inform those strategies.

strategies, and then lead an incredibly talented team of human capital professionals in the execution of those strategies.

Emily Fenech (01:30.019)
Yeah, and it seems like you're doing something right. You guys have won, I think, seven consecutive years of great places to work. can't even list all the accolades that the organization has earned. So what do you think's behind some of that success?

Kevin Henry (01:45.282)
Well, you know, they tell you not to read your own press clippings because you may start to believe them and take your eye off the ball. Really, it's ensuring that we're actively listening to the wants and needs of our employees and trying to use this platform called PultiGroup, this great company, to meet people where they are.

and ensure that they're having meaningful experiences and that they're able to accomplish both personal and professional objectives. You know, in all seriousness, we're very humbled by the recognition. My bold ambition is I want us to be an extraordinary company. And so we've still got some work to do, but we're up for the challenge.

Emily Fenech (02:34.785)
Yeah, well speaking of challenges, that was my next question. I was going to ask you what is the biggest challenge that your people and your people teams are facing in this moment?

Kevin Henry (02:45.846)
Yeah, that's a fabulous question, Emily. Thank you. You know, I think it's ensuring that the physical, mental, and emotional needs of our teams are being met in the face of macroeconomic, geopolitical, and really just environmental challenges. Many folks are finding themselves uncertain, unstable, and afraid, in a word, extremely vulnerable.

I think our challenge as a people and culture team is to find ways to provide resources and support our teams while leveraging our human capital to achieve our company's objectives. Operating objectives, financial objectives, and as I referenced a moment ago, our cultural objectives. But those are big headwinds that not just my organization, but I think most organizations are facing at the moment. But again, we're up for the challenge.

you know the first step of a 12 step program is admitting you have an opportunity to get better and so we work on that every single day.

Emily Fenech (03:57.39)
mean, what a massive challenge that, I mean, that speaks to just about everyone. People feel sort of the weight of sort of, like you said, political circumstances, economic circumstances, and with mental health at an all time low, think it's the fact that that's your number one challenge that's keeping you up at night, I think speaks volumes about your empathy as a leader. So how are you or others that you admire navigating this challenge? It's a big one.

Kevin Henry (04:27.212)
Yeah, again, thanks for the question. You know, we try to be intentional about over-communicating, providing transparency and actively listening to what's on the minds of our employees. Really focusing on providing the why behind our decisions and our actions. Somebody told me a long time ago, it's something that's really stuck with me, that to important people you explain why.

and to unimportant people you simply tell what. Now, I'll give you a personal example of how important this concept is. My wife and I have two sons. Now, while they're both grown now in their mid and late 20s, when they were younger, my wife and I would often tell them, hey boys, go clean your rooms. Now, as you might expect, and for any of our listeners who have children,

this may resonate with you, this request would often be met with the expected sucking of teeth, shuffling of feet, and mumbling under their breath. You they go clean their rooms, but the outcome would be lackluster at best. Now, one day, you know, it dawned on me, back to this concept, that we were telling them what to do, which was to go clean your room, but we weren't providing the why. And that while

You know, our two sons are in fact two of the most important people on the planet to us. We were messaging to them that they weren't important because of our approach. Just telling them what to do and not taking the time to give them the why. And so the next time we asked them to clean the room, we shared, hey, hey boys, go clean your room. We're having company over. Now this was the why that had been missing. They accepted the assignment.

no shuffling of feet, no sucking of teeth, maybe a little mumbling under their breath, but they executed the assignment flawlessly. And so that was a really big aha for me personally, which has kind of transcended into my approach professionally, in ensuring that you take the time to give people the why. Here at Pulte Group, we try to ensure that all of our teammates understand the why, not just the what, and that they always know how

Kevin Henry (06:53.614)
important they are to us and our ability to be successful as an organization.

Emily Fenech (06:58.836)
Yes, that's powerful. think giving people context is often so overlooked. And I don't think it always comes from, you know, malicious intent, just like your example with your kids, right? Even if your employees are so important, I think...

