Vision to Victory - How HR and CEOs Build Culture Together

In a webinar faciltated by Dave D’Angelo, Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Grills, and Kevin Henry, Chief People Officer at PulteGroup, shared their deep insights on fostering a world-class company culture through a strong CEO-HR partnership. The discussion, titled "Vision to Victory: How HR and CEOs Build Culture Together," explored the definition, transformation, and daily reinforcement of culture, offering actionable advice for HR leaders and CEOs. Below is an extended summary capturing the essence of their conversation.

Defining Company Culture

Jeremy Andrus opened the discussion by reflecting on how his understanding of culture has evolved over his career. He described culture as a powerful force that aligns people around shared values to unlock their potential. “Culture is this incredible alignment of people, it is a collection of values that people believe in. They buy into their deliberate nature,” Andrus said. He recalled his early career experiences, where culture was less a defined concept and more a visceral feeling: “What I now understand is culture was really the feeling that I had when I showed up. What energy did I have? What are the people around me doing to either inspire me or stifle me?” He emphasized that culture became clearer as he transitioned into leadership, noting, “Did I feel anxiety? Did I feel something really driving me to be back after a great weekend?”

Kevin Henry complemented this perspective, framing culture as the foundation of organizational success, regardless of industry. “Culture is what matters most in any organization, irrespective of what business you’re in, what customers you serve, where you operate anywhere in the world,” Henry stated. He described culture as “an amalgamation of decisions, behaviors, and actions that create experiences for employees,” which directly influence productivity and business outcomes. Henry’s view underscores the strategic role of culture in shaping how work is done and how performance is measured.

Transforming Culture at Traeger

Andrus shared a compelling story of cultural transformation at Traeger Grills, a company he joined in 2014 after it had operated for 27 years with a toxic culture. “I got on the inside of this 27-year-old business, and found that the culture was absolutely toxic,” he admitted, noting that employees exhibited fear-based behaviors and resisted his leadership. “I was an unwelcome CEO. I would go and sit in the break room and have lunch with the team, and as I would sit down, the team would stand up and leave.” After 10 months of struggling to reshape the culture, Andrus made the bold decision to relocate the company from Oregon to Salt Lake City, retaining only three of 110 employees. “I decided to start over and chose to move the company… It was never the investment thesis. I just didn’t know how to change the culture with the people that were in the culture and sort of the inertia that had lived on for a long time,” he explained.

This reset allowed Andrus to rebuild Traeger’s culture from the ground up. He focused on two key steps: defining cultural values that aligned with the business vision and embedding them through hiring. “What were our cultural values… what is the intersection between these values that propel the business and really scale decision-making and behaviors, and those that inspire people?” he asked. Andrus personally interviewed the first 300 hires to ensure cultural fit, stating, “The intent was to ask questions that got at this notion of whether or not  they believed in the cultural values before they showed up.” This deliberate approach transformed Traeger from a $70 million to a $600 million business, with Andrus asserting, “The only real difference is culture. It’s the people in the culture… Culture and people really took a business that had been a steady, slow grower to creating something that’s very different.”

Operationalizing Culture at PulteGroup

Kevin Henry provided a contrasting yet complementary perspective, drawing from his experience at PulteGroup, a multi billion dollar publicly traded home builder celebrating its 75th anniversary. “We’re very different companies, but I think you’re going to hear a lot of similarities between the two of us,” Henry noted. He emphasized the importance of translating the CEO’s cultural vision into tangible programs and policies. “I spend lots of time working with my CEO, my functional team, as well as my C-suite team, ensuring that our approach to human capital really brings our cultural vision to life through our decisions, our behaviors, and actions,” he said.

Henry detailed how PulteGroup embeds culture into its people processes: “Our competency models, our performance management and succession planning processes, our compensation programs, these and other adjacent people processes inform who gets hired, who gets rewarded, who gets developed, and ultimately who gets moved into positions of increased responsibility.” He stressed the importance of consistency, saying, “Our values make us special, but it’s our behaviors that make them real… It’s not always easy, but what’s most important is being consistent in how you apply that lens.” Henry also highlighted the CEO’s role as the “primary voice of our culture,” noting that his team has earned the CEO’s trust to amplify that voice through regular communications.

Reinforcing Culture Through Rituals

Andrus shared how Traeger reinforces its culture through daily and weekly rituals that keep values top of mind. One key ritual is the weekly “Good Day Traeger” all-hands meeting, which Andrus leads with high energy, featuring a DJ and food. “It’s a 30-minute meeting… we highlight someone who’s living the cultural values,” he explained. Traeger’s values program allows employees to nominate peers for living these values, with quarterly awards of $100 bills to surface stories of impact. “We want peers to be thinking about their other peers and how they live the values… When a peer recognizes a peer, that’s powerful,” Andrus said. Monthly, Traeger recognizes a “Pellet Head of the Month” for sustained value-driven contributions, with stories shared across the organization.

