From working in the mailroom, Michelle Bannister has progressed all the way to a senior executive – head of distribution role, thanks to her hard work and the opportunities presented to her at La Trobe Financial.
Read more: Inspiring women to reach the pinnacle
Bannister shared about how she and La Trobe Financial have inspired women to reach the pinnacle at work.
At La Trobe Financial, employing females has always been a focus. The number of women entering its workspace remains steady and is holding at close to par with the number of men.
“Opportunities are available to everyone – period,” Bannister said. “If you can prove yourself, and you do the work, the job is yours. In recent times, we have experienced an extremely high calibre of females joining us, often coming out of larger corporate organisations where in some cases they tell us they feel that they lost sight of their future career path and felt more like a number with a limited voice.”
Bannister said that unlike 20 years ago, when a typical broker was a mature-aged man, today younger men and women have become brokers – and that “has helped the transition to a greater level of acceptance of females in the industry and a greater deal of respect.”
Bannister said the industry has also come a long way in accepting and promoting women. She, herself, has helped people succeed by mentoring and assisting them in finding leadership opportunities.
Bannister also said that “as much as it’s a juggle and a balance and hard work,” women shouldn’t give up on their career just because they have children. At La Trobe Financial, three state managers are mums.
The company also has a female majority across sales leadership roles – evidence of its meritorious culture.
“I feel that we’re set up well to provide even more opportunity for our staff, because the people under the state managers are going, ‘OK, there’s a stepping stone for me. How do I get there? I want that job,’” Bannister said.
Bannister said promotion and messaging via industry bodies is needed to show women how broking has changed and now offers work-life balance in order to boost female broker numbers.
“The way in which a broker was expected to operate 10 to 15 years ago, being nine-to-five minimum in an office five days per week, is no longer the same now. Therefore, it can appeal more to females, because as long as you’ve got your laptop and phone with you, you can be flexible around your hours,” Bannister said. “Digitisation of documents and the move towards more online processes have enabled us to become borderless and able to operate from the kitchen table if we need to. This can be of great appeal to working mums and should be promoted.”
When it comes to La Trobe Financial helping female brokers, Bannister said, “we feel that our program caters well for all brokers, regardless of gender, to try new products and learn new skills, and have specifically engineered our products to do so... We are able to provide a very hands-on approach with training and spend the time with brokers to empower them to ensure they have a high level of confidence to play in this niche market.”
