It’s our birthday! And so it’s the perfect time to reflect on how far we’ve come and where we want to go over the next 12 years (and beyond!).
We spoke to three of our most long-standing employees; CEO Andrew Bradshaw, Trustee Director Manpreet Sohal and Head of Business Support Emma Quig to get their thoughts on how the business and industry has changed over the last decade, and what lies ahead for the business.
Andrew: It’s a lot bigger! Even though there are 70 of us working here now, we’ve worked hard to ensure we keep the family feel and culture.
Emma: I agree, even though we’re a bigger organisation and more corporate, we have successfully retained our ‘people first’ culture.
Manpreet: I started on day one of the business when there were only three employees. Everything has changed since then, from the structure, operations, management and technology. It’s been exciting to see such a pace of change and has definitely kept us busy.
Andrew: There’s definitely much more legislation and complexity, which makes it even more interesting.
Manpreet: It’s true that there’s a lot more regulation than there was – and huge changes in the professional trustee world and governance. There’s definitely been a gradual strengthening of governance within the pensions sector
Manpreet: For me, coming back from maternity leave was the most challenging thing I’ve experienced as the country had gone through covid in the interim. Trying to understand all the post lockdown changes we had to adapt to as well as the changes in the regulatory field was a lot to handle!
Emma: Lockdown was also the biggest challenge for me. We had to completely change the way we worked overnight. It was a huge challenge to get everything set up for our employees to be able to work remotely, especially when so many people in the business didn’t have IT systems!
Andrew: For me, the biggest challenge has been about maintaining our values and culture when we’ve been growing at such a rapid pace each year. We’ve done very well with this, but it hasn’t always been straightforward.
Andrew: On the people front, we’ve really prioritised giving our employees an environment that has provided lots of opportunities for growth and development. On the client side, I’m really proud of the long-standing relationships we have with our fellow trustees and corporate clients.
Manpreet: I’m proud of some of the junior people we’ve recruited into the business and love seeing their ambition and career progression. We don’t have a high turnover and that’s a testament to the people we hire and the business as a whole. I’m excited to see what these junior team members will achieve within the business over the next decade and beyond
Emma: For me, it’s really about us having kept our ‘people first’ culture and, as Manpreet and Andrew have said, about the possibilities for development for everyone who works here.
Andrew: I can certainly see us continuing to grow! Our clients’ expectations of what we should offer are changing so we are expanding our services to meet this new demand. Now corporates are saying that they want us to run the pension schemes – including governance, minutes, investment strategy and monitor progress, which means the people you’re bringing into the organisation need to have the technical expertise and experience to meet these new client expectations. You also have to think about future proofing the organisation for people in their 20s and 30s. There are other things you can do when you’re working on governance, such as ESG, so it will be interesting to focus more on this over the next few years.
Manpreet: We’ll definitely continue to increase in size and take on more challenges as Andrew has laid out.
Emma: I can definitely see us becoming one of the biggest professional trustee firms. We’re professional, have diverse experience and are more dynamic and innovative than some of the more traditional firms out there. I’m excited to see what the future holds!
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