It has introduced self-care days for its staff
Mortgage broker Aaron Forster (pictured) has been in financial services long enough to know that working in the sector can be stressful at times.
Certainly, there is research to back up the existence and prevalence of so-called ‘broker burnout’.
In a survey by The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter conducted last year, almost a quarter, or 23%, of broker respondents thought their mental health was in poor condition. In addition, a majority was found to be working over the recommended weekly hours, while 27% indicated that they never got enough sleep in a regular working week.
“We understand that life is busy, and we understand that it is particularly busy if you work in the financial services sector,” said Forster, director at Derby-based Create Finance, a specialist mortgage brokerage dealing with clients who are struggling to find a mortgage, including those who are self-employed, have bad credit, or are first-time buyers.
“As a company, Create Finance is not waiting for its team to feel burnt out. Instead, we are choosing to help the team to keep well and stay happy. We prefer to take an eastern medicine outlook on this: to prevent rather than treat this,” he said,
With this in mind, the brokerage has introduced self-care days for its team.
“As self-care means different things to each individual, a self-care day is an opportunity for the chosen individual to regroup and to spend their day doing whatever self-care means to them – whether that’s going out for a lunch, playing golf, taking a walk, having a spa day, or just watching Netflix at home and eating pizza,” Forster explained.
“We were approached by our head of marketing about this idea and immediately got behind it. We care about our team and encourage them to come to us with anything that is of concern to them. We support our brokers with admin support and are always interested in anything else we can do to enhance their experience.”
Forster said the staff’s response to the initiative “has been overwhelmingly positive.”
“With the ever-changing mortgage rates causing our brokers to work harder than ever before, if we can do this and actively prevent their burnout, we will,” he added.
Chloe Wagstaff, case administrator at Create Finance, said that the self-care days initiative was a welcome addition to the benefits they already enjoyed by working at the brokerage.
“When we received news of the self-care days, it cemented what I had thought about Create, it reflects the importance and appreciation that they place on the entire team,” she commented. “They value us, and it’s good to hear that they place the same importance on my mental health as they would if I were to have a broken leg.
“It’s refreshing for a smaller business to provide self-care days and certainly hasn’t been my experience with previous employers.”
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