The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Give to Gain’, encouraging generosity and collaboration because when women thrive, we all thrive. I wanted to take the time to look at how this is built into the way we do things at Jacksons.
But first let me share why celebrating International Women’s Day is important to me. I am someone who needs a little more confidence and self-belief, and because of this I surround myself with strong women to help shine a light on the path forward and believe they should be celebrated for the way I am motivated and inspired by them. Sharon says that I bring a ‘beautiful energy and light to the world and that I should always try and let more people see it’. So here it is, my first article and me showing up for those other women and hopefully paying it forward a little.
We have many inspiring women throughout our organisation, Sharon leads from the top with heart and authenticity, promoting the other women at Jacksons with kindness and strength. Our insightful advisers Demi and Collen are vastly knowledgeable, always happy to answer a question or explain a process and are so keen to lift up their colleagues. Our Paraplanners Zoe and Claire are tenacious, ambitious and hilarious. My fellow CRM team, Amy, Carrie, Rhea, Tegen, Tracey and Zoe, are the definition of givers. They will gladly share their time, knowledge and expertise. Collaborators all and full of fresh ideas on how to define their roles. Kate, our new Marketing team member, is incredibly creative and brings a fresh energy to the team.
Lifting women up is at the forefront of our minds at Jacksons. In an industry dominated by men and a society where women often aren't encouraged to take control of their finances, we want to be different. We want to empower women with the knowledge and skills to manage their own finances, to achieve what they wish and whilst we know money may not buy happiness, it does buy freedom. The more women we can give this freedom to, the more they gain - and the more we all gain in turn.
And we don’t just talk the talk, we ensure we have women in our senior leadership team, as financial planners, from different backgrounds, trained up from within Jacksons and given the support and tools they need to become empowered and in turn empower other women.
We encourage (but don’t pressure) the team to take on any self-improvement courses they wish, any exams, CPD to give them every opportunity to grow and achieve whatever they wish – no dream is too big at Jacksons!
Supporting the women in our team doesn’t just mean when they are at work, but in their personal lives too. Any woman in the team who wishes to have children is supported with an industry-leading maternity leave package so they can spend as much time as possible with their newborns. We currently offer six months full pay followed by three months half pay and a phased return to work beyond the standard “Keeping In Touch” days and setting your new work schedule around Motherhood. We want to make it easy for our females to return to themselves and their career! This is also extended to paternity leave of a month but with the option to blend it together with holiday to extend even longer, allowing as much support to the new family as best we can.
But we know that we can do more – and we want to do more. We want to support women who are up and coming in the industry, as we know it can be hard to break into such a male-dominated world. We also want to support women in the community with our future open days and workshops to empower them with their finances.
There are no limits placed on you here, we want our women to be everything they want to be and we will support it in every way we can. We are proud of every woman in our team, because together (under Sharon’s expert leadership) we have built a community of strong women who consistently lift each other up.
If you want to hear more about the amazing work Sharon has done to build Jacksons into the powerhouse it is, she will be attending the TedXPortowan International Women’s Day event on Sunday 8th March at Mount Pleasant Eco Park, (the event is sold out, you can get tickets to view the event online, so you don’t even have to be in Cornwall (if you’re unlucky like that).
She has also been asked to speak at the Timeline 3.0 conference in London May 14th. More than that though, if you want to find out any more about women in financial services please drop her an email and she is always happy to chat.