"Work meetings and social events are part and parcel of boing business and I know I’m not the only one who can’t wait for the world to open up again."
The mortgage industry has got used to working from home and we adapted remarkably quickly. But a return to the old ways of working before Covid descended upon us are unlikely.
It seems that ‘hybrid’ working will become the ‘new normal’ for many office-based businesses. A mixture of working from home and travelling into the office is emerging as the most popular outcome of the options available.
This is backed up by a recent BBC survey which found that 43 out of 50 of the UK's biggest employers plan to operate a mix of home and office working.
Here at Landbay we carried out a straw poll on LinkedIn to find out about people’s preferences, and three quarters (74%) agreed that a mix of both was the way forward. Only 10% said they wanted to be back in the office full time while 16% would prefer to work from home all the time.
Brokers and lenders
But how are brokers and lenders going to work together going forward? In the ‘old days’ business development managers within lending firms used to travel to visit brokers, meet them face-to-face and develop a working relationship. This was backed up by phone calls and emails too but it was the physical meeting that was often the catalyst in cementing a really good working relationship.
We have all got used to Zoom and Teams meetings now and these have proved to be an important communication tool in the absence of physical meetings. In theory, we could carry on working like that but it’s not quite the same as being in the same room as someone. The role of the business development manager is to build relationships with brokers, to explain about products and criteria and help them out with complex cases.
So, we asked on Linkedin how brokers would prefer to work with us and two thirds (68%) opted for the hybrid option. Just over a quarter (26%) want to conduct business face-to-face only and just 6% thought video only was best.
Looking after staff
This new hybrid way of working means firms must really consider what they offer their employees and how best to bring them back into more normal times. Obviously, offices must be Covid secure not just for staff but for visitors too.
Since lockdown restriction eased off we are now welcoming people back into the Landbay office. We are encouraging a hybrid approach as there are benefits and downsides to working both in the office and from home.
When the first Covid lockdown happened in March 2020 we quickly made sure staff were up and running with the technology they needed to be home-based. We adapted with speed to changes such as the government’s introduction of mortgage payment holiday so our systems could deal with requests and exits almost immediately.
Everyone had access to Zoom and Teams calls so staff could keep in contact with each other, socially as well as for work reasons. We even hosted cookery classes. But also, our BDMs were able to conduct daily calls with our intermediary partners in order to understand their requirements and challenges.
We really care about our staff so were honoured last month when Landbay attained a 3 Star accreditation for 'world class' levels of workplace engagement from Best Companies. This is the highest accreditation in the World Class to Work For stable and is in recognition of what firms do to make their organisation one of the best places to work.
In addition, we were accredited as one of the top firms to work for in three categories in the annual Best Companies list. We achieved third position in the financial services category, took seventh place for mid-sized London firms and came in at number 23 overall.
These awards show that Landbay cares about the wellbeing and careers of our employees and workplace engagement is a vital part our continued success.
As for the new way of working, I am looking forward to more interaction with colleagues, clients and the sector as a whole, including networking events, expos and mortgage industry gatherings. Work meetings and social events are part and parcel of doing business and I know I’m not the only one who can’t wait for the world to open up again.
