Melville-based Global Home Loans and Finance uses full-time training dept. to keep staff grounded

Last year, Melville-based mortgage lender Global Home Loans and Finance had 550 employees. The staff is up to 800 this year and still growing. With expansion like that, there's bound to be growing pains.

But owners William Alvaro and John Faracco are determined to get every new member immersed in the company's culture and keep them poised for continued growth.

Global has a full-time training department, where most of the business day is spent working with new hires or introducing existing staffers to new software programs and new customer service techniques. New hires spend about 100 hours in training. And beginning in 2005, depending on a new staffer's level of responsibility, training could encompass as many as 200 hours. That includes spending a week in every department to gain an appreciation of their roles in the company and the challenges they face.

Alvaro puts a lot of thought into the personal growth of each employee. Take the daily department huddles. Since February, every morning at around...