Andrus also shared a specific example of a cultural value, “Stand in the Fire,” which encourages innovation by questioning established practices. “Yesterday, someone stood up… to show how we are doing consumer testing for our products… using virtual reality to test and tweak product on the fly with consumers against competition,” he recounted. This innovative approach, which reduced prototyping time, was celebrated as a story of living Traeger’s values. Even during challenging times, such as recent global trade and tariff issues, Andrus uses these rituals to reinforce culture. “Uncertainty is difficult… but if you come in and create value, and you embrace this cultural value, ‘Stand in the Fire,’ this is an exciting moment to show that you can be a change agent,” he told employees, emphasizing that values are “more important when you’re losing.”

Staying Aligned in Challenging Times

Henry addressed how he and his CEO maintain cultural alignment during periods of challenge, change, and growth. “A big part of my role… is to provide visibility into our culture,” he said, using tools like Glassdoor reviews, employee surveys, exit interviews, and informal walk-arounds to gauge employee sentiment. “We use our values as a bit of a North Star when prioritizing and trying to make decisions,” he added, ensuring transparency and consistency for all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and shareholders. Henry acknowledged imperfections, stating, “We don’t always get it right… As human beings, we’re perfectly imperfect.” However, he emphasized the importance of course-correcting: “If we don’t get it right the first time… we try and try again until we do.”

This approach builds trust and credibility, as Henry noted, “Creating transparency and visibility for my CEO and others about how we’re being experienced… what we know is much more important than what we think.” He stressed vulnerability and flexibility, saying, “We’re human. We’re vulnerable. We’re flexible, and we’re consistent in how we endeavor to deliver against our promises around culture.”

Authenticity in Culture

Andrus provided a candid example of how Traeger faced a cultural misstep in 2022, following supply chain challenges and a workforce reduction. “We’d had eight years of phenomenal growth… and literally in the quarter that we went public, our supply chain, inflation, and complexity just went through the roof,” he recalled. The business faced a 1,100-basis-point decline in gross margins, and consumer behavior shifted dramatically. “Americans went from nesting… to being done consuming high-ticket durables. They wanted to go to Hawaii and to the Taylor Swift Eras tour,” he said, describing the impact on Traeger’s business.

This led to a 20% workforce reduction, and Andrus admitted, “We were so obsessively focused on performance that we were not living our cultural values.” Employee feedback, both in town halls and through an anonymous culture survey, revealed this disconnect. “I got some really hard feedback… it was delivered respectfully and lovingly in most parts, but it was hard,” he shared. In response, Andrus conducted listening sessions with small groups of employees over four to five months. “It was an opportunity to sit in a room to ask questions and to listen… It took a ton of time, but it was an opportunity for my team to see a very strong signal that this was important to me,” he said. These efforts, combined with regular culture surveys, restored authenticity, with Andrus noting, “I believe that the culture survey is the leading indicator to business performance… It’s been up and to the right.”

Key Advice for Building a World-Class Culture

Henry offered a powerful metaphor to encapsulate the CEO-HR partnership: “The CEO is the eagle. They fly high. They’ve got tremendous vision insights around strategy… The CHRO or the head of people is the owl, and the relationship is that the owl flies almost as high as the eagle but is a little closer to the ground.” He advised HR leaders to “fly alongside” their CEOs, providing ground-level insights to inform decisions. “Take advantage of your owls, and for all you owls out there, provide the support to your eagle that’s necessary to help them see around corners,” he urged. Henry also emphasized valuing differences and leading with heart: “Suspend natural biases, prejudices, and assumptions… Always lead with heart… Try not to ever put profit over people.”

Andrus echoed the importance of the HR partnership, reflecting on his own growth as a culture leader. “As an entrepreneur, I don’t know that I really understood or had an appreciation for the role of a very senior people and culture leader,” he admitted. His partnership with Jane, Traeger’s HR leader since March 2020, has been transformative. “She helps me see my blind spots… She’s willing to give me feedback,” he said, recalling a recent instance where Jane provided constructive feedback after a tough leadership meeting. “I picked up the phone that evening… and said, ‘Hey, Jane, will you give me some feedback on… how I could have handled it better?’” Andrus encouraged CEOs to foster open dialogue with HR leaders: “Having an HR leader whom I trust and partner with… that’s what makes this partnership powerful.”

Conclusion

The webinar highlighted the critical role of a CEO-HR partnership in building and sustaining a thriving culture. Andrus and Henry demonstrated that culture is not just a set of values but a lived experience, reinforced through deliberate actions, rituals, and accountability. Their stories—from Traeger’s cultural reset to PulteGroup’s consistent application of values—offer a roadmap for leaders aiming to align vision with execution, even in challenging times.