The Intermediary – February 2026 - Flipbook - Page 79
B RO K E R B U S I N E S S
Opinion
Rethinking working
hours for mortgage
administrators
W
hen my
administration
manager first
asked if her
team could
have more days
off but get paid the same, I’ll admit,
I was incredibly sceptical. I couldn’t
imagine asking my manager that
question when I was a rookie adviser
back in the nineties. But everyone
must move with the times, and so
must our business. So, we put the
kele on, and I listened to what she
had to say.
The admin department is where
many people in our industry start
their careers. They get trained up,
earn their experience and oen move
on to another role within the business.
For El, our admin team manager, that
means she is forever interviewing staff
to fill vacancies.
More and more, she came across
candidates asking what flexible
working benefits we offered. To
be frank, there were none. And,
as a growing business operating
within the competitive mortgage
industry, we need more than ever to
stand out among our competitors to
aract the best staff to support our
continued growth.
A practical solution
Our admin team is required to be in
the office from Monday to Friday. But
having some form of flexibility during
the working week is a perk that most
people are now looking for in a job,
with some naming it a priority.
So before coming to me, El did her
research and looked into schemes that
other companies operated, choosing
one that would fit with the needs of
the business. She proposed a nineworking day fortnight with a day off
every two weeks.
HELEN PIERSON
is director at Mortgage Advice
Bureau New Homes
As a growing
business operating
within the competitive
mortgage industry, we
need more than ever to
stand out among our
competitors to attract the
best staff to support our
continued growth”
Staff can use their rest day to catch
up on all the things that life throws
at us, which we’d rather not or can’t
deal with over the weekend; an MOT,
a trip to the dentist, nipping to the dry
cleaners or, heaven forbid, just a bit of
quiet time while the kids are in school.
To earn the extra day off, they must
work an extra 50 minutes a day. The
team is split into two rotas. Those
working a five-day week are rostered
from 8:40am to 5:30pm to make sure
our phones are manned until we close
for the day. Those on a four-day week
can choose to do the same, or work
from 8:10am until 5pm.
Performance impact
We trialled this model for three
months between September and
November and got great results, both
for the business and team morale.
Prior to the flexi-working trial
between May and September, we were
averaging 43 offers per month that
exceeded our 15-day target turnaround
period. Since the introduction of
compressed hours this has reduced to
an average of 27 offers per month that
exceed target.
That’s a 37% reduction in a maer
of months and those remaining
outside our desired service levels
were largely beyond administrative
control, for example outstanding
documents, down valuations or
affordability issues.
Our operational continuity has
been maintained on non-working
days, with diaries and case notes
consistently updated, allowing work
to be picked up without service
disruption.
In fact, El has noticed that her team
are communicating more effectively
and writing clearer case notes now
their cases must be handed over once a
fortnight for someone else to manage.
And those with tricky cases siing in
the pipeline are speaking up more to
ask for help on how they can be moved
forward quickly.
Cultural shift
It seemed like an obvious win for me,
so from 1st January, we implemented
the condensed working week for the
admin team permanently.
The whole experience says a lot about
the culture that myself and the other
senior leaders have worked hard to
cultivate. We want our staff to feel
empowered to make decisions and
if they want to improve something,
come with a solution like El did, not
just a problem.
Of course, not every idea has legs
but certainly aer this experience,
we have happier staff, improved
performance and a competitive edge as
an employer and recruiter within the
mortgage industry. It pays to listen. ●
February 2026 | The Intermediary
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