International Personal Finance The human face of finance

We're committed to creating a positive working environment where our people are encouraged to develop their skills and their contribution to the business. 

Our employment policies are designed to attract, develop and retain the best people - whether they're working in one of our international markets or with our UK central team.  We believe in respecting each other and providing equal opportunities for everyone. 

Equality & diversity

We firmly believe that employee diversity is good for business.  Operating in different countries means, by its very nature, that we have a diverse workforce and it's the local knowledge and expertise of our teams that has enabled us to grow our business so successfully in new markets.

Our group diversity policy was introduced to ensure people are selected, promoted and treated on the basis of merit and ability.  This enhances productivity and facilitates the development of products and services that are suited to our diverse customer base.

We are committed to equal opportunity in recruitment, promotion and employment and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or other national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age or religion. We also give full and fair consideration to applications for employment from people with disabilities and to their subsequent training and career development.

Employee and agent engagement

A skilled and motivated workforce is essential to our success and we believe that engaging effectively with our employees is not only good for morale but business performance too. 

We carry out employment engagement surveys and each of our operations holds regular employee forums. Business updates, newsletters, suggestion schemes, team briefings,  c intranet sites and employee magazines inform colleagues about our business and each country is committed to developing communication channels to encourage effective employee dialogue.

We engage with agents through weekly interviews with their divisional managers and regular newsletters. We also carry out engagement surveys with agents every two years.

Health, safety and well-being

We're committed to protecting the health, safety and well-being of all our people and those to whom we owe a duty of care. This commitment includes health, safety, welfare, fire prevention and protection of the working environment.

Our group policy for health and safety is agreed at board level and is applied to all parts of our business. A health and safety steering group, which comprises directors and employees from across our business, ensures we adhere to our policy, and provides strategic direction in the management of health, safety and welfare issues. We also have dedicated health and safety consultants in all markets and working groups which report to the steering group on local activity, legislative requirements and compliance with group policy. Detailed health and safety data is maintained and closely monitored across the business.

Health and safety issues are regularly communicated to employees and agents,  and there are channels in place to enable health and safety concerns can be raised effectively and efficiently.  

Learning and development

It's our policy to support all employees throughout the course of their employment with targeted learning and development opportunities.

Each business carries out a comprehensive learning and development needs analysis against business objectives regularly enabling them to revise the learning and development strategy to tackle priority areas. For individual employees, learning and development needs are identified during regular employee performance and development reviews.

To encourage employees to maximise their potential we offer sponsorship and study leave for appropriate further and higher education qualifications.  These include Masters degrees, Information Technology qualifications and professional qualifications provided by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and overseas equivalents.

Work/life balance

We acknowledge the need for balance between work and home life and we aim to help employees strike an appropriate balance through managing people, time, and workloads more effectively, efficiently and responsively.  We also recognise that this approach can help retain skilled and experienced workers who, due to personal circumstances, can no longer comply with what have traditionally been 'normal' working practices. 

Where appropriate, we use flexible working arrangements set out in our flexible working policy. These arrangements are made on a case-by-case basis and in accordance with the needs and constraints of the business and employee.

Remuneration and benefits

Our focus is to attract high quality employees who are committed to supporting our businesses and helping us succeed in our exciting expansion plans.  We work hard to attract, recruit and retain the best people we can, offering attractive remuneration and benefits packages wherever they work including share ownership schemes to encourage employees to share in our success.