I've seen a lot of leaders at every level sort of rush through the context part. Here's our goals, or you start a meeting. Here's the agenda, let's get into it. But you haven't really paused to explain why the goal matters or what their role in it is specifically. And people can get lost in that. yeah, context is powerful and often overlooked.

So my next question would be, what trends at Pulte Group are you seeing shaping the future of your workforce?

Kevin Henry (07:47.714)
Yeah, again, terrific question. You know, I think it's the blurring of lines and specifically the blurring of lines between work and life outside of work. You know, in the past you would often hear people use the phrase work-life balance. I personally have a very strong belief, maybe even a devout belief.

that the concept of work-life balance or a separation between the two has really become obsolescent. Companies, I think, that understand this and are intentional about supporting the whole person will be the most preferred places to work with the most engaged and the most inspired workforces. In my experience, the combination of a highly engaged and inspired workforce will always yield positive outcomes.

And it goes back to what we talking about earlier, just the convergence of external factors, challenges, headwinds, you know, that are just impacting people in an unprecedented way, you know, is really something that we're all facing. You know, as the kids say, life be life-ing. And we have to make sure that I think is a

employers, you know, we're cognizant of that, we understand that. We're empathetic to the challenges that our teams may be facing and that we're levering our resources to make sure that they're being supported to the best of our abilities.

Emily Fenech (09:32.438)
Yeah, so how are you staying ahead of that trend? I I felt that, especially with them in a remote context. think a lot of folks, you know, I'm working in my house right now, so the lines are very, very blurred for me. So how do you support your people and what advice would you have for other people leaders in some specific ideas for supporting people to navigate those blurred lines?

Kevin Henry (09:54.572)
Yeah, I think it gets back to this whole concept and kind of notion of the whole person, you know, and focusing on the whole person. I'm also a big fan of, you know, creating the opportunity to build intimacy with your teams and intimacy, you know, in a way that really constructs opportunities to create and build trust with one another. Again, that

lends itself to transparency and vulnerability and real talk about real things. Because no matter how good any of us are, if we don't know, we can't help. And again, I think if you go back to old paradigms and beliefs that people had about work, there were things you just didn't talk about at work because it was deemed to be inappropriate.

And, you know, there's still some things you shouldn't talk about at work. Don't get me wrong. This is an HR related podcast. But, you know, creating intimacy and creating the opportunity for people to be vulnerable in a way that they still feel safe, I think gives you the opportunity to really move into relationship with your teams. You know, I think it's important to avoid what might be perceived to be the commoditization of people.

You know, where the relationship and the interactions are transactional and folks have been commoditized or the employer-employee relationship has been commoditized or you've seen degradation in that. And I think it's really, really important to make sure in your workplace or within your organization, depending on your context, that your behaviors, your decisions and your actions are creating experiences.

that are meaningful, they're inspiring, and they're memorable for your teams. And so be really cognizant of your behaviors as leaders and how that's impacting people. And know the difference between intent and effect. Hopefully most of the time the two overlap, but oftentimes you may have an intent with an intended outcome.

Kevin Henry (12:22.004)
and you may end up with unintended consequences. And so just keep your eyes open and your antenna up and really make sure you understand how people are experiencing.

Emily Fenech (12:35.681)
Yes. Do you have any sort of example? I mean, it sounds like something that has to be embedded in every employee experience, right? Like the opportunity to build trust, the opportunity to show up for the whole person needs to be embedded. But do you have any examples of just how that's showing up in your workforce? Like how those opportunities for trust and how those opportunities for intimacy are showing up sort of day to day?

Kevin Henry (12:59.596)
Yeah, know, the good news is, you know, from a functional perspective, we influence lots of processes, you know, in terms of how we communicate to people, what gets messaged, how we onboard people. When somebody moves from an individual contributor role into a role where they're now a leader of people, what kind of capabilities do we try to build in leaders so that, you know, we have a...

kind of an aggregate leadership muscle that puts with our values and really reflects and reinforces what we've identified as key competencies. And so one of the concepts that we really, really have been focusing on over the last couple of years is this concept of valuing differences. someone might say, well, what do you mean by that, Kevin? What are differences? And I'd say differences in backgrounds, differences in circumstances.

and differences in beliefs. I mentioned earlier, my son's, what I didn't mention, and I want to give you little bit more context, I'll personalize it. I'm from New York, was born in Queens, grew up in New York. My wife is from Birmingham, Alabama. So two very, very different backgrounds, very different circumstances that have informed different beliefs about any number of things. Coincidentally,

my wife and I, and this occurred before I actually started working for Pulte Group, we bought a Pulte home. And so we live in a Pulte home, which is interesting. I think this was maybe preordained that I would have the opportunity to work for this great company. So the example I'll give is there may be times that I go home to my Pulte home with my wife and we both go, it's a little chilly in here. It's cold.

