The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter was launched in 2021 and offers guidance and a framework for firms to support staff’s mental wellbeing.
Co-founded by Brightstar, Chartwell FS, Coreco, Crystal Specialist Finance, Knowledge Bank, Landbay and SimplyBiz Mortgages the charter releases an annual survey of mortgage brokers’ mental health.
The latest survey has shown an improvement in mental health but brokers report that working hours are still long, sleep is inconsistent and work-life balance is varied.
Speaking to this publication, Andrew Montlake (pictured), managing director of Coreco, said: “I think the fact that we’re actually having these surveys and the people are on, the people are happy to talk about it now.
“It’s a real step forward, and the more people and leaders who are able to talk about mental health and their stories of how it affects them that helps take the pressure off other people who might be feeling the same.”
Work-life balance and working from home ‘concerning element’ of survey
Montlake said there were some “concerning elements” of the report, such as work-life balance and working from home.
The survey showed that 58 per cent of brokers polled worked more than 45 hours a week and 24 per cent said brokers felt their work life balance had worsened.
Montlake said some people have embraced working from home full time and are more productive, but others could find it more “lonely” and “isolating”, which could aggravate poor mental health.
He added that working from home full time meant that signs may not be as easily picked up by coworkers so poor mental health could “snowball”.
“It’s about making sure that that you’re talking to people and figuring out what suits them best. Some people can be left alone, working in a hybrid environment, whereas others need extra support.”
Every business should discuss mental health and have a mental health first aider
Montlake said businesses should not “shy away” from talking about mental health and in the next year every business should “at least have a discussion of the presentation or mental health”, possibly using the survey as a backdrop.
“I’d like to see every business have at least one of their people trained as a mental health first aider. I think those are really simple first steps,” he added.
“There’s an increase in the brokers feeling overwhelmed and they’re still not getting enough sleep. I think people forget sometimes that a brokers’ job can feel like it is a 24/7 job, because you always want to be there for your clients.
“There always seems to be some kind of issue, especially the period that we’ve been going through, which I do believe is the hardest period since the credit crunch in terms of how it feels to actually work in this industry, there needs to be more places that people can go to get support,” he explained.
Mini budget having delayed impact on mental health
Montlake said Q4 last year was “awful” because there was “panic”, and brokers had to “calm people down” and deal with “people who wanted to make knee-jerk reactions”.
“There was confusion all over the place and that turned into a lack of business because people didn’t know what to do and some people wanted to delay their things,” he said.
Montlake said that for many brokers November, December and January were quite slow, and whilst activity had “started to pick up” in the start of the year, there was the delayed consequence from lower levels of business not being written several months ago.
“If you look at about now, there might be a lot of brokers feeling that worried about their banking levels because they didn’t write as much five or six months ago, and that creates some financial worries, especially if they are self-employed,” he added.
He said several brokers he had spoken to said it “feels like they’re working twice as hard for half the amount right at the moment”.
Lenders and brokers should work together on mental health
Montlake said “working together” with lenders was crucial to “understand the key points that really affect brokers’ happiness, stresses and livelihoods”.
He said it would be “very easy” to say that all lenders should offer 48-hour notice for products being withdrawn but from a lending point of view that “isn’t feasible”.
“Is there some way we can go working together as lenders and brokers to try and identify some of the issues that are occurring which has had a dramatic effect on mental health,” he added.
He pointed to the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) report on diversity and inclusion and Diversity and Inclusivity Finance Forum (DIFF) as two areas where lenders and brokers have shown they can “work really together”.
“Mental health is probably another area where lenders and brokers need to work together better to try and come up with solutions that mean things are a bit easier,” he said.
Priority is to ‘get people engaged’
Montlake said a key priority for the MIMHC was to “get people engaged” and “to make sure that we are we are starting to have an effect”.
He pointed to people participating in the surveys and talking about mental health more openly, which he said was already occurring.
“It’s a topic that is now coming up more and more and people aren’t afraid to talk about it [mental health]. It is making sure that the message of ‘it is okay not to be okay’ is out there and companies recognise that,” Montlake said.
He continued: “We can’t afford for this to just be tokenistic. I want firms involved who are actually going to do something and are truly committed to following the ideals and the guidelines. Mental health is something that you can’t afford to be tokenistic about because that has serious consequences.”
