Mortgage industry risks losing top brokers over one issue

Mum of two tells why she almost quit the mortgage business

Mortgage industry risks losing top brokers over one issue

The mortgage industry risks losing good brokers because of the inflexibility of some employers in the sector who do not appreciate how advisers have to juggle their parental responsibilities alongside work, it’s claimed.

Charley O’Neill (pictured) came close to leaving the profession and suggests several previous businesses for whom she worked didn’t appreciate how caring for her children impacted her timings during a working day.

O’Neill only stayed in the business after joining the female-led broker firm, The Mortgage Mum, two years ago, and finding it more accommodating. But, she believes the issue remains a problem in the wider industry.

“I think a lot of it is around businesses not understanding the very basic ways that they can help working parents,” O’Neill told Mortgage Introducer. “We're not in a world where you usually have one income earner in a household anymore. There's two people who are working and whether that's the mum's job or the dad's job, if you've got children, there needs to be flexibility.”

How can mortgage employers make life easier for parents?

The mother of two suggests that simple measures, such as a firm ensuring that there aren’t team or client meetings arranged for 9am or 3pm, can make a real difference.

“I had one line manager who was not understanding at all,” O’Neill recalled. “One time, I was told that someone had put an appointment in my diary with a client at 3pm, when I had to pick up my kids from school and my husband was working.

“You were not allowed to change the times of your appointments and had to ask permission, so I approached my line manager and said, ‘I am happy to do the appointment but can I call the client and see if they can do it a bit later, in the evening?’ A lot of clients prefer this anyway.”

She continued: “It was not an unreasonable request, but he wasn’t happy and told me it was not convenient to call clients and change appointment times, and that I needed to be more flexible in the future. I was thinking that if he put himself in my shoes for a second, what would he have done differently to me in that situation? Would he have left the children at the school gate? People would have judged me much more for that.

“If I was working in the office and had to leave at 2.20pm to get back for the school run, there would be comments like, ‘oh, yeah, freeloader or part-time’. And actually, when those people were in the office, they were often chatting and not really getting much done."

She added: “I worked at companies which would expect you to work through and not eat lunch if you were picking up your kids from school. So, you would not eat during the day. What do these companies expect parents to do? It's not hard to be flexible.”

Appointments were also booked up to two hours’ travel time away in the evening, which meant that O’Neill sometimes didn’t get home until after 11pm.

“There was one meeting that was booked in the diary and I said to my manager that there were brokers much closer than I was, and asked if I could do this over the phone or as a Teams call,” she explained. “They said ‘no’, because sales were better face-to-face. This was pre-2020, and COVID, when they moved it all to Teams and Zoom because they realised it was just as convenient if not better – and they weren’t paying everybody to travel. As brokers, most of us are intelligent people and can look after our own diary, and we want to do so because that’s how we earn money – it’s so simple, but we weren’t allowed to do so.”

Read more: Does the mortgage industry welcome women?

Changing career was an option

O’Neill eventually became so disillusioned that she sought work elsewhere and was offered a job as a school receptionist, which she considered taking even though her income would have been reduced and it would have affected her family’s standard of living. 

Fortunately, she connected with Sarah Tucker, founder and CEO of The Mortgage Mum at the same time and found a business that was more flexible. Following O’Neill’s move, she’s been impressed, for example, that it provides training remotely via online channels, which cuts down on travel time.

Now head of The Mortgage Mum’s new build division and a senior mortgage and protection broker at the firm, O’Neill wrote £12.5 million of mortgage business in 2024, and won an award for writing the most protection business in the company.

“Flexible working isn't about working part time or being part committed to your job,” she said. “I'm still as productive. I see more clients I've built up my client bank, but I'll do appointments at times that suit me and I've never once had a client say to me, ‘I'm really sorry, you’re not flexible enough for me.’”