And I might say, sweetheart, turn the air up. And she'll look at me and go, what are you talking about? It's cold. Turn the air down. And you pause there, right? Because where people stand depends on where they sit. And her perspective is her perspective. My perspective is my perspective. She could easily say, that's wrong. You folks from New York are wrong. And I could easily say, no, you're from Alabama. What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense.

Kevin Henry (15:25.774)
You know, but what we do, and this gets back to the skill set we're trying to create and develop here within my organization, is teaching people how to suspend natural biases, prejudices, and assumptions. Just suspend them so that you can try on the perspective of somebody else without judgment. It's kind of like my grandma used to tell me when I was growing up, don't judge a book by its cover. Read a few chapters and then judge the book. Decide whether it's a good book or not. But not on its face, not on the cover or the title.

And so in that context, by suspending those natural biases, prejudices, assumptions, my wife and I can actually get to what we're trying to solve for, which is the same thing, which is we want to moderate the temperature in our poultry home so we're comfortable. And then we can actually execute it in a way that delivers against the desired outcome. The same thing holds true at work. Whether you're in function A or function B, or whether you're from this part of the country or that part of the country or...

whether your ethnicity or your gender is one thing or another thing, those are all differences. And the honesty is, you know, we're better together if we can figure out how to understand, leverage, and ultimately build on those differences. And so, you know, back to your question and the example is we try to inculcate that approach into all of the different modalities that we use to deliver training and content.

And it's really a big part of our narrative and a big part of our lexicon here within the organization and how we speak with one another and engage with one another. And I think that builds trust and creates this context where you can enjoy greater intimacy.

Emily Fenech (17:13.025)
That's great. In a world where a lot of leaders are trying to leverage technology to get more out of their people and you know this obsession with productivity I just think it's refreshing to talk to you today Kevin about how it seems like you're leveraging support and engagement and showing up for the entire person in order to drive

trust and ultimately the same goal, productivity, right? You're going about it in a much different way and I think that's just really refreshing personally for me to hear today. Is there any sort of last words, last pieces of advice with that in mind that you want to share with our listeners today?

Kevin Henry (17:49.528)
Thank you.

Kevin Henry (17:58.479)
Yeah, again, thanks for the question. I would say, you know, be bold in your respective roles. You know, wrap that boldness and wisdom and be wise, you know, in how you approach the work. And put people first, you know, and put people in front of profit. We're a public company.

You know, we have to be profitable. have shareholders and other stakeholders that expect big things from us. But my devout belief is if you put people first, then results and ultimately profit and returns and those kind of things will come. And there are no shortcuts. You have to put the work in. And consistency is ultimately what wins the day. The last thing I'd share with listeners and

This may resonate with everyone. One of my favorite, favorite stories, I've heard it and read it and reflected on it, ruminated on it probably 10,000 times. It's the tortoise and the hare. And you know what? Every single time I read that story, the same character wins the race. It's the tortoise, not the hare. And so, you know, slow and steady always beats fast and shaky. And so stay the course.

Be bold, be wise, be convicted, and be people first.

Emily Fenech (19:27.297)
Classic for a reason. And I think a lot of people are going to be flooding to the Pulte group careers page after this, wanting to work with you guys. It sounds like an amazing place to work, an amazing culture that you're building. Thank you so much for being here, Kevin. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Kevin Henry (19:45.016)
Thank you so much again, really appreciate the invitation. Have a great day and best to you and your family.

Emily Fenech (19:52.011)
Thanks, you too.

Kevin Henry (19:53.294)
Bye bye.