Alexforbes Offshore

Runner-up: Best Medium Business

Can you give us a brief overview of your business?

As Alexforbes Offshore celebrates its 50th anniversary in Jersey this year, we are proud to have been a long-term partner for our clients, helping to make a positive impact on their financial futures. We advise individual clients how to make better long-term financial plans, and we support companies by helping to design and administer their employee benefits packages and engage with their people to provide financial well-being. We are the offshore arm of the Alexforbes Group which is headquartered in Johannesburg, the largest pension fund administrators and largest multi-manager in Africa. Our investment teams in South Africa and Jersey are supported by our strategic partner, Mercer, to help select, blend and monitor the investments for our clients.

What have you learnt from entering Jersey’s Best Workplace?

We are going through a period of change, and fundamental to that is ensuring that our staff are with us on that journey. The survey provided valuable and timely insights about how that transition is affecting our colleagues’ wellbeing and their understanding of, and interaction with, our plans.

Why was it important to you to enter the competition?

We recognise that our employees are the most valuable asset to our business and it gave us the opportunity to listen to, and act on, critical feedback from them. We also wanted to assess how our business is doing in comparison with other similar-sized businesses in Jersey. We believe this is a valuable survey for all Jersey employers to undertake to receive insights from their people. We supported this initiative in the hope and expectation that it will develop and grow.

How will you use the feedback gained to shape Alexforbes in the future?

The feedback will formulate our people strategy and action plan. Of particular interest was the insight into how our employees feel on a Monday morning. This has provided us with a useful barometer, and we will be incorporating a similar question into our one-to-one meetings. The world of work is changing rapidly, and all employees and managers need to evolve and adapt their working practices and attitudes. It is only by receiving regular feedback that business leaders can work with their employees to create the best working environment.