It’s a familiar story at this point – a young man or woman is at a career crossroads and unsure of what they want to do next, and they fall into insurance. Drawn in by the people-driven nature of the sector the young person takes to their role like a duck to water and forges a successful and varied career path.
That is the route that Ritchie Jones (pictured), sales and marketing manager of Gravity Risk Services, took into insurance broking when he joined Heath Lambert (as it was known then) 13 years ago. It was a great experience, he said, and he stayed for six and a half years working on several different schemes and projects. He then decided he wanted to swap a corporate environment for an independent broking role, and he joined Gravity almost seven years ago when it was still in its relative infancy.
“It has been a busy seven years,” he said. “When I joined, we had only been trading for about 18 months and we had four members of staff. Now we’re up to 25 in our Stourbridge office, with a total of 30 including our home workers.”
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The Gravity team recently received a hefty boost to its personnel, onboarding three new recruits to a variety of positions. It’s all part of the plan for the broking and risk advisory business, Jones noted, which has a 15-year blueprint which it is following as closely as external circumstances will allow. The business has reached the point in its growth where it needs the support of an SME executive and a new business manager and, as part of the government’s Kickstarter Scheme, it has also onboarded a marketing assistant.
“Our foot is very much on the pedal,” he said. “While last year, we had to step back a little bit, and of course COVID impacted that but also, we had acquired a local broker’s book back in 2019 so we’ve had to take stock and make sure that was integrated successfully. But now our plan is one of growth and our ambition is to get to £15 million GWP by that 15-year mark.
“We’ve mapped that out and it’s something we’re all completely committed to achieving. We’re now well on that journey and pretty much halfway to that target as well – so it is achievable and tangible rather than a distant point of view.”
What underpins Gravity’s commercial success and the strong customer relationships that it prides itself on is the culture of the firm and the values that its team holds dear. That’s a huge part of why the brokerage boasts such strong customer feedback, Jones said, and it is reflected in the internal surveys carried out among the team who reiterate that their working environment feels like a family one.
At the core of Gravity is the idea that the whole team pulls together, he said, and when people are not of that mindset it becomes clear very quickly. On boarding the right person, who fits the culture of the business, is more important to the management team than hiring somebody solely for their experience or qualifications. Experience can be gained and qualifications can be earned but it is significantly more difficult to change an internal mindset.
Jones said that he has seen how this focus on values has heightened the worth of Gravity to its clients because everybody has been impacted by the COVID crisis and seen for themselves the value of having an insurance broker be there for them in times of distress. The fact that the team was able to get itself together very quickly when the lockdowns struck and establish and maintain regular and personable contact with clients, despite the changed working conditions has been reflected in its renewal retention rates.
“They recognise that we were there in their hour of need and working alongside them,” he said. “And the general feedback from clients has been that they have really valued our input during what has been a strange time for everyone. And I think it helps a little bit when you are an independent and not a big global broker because you have had the same kind of concerns that they’re going through at that point. And I think you can really relate to them on a different level.”
