At Creative Homes, we place a priority on fostering an excellent culture through our five core values each and every day. We believe that an excellent work environment leads to more collaboration, innovation, and overall employee satisfaction. In 2020, we renovated our office space to embody our culture and create a place for our employees to thrive and be proud of! Our workplace has a casual and inviting feel in a professional and polished environment.
For consecutive years, our employees have described our culture using one word – FUN! Hear from our current UW-Stout Alumnus employees about their experience with Creative Homes.
CR HACKWORTHY
CR Hackworthy has been with Creative Homes since the beginning, and has served as a Business Coach. He graduated from UW-Stout in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management. The best years of his career were behind him with being the owner of BrightKEYS Building & Development Corp. After concluding this chapter, he was excited for his son Nick to own and run his own business, which is when Creative Homes was established. CR’s favorite thing about working with Creative Homes is the people! From his career, he recognizes that great people do great things, and they are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with. Creative Homes is fortunate to recruit, hire, and retain such tremendous employees!
CR’s favorite place in his home is the kitchen – he loves being the conductor as a cook and feeding the heart and home! As an alumnus, his advice to students is to get involved and get experience as early as you can. One thing he learned in college that still helps him today is to work hard, never stop learning, and network, network, network!
DOUG SMITH
Doug Smith has been with Creative Homes for three and a half years and has served as our VP of Construction. He graduated from UW-Stout in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management. Most of his career has been spent with a private home builder in the Twin Cities market, and then extended his experience with a public builder for several years. Most recently, he pivoted back into the private sector, joining Creative Homes in Woodbury, MN in 2019. Doug’s favorite thing about working at Creative Homes is people that make this such a great workplace! He appreciates the flexibility we, as a company, have to move quickly with decisions and products. We are continually learning, make improvements, and striving to deliver a great experience and quality homes – all while having fun!
Doug’s favorite room in his home is his office – I can see everything coming and going, achieve a sense of accomplishment, and it’s the best spot for my kids to check-in and know that we are connected. One thing he learned in college that helps him today are knowing different management styles and how to work within a team most effectively by fully understanding your role in completing a project. As an alumnus, his advice for students is to get involved in as many things as you can. The networking you do now will be invaluable for your future!
ERIC OSTLUND
Eric Ostlund has been with Creative Homes for six and a half years and has served as a New Home Sales Specialist. He graduated from UW-Stout in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Communication Management (GMC). Early in his career, he was led to Creative Homes simply because of a referral! One of his high school classmates’ family member worked at Creative Homes at the time and referred him for an interview. As the saying goes, it is ‘who you know, not what you know,’ said Eric. The power of networking and making a professional impression, even if it’s just an acquaintance, can truly help you out down the road. Eric’s favorite thing about working at Creative Homes is the company culture! He recalls sitting in class at UW-Stout listening to a professor describe company cultures at some of these big corporations like Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. and always wanted to work at a company like that, and for the first three years out of college, he didn't think those companies existed! He then found Creative Homes and it has been the best employment experience! He believes he has the most talented coworkers with a very fun work environment to enjoy with everyone. He appreciates our team gatherings, support, excitement, and most importantly the passion for helping our customers and building homes that are going to be giving families shelter and memories for decades to come. He continually shares how proud he is to help the community that he works in!
Eric’s favorite room in his home is the kitchen – it's where the best conversations are had. He loves standing around an island talking with friends and family… just feels like home! As an alumnus, his advice for students is to do your best to be a respectable person in all your interactions. Working hard and being professional will get you a long way. One thing he learned in college that helps him today is to remember to stay proud of yourself and that there is a future you can't even imagine in front of you!
ANNA COFRIN
Anna Cofrin has been with Creative Homes for five and a half years and has served as a Design Studio Specialist. She graduated from UW-Stout in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design. Her career following graduation started at Creative Homes as she was recruited at the UW-Stout Career Fair! Anna’s favorite thing about working at Creative Homes is the culture and alignment of core values! She always stives to give customers the best experience possible which encompasses our customer experience and passionate values. She also enjoys pausing to enjoy all the things we do as a team and upholding the work hard-play hard core value, too!
Anna’s favorite rooms in her home is the kitchen and living room – it is the heart of the home which brings feelings of calm and contentment and has the most opportunities for creativity, fun, and laughter! As an alumnus, her advice for students is to always work hard, but never forget to have fun. One thing she learned in college that helps her today are mostly specific to her role and coursework, such as knowledge about finishes, general design skills, drafting and how to specify selections.
ROB HACKWORTHY
Rob Hackworthy has been with Creative Homes for five years, and has served as an Intern, Assistant Neighborhood Builder, Neighborhood Builder and most recently Customer Experience Specialist. He graduated from UW-Stout in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. His career at Creative Homes started as an intern working in New Home Sales and started to learn the residential industry. Igniting a passion for construction, he pursued a field role after graduation. While continuing to learn construction and all the moving pieces with building homes, he enjoyed helping customers with the new home process the most! This morphed into a customer-facing position where he shares information about the home to a homeowner before they move in. Rob’s favorite thing about working at Creative Homes is the ability to be challenged in a role and have opportunity for growth. I’ve worn many hats, which is a testament to the strong company culture, embracing change and valuing the employees. It’s a fun, fast-paced working environment where we work hard and play hard!
Rob’s favorite place in his home is his patio – it’s the place where he can spend quality time with family and friends, and just relax while at home! As an alumnus, his advice to students is to play to your strengths; they will take you far. Show people what makes YOU valuable. And, whatever you do – at minimum, be sure you enjoy your life and your work. Work consumes a third of your life and if you love where you work, it will overflow to other areas of your life. That’s why I love working at Creative homes! One thing he learned in college that helps him today is good time management skills. He encourages everyone to always be on time (or early) and learn to manage your time to be most efficient.
Former employees that were UW-Stout Alumnus include Marty Gergen, Claire Thone, Stephanie Ganz and Jamie Kesler.
Come join the ‘fun’ culture of Creative Homes and experience all the exciting things our employees enjoy so much! We are always seeking UW-Stout students and we look forward to connecting with you soon!
We love it from top to bottom inside and out!!! Thank You!! Creative Homes has been fantastic to work with, they have made it a breeze purchasing a new home. Every single person I’ve met from Creative Homes has been a pleasure to meet and they are very friendly and knowledgeable.
Our home turned out beautiful. I could go on and on but I will just add that I am extremely happy we chose Creative Homes as our builder and would definitely recommend them to anyone considering building a home!
Building a home with Creative is more than a process of building a house. Its the people you get to meet, work with and get to know along the way. And Creative knows the right people to have in the right position.
I want to take a minute and write to you to express our gratitude for you and the whole Creative Homes Team. You made our dream come true, and every time I enter our new home I cannot believe it is ours. Thanks again!
If you are thinking about building a home with Creative do it! The entire process and team has been outstanding. Everyone warns you about how awful building a house is, with Creative it has been nothing but a turn key easy process. Their team is best in class.
