Mortgage brokers - tell me about working hours

We are a team of eight and our working hours have changed significantly over the last few years. The whole team have the option of flexible working and although we are in the office for 80% of our appointments, we are all parents so the option of finishing early, starting later and doing appointments at home is something that is appreciated by the whole team. We all work really smart around our clients and don't need to do 70-hour weeks anymore. We actually produce higher results coming in feeling fresh and motivated. Whilst clients can still have appointments on an evening and on a weekend when required, we plan our diaries so the whole team have a balanced week, rather than everyone being stressed and under pressure trying to juggle life/work balance.

My working hours and my work/life balance have certainly changed from when I began my practice in 2009 to now in 2023. When I first started, with no clients and no reputation, it was long hours and 6 days a week of trying to build something with introducers (such as estate agents), testing leads I bought in and trying to get referrals. Now, with a client bank that I can work with, as well as them referring me to their friends and family, and having several online tools such as Newspage, VouchedFor and social media, it is far easier to manage things and get a better balance. Whilst I still work many evenings, I rarely work a weekend and doing most meetings via Zoom or Teams means when I'm finished, I'm back with my family, not looking at an hour's travel time home.

Firstly, let me correct anyone calling it 'work/life balance'. It's 'life/work balance' because if you're not putting life first, then you're doing it wrong. As a self-employed mortgage broker, I have the freedom to work when it suits me and so I am my own barometer of whether or not I'm working too many hours/days. If I feel I want or need to, I can go to the driving range without asking permission, or get out for a run to clear my head. Or catch up with friends. Whatever! I've said before that a 4-day working week does not strictly suit our industry, whether for us as brokers or for our lender partners. We need the engine running 7 days a week, but if a 4-day week can be scheduled into rotas, it's great for staff. I can never tie myself to four days because client demand will always vary across the seven days in a week.

With the technology available today, mortgage advisers can pretty much work what hours they want, and from wherever they want to be, as long as it fits in with their clients' needs. You do, though, get out what you put in, so if you want to work part-time hours then don't be surprised if you only earn a part-time wage.

To meet client expectations, it's now more about response times rather than how many hours/days we work. Speed of response, especially with live applications, is increasingly critical to maintain a client's trust. People want to know that they are in safe and responsive hands. The key to keeping the work/life balance in an "always available" world is to make sure the client knows if you can't respond immediately, and make sure they know when to expect the response. That way expectations are managed and confidence in the adviser kept.

With the technology available now, we are very flexible on hybrid working arrangements in terms of office and working from home. However, I don't think a 4-day work week would work company-wide in our industry, as you'll have high-pressure circumstances where a very quick turnaround is needed. That said, I do think that some firms, maybe with 3+ employees, could work a 4-day week individually, providing there are good communication, systems and processes within the firm. This is something that I'd consider.

One of the significant benefits of being an adviser is that your measure is summed up to three things - happy client, happy compliance and enough of those to make a happy business. Beyond that you control the work you do and when you do it, sometimes it can be long hours, but, they are the hours of your choosing. There are few roles that offer such control over work/life balance.

4-day working week! Most financial practitioners work at some stage on at least 6 days a week! We have spent the past 20+ years adopting electronic processes for our business to make the quoting, onboarding, application, supporting items processing, and underwriting of cases as streamlined as possible. This has helped with flexible working hours, working from home and covering flows of client demands. Do we see financial advice being 4 days a week? The simple answer is no. If consumers have more time off they will be spending that time contacting us and our business will need to adapt to the changing needs of these individuals.

9-4:45 Monday to Friday due to Nursery hours, but always have appointment times open at 7:30 Monday-Thursday. Have decided as a business that we don't work saturdays and sundays but will help clients if important.
However, the flexibility is there to take days off when I want to spend with my family.
Had been working 4 day weeks until recently and just felt needed the extra time during the day to work on the business rather than int eh evening.