17 August 2020
For many years, the statement “I love building things” has featured in the LinkedIn profile of Corinthian Benefits Managing Director, Robert MacGregor. This is a reference to his desire to see ongoing growth and development in everything he is involved with, “whether that is individuals (helping good guys get even better), teams, market leading businesses, or sometimes actually even buildings.”
This attitude transcends everything that Robert does and underpins Corinthian Benefits aim to be the leading benefit consultant for SMEs in the UK. “Our mission is to ‘make the complex simple”. This allows companies and their employees to maximise their retirement planning opportunities and use of additional benefits.
“We are committed to finding ways to help companies and employees to really engage with savings, pensions, and benefits” Robert explains, “rather than just forcing them to do it”.
By its very nature, this is no easy task. For example, encouraging over 600 companies and nearly 20,000 employees to embrace Auto Enrolment really isn’t that simple. Achieving this successfully has a lot to do with changing the way people view long term saving, rather than just addressing the immediate action.
“It takes really good people and hard work. Fortunately we have a complete team of the former and we all do the latter” Robert continues.
Part of Corinthian’s strength is the environment it has created within its teams, where colleagues want to come to work and keep doing a great job for both the business and their clients. Staff retention is also highly valued; therefore, practices are continuously evolving and individual staff development is paramount.
Staff currently have a range of Chartered Insurance Institute qualifications between them with 7 modules currently in progress and 10 recently passed. 3 team members have also recently finished their Diploma in Financial Services with one other only 3 exams from completion.
“One of the most satisfying aspects of running a business is to have people you have worked with for years, who started in a junior position and now have highly responsible and well rewarded roles. A key aspect of this is a continuous focus on every single one of us developing” Robert says.
Person Centred development is encouraged in both business and personal life through training, coaching, mentoring and exams. The company pays for the exams and material, revision time, and a bonus for passing. The corporate structure also rewards passing professional exams with pay rises based on their industry recognised qualifications.
“From our newest intern (who we pay) up to our leadership team, we are all taking some sort of exam, based on where we work”.
“Our team is full of great people and they are what will make our business great too”, Robert concludes.
