With an employed broker to franchisee pathway and an outlook that embraces families with children, Resolve Finance is opening doors for female brokers.
Sales and Partnership Manager, Hugh Miller explained that it was observations that his now teenage daughter’s sports teams aren’t given the same advantages as male teams, and the barriers he saw his female colleagues encounter when he worked at a large bank, that inspired him to fight against this disparity.
“Both my daughters are sporty, and my youngest in particular is right into netball and cricket. I found with cricket in particular, that the girls aren’t treated the same, or given the importance that boys’ teams get.
“If there’s an oval that’s closer to the pavilion, that’s always given to the boys’ teams, and the girls have the one furthest away. Or, if there’s a better setup, that’s always given to the boys,” he said.
Hugh also recalled attitudes he encountered while working at a bank that was proactive in bringing women into leadership roles.
“Many males viewed it as tokenism, the bank had to tick a box. I saw a lot of poor attitudes coming from male managers,” he said.
Hugh now makes it a priority to try to interview as many females as males when recruiting brokers.
“Currently less than 25% of mortgage brokers are female. We need diversity to reflect our customers’ needs. We’d like to see more females enter the industry and we feel we have an environment that’s set up to help them succeed.” he said.
Resolve Finance has a model for new to industry brokers to join as an employed broker, receiving a base salary plus commission, gaining a foundation, a client base and support such as in-house mentoring before taking on a franchise.
Sophie McCluskey is one of the young female brokers Hugh has hired on this pathway.
It was by chance that Sophie joined a broking firm in a broker support role while studying finance and economics at university.
While there she took the initiative to complete a Certificate IV in Finance and Mortgage Broking and a Diploma of Finance and Mortgage Broking.
“I’d made a lot of progress in the role, and I’d contributed a lot towards improving their workflows and processes. Although feeling some pressure to stay in an administrative role, I felt it was time to jump into broking,” said Sophie.
Determined to be a broker, Sophie contacted Resolve Finance and Hugh based on their reputation.
When talking about the ways Resolve Finance supports women to enter the industry, Sophie raises that women are more risk averse than men (a fact acknowledged in research). The employed-to-franchisee pathway Resolve offers removes some of those risks establishing yourself as a broker can entail.
“Having a base salary when you first start out, for a lot of women, they would like that security,” she said.
The support she receives as an employed broker is also something Sophie values.
“They’ve really set me up so I can focus on what’s important, such as building my knowledge and client base” she said.
“The mentoring support is genuinely 24/7, if you need assistance, it’s there. And they’re teaching me how to run a business and making sure that once I do go on to become a franchise owner, I will be successful.”
Sophie’s advice to other young female brokers is to have confidence in your abilities.
“Don’t underestimate the value you can add to the industry. A supportive work environment will help you see that,” she said.
Resolve Finance is part of ABN Group, a privately owned company with a strong family focus.
For them this means initiatives like encouraging people to bring their families to their conferences, including welcoming children.
Referencing another barrier he has seen women face in the workplace, Hugh said that unlike other organisations where women may not be put forward for roles because of a ‘fear’ they would have children, they embrace that at Resolve.
Resolve Finance have paid-parental leave for their employees, this is part of how they have ingrained their family friendly values into the business.
“We know that at some point, female brokers may want to have kids. We have to support them through that.
“We have two brokers who have recently returned from maternity leave and we’re managing that with them, making sure their workloads are where they need to be at their stage of parenting to make sure they're not under too much pressure,” he said.
It’s initiatives like these that make Resolve a business proud to be creating opportunities for female brokers, and reaping the benefits.
Champions of Diversity is brought to you by CommBank.
