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The Client
Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC (Berkadia), a privately held company in which Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a 50 percent ownership interest, recently acquired the North American loan origination and servicing businesses of Capmark Financial Group Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Berkadia is a recognized and highly rated special, master and primary servicer managing a portfolio of more than $220 billion as of June 30, 2010. As a
correspondent for insurance companies and a leading approved lender for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD / FHA, Berkadia offers clients access to capital sources for the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation or refinance of commercial real estate properties.
The Challenge
Berkadia is committed to providing outstanding customer service. They believe that a strong and educated staff enhances the quality of service to their clients. In addition, it is important to them to provide clear documentation to rating agencies on their staff training efforts.
In addition to their own internal training programs, different Berkadia (then Capmark) offices had been using CampusMBA training products regularly. However, until the summer of 2007, they did not use CampusMBA education as a centralized, goal oriented solution that could be implemented company-wide across all offices.
In the summer of 2007, Berkadia approached CampusMBA with the following goal:
To improve the overall knowledge of their servicing team in order to enhance customer service to clients.
To reach their goal, Berkadia needed to implement a consistent training program across their entire global servicing operation. With servicing staff in the United States and India, the solution needed to be delivered on a global scale at a reasonable cost. The education needed to be accessible from anywhere at any time to save on both travel costs and staff time away from the office. In addition, it was essential that the solution be measurable with definite and attainable benchmarks. This was important not only to bring exceptional customer services to their clients, but also to demonstrate concrete achievement of training requirements to rating agencies. Finally, Berkadia wanted a solution that reinforces that the company places a high value on their employees and strives to provide them with opportunities to excel within their chosen field.
| The Solution
CampusMBA presented Berkadia with their new Commercial Certified Mortgage Servicer (CMS)
certification program. This standardized program offers two benchmark levels that enable Berkadia to broaden the education of their servicing staff and increase their comprehensive knowledge of servicing in an increasingly complex and changing market place. Each of these two levels, CMS Level I, the achievement certificate, and CMS Level II, the professional certificate, require staff to successfully complete five online courses and pass a final exam. The entire program is available online and is accessible from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the spring of 2008, Berkadia began implementing the Commercial CMS program with the goal of offering it to all of its servicing employees over a five year period. Just over two years later, in the summer of 2010, 222 Berkadia employees, representing more than 90 percent of those involved in the program, have completed Level I. Nearly 50 team members have gone on to complete Level II, accounting for 95 percent of those entering that benchmark level. Berkadia recognizes employees who have achieved a certificate on a centrally placed “Wall of Achievement” at their headquarters office near Philadelphia, Pa. Berkadia’s servicing staff has more Commercial CMS achievement and professional certificates than any other company in the industry.
Berkadia recently surveyed staff about their perceptions and experiences in the program. Ninety-six percent felt that the program benefited both productivity and employee engagement, and 90 percent felt more satisfied in their jobs after completion of the program. Ninety-seven percent said that their knowledge had increased, and 92 percent have applied this knowledge.
Summary
CampusMBA worked with Berkadia to implement a measurable commercial servicing education program. Their joint effort has contributed to Berkadia’s goal of providing a best-in-class learning and development program through Berkadia University. The program,
which was implemented on a global scale, has resulted in greater employee knowledge to handle the broad range of diverse scenarios that are part of today’s complex, changing market place. Finally, as an added benefit, the program established concrete benchmarks for communicating completion of training requirements to rating agencies.
In Their Words
"Education is the backbone of the service we give our clients. We are pleased that through CampusMBA educational programs, our servicing team has earned more Commercial Certified Mortgage Servicing (CMS) certifications than any other company. This translates not only into excellent customer service, but also increased job satisfaction, motivation and confidence for our employees."
Bob Long, Assistant Vice President, Learning & Development, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC
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