Steph
Budge

Who I help

Anyone from small businesses to large corporates.

How I help

Implementation and ongoing administration of client’s employee benefits packages.

“I aim to achieve the best outcome for my clients.”

Steph Budge is an Employee Benefits Manager. Based in our Aberdeen office she supports clients to ensure their benefits packages are competitive and that the packages they have are fit for purpose for their current and future workforce.

Steph helps clients to design bespoke benefits packages that enable her clients to attract and retain talent. This might be pensions, life and income protection insurance, private medical and dental insurance. For Steph, delivering for her clients is the number one priority.

Delivering peace of mind

“I am to deliver peace of mind for my clients. I utilise my knowledge and expertise to assist them with creating employee benefits packages that will deliver for them. In turn, this gives them the ability to focus on other areas of their business knowing their employees will be taken care of. The first step is always getting to know the client. We need to be able to understand their aims and objectives when it comes to the design and management of their employee benefits package so that we can create a package that ultimately helps them to achieve their goals.

Employee benefits can be so beneficial for businesses, not just to enable them to attract and retain talent, they also aid businesses in creating more inclusive and positive work cultures which supports the health of the company as a whole. Being able to assist with this and know, even though I’m supporting with only one aspect, is so rewarding.”

Every day is different.

“I work with a  diverse range of clients across a variety of industries. As a result, each client is truly different – which is amazing. The variety of my role means that no two days are ever the same. We get to make a real impact and deliver value for our clients. A robust and effective employee benefits package has the people within the organisation at the heart of it all – you really get to know clients, their businesses, and their people. It’s such a great opportunity to build strong relationships and really showcase just how important employee benefits are.”

Sharing knowledge and experience

“In my role there’s a lot of cross functional working with other teams across this wonderful Group. This allows us to share knowledge and expertise and across departments. It also helps us to provide the excellent service that we strive for. Being able to learn from your colleagues and use that knowledge in the pursuit of client goals is great. I believe it’s something that makes us unique as a group and stand out from the rest. A client might be seeking advice about employee benefits, but they have a question about another aspect of their business. I might not have the answer – and that’s okay. We work with over 1000+ experts so I can be safe in the knowledge that someone else will have the answer and clients really appreciate that.”

Ensuring the best outcome

“In my role there is a level of assertiveness that is required. I always aim to achieve the best possible outcome for my clients so that often means negotiating with benefit providers to ensure they’re getting the best deal. Saving them money while ensure I meet their needs and provide them with the benefits they need”.

Overcoming challenges with knowledge

“Working in the Northeast of Scotland, a number of our clients are in the oil and gas sector. This can sometimes create a challenge as it means catering to a predominantly offshore workforce. The high-risk nature of the industry and the areas they work within adds to that challenge. However, our team have great depth of experience and knowledge supporting clients within these sectors so we’re able to utilise our prior experience working with different clients to provide them with examples and show what has worked previously so we can tailor it to what this client needs.”

Looking to the future

“The growth of the group in recent years has been incredible. I’m really excited to see where that growth takes us – what we’re able to achieve and how we’re able to turn that growth into amazing opportunities that come from working within an innovative and diverse workforce.”

More than pensions

“There’s a common misconception that all we do is pensions. That is just one aspect of what we do – there’s actually so much more to employee benefits and so much value in them as well. I think people underestimate how beneficial having a diverse range of employee benefits is for their business. For businesses to grow, they need the right people in the right roles and employee benefits can help with this. The effect having the right people in the door has, creates a positive culture where employees are more motivated to do a good job because they’re incentivised and as a result the business can thrive. All of that can’t just come from pensions.”