My Perfect Broker Week: Taveo’s Ed Halsey

What constitutes the ideal start to your working week?

My ideal start to the week normally begins on the Sunday evening. I like to take 30 mins reviewing where we ended the previous week and prioritising what needs to happen next, so that I can hit the ground running on Monday morning.

After I set the wheels in motion, I’ll then spend a lunch break – and I maintain that it’s vital for people to take one – getting some exercise. Since I re-prioritised my health and fitness, I’ve noticed a huge increase to my productivity, quality of life and brain health.

In terms of working in the office to home/other, what does your working week now look like?

We tend to work remotely on the whole, but with a weekly catch-up in our London base.

Attendance for staff is usually optional, unless they specfically need to be there for something, but we’ve seen an increasing desire for people to come and work among their peers, albeit with a clear desire not to revert to office working.

What does a productive in-person, in-office meeting with your own team look like to you?

First things first – does it even need to be a meeting? Clichéd as it may be, too often companies call meetings that could have been emails or group messages. It’s really important that we determine that “a meeting” is the more impactful way to solve the specific task we’re meeting for.

Beyond that, a clear agenda, sticking to timings and be respectful of diaries and a clear set of action points being issued thereafter are all vital components.

What does a productive in-person, in-office meeting with an insurer partner look like to you?

The key word for me here is pro-activity. Everybody’s time is valuable, and I am grateful to insurer partners who are clear on why we are meeting, and proactively come to us with problems, opportunities and points for discussion.

Gone are the days of account managers popping in for a cup of tea to get their call numbers up – we want to sit and have meaningful discussions about things that push the needle forward for both sides. That can only be achieved with proactivity, clear agendas and preparation.

What does an ideal lunch break look like to take your mind off the day job?

I don’t think their is an ideal lunch break per se, for everybody that’ll be different. For me, it’s often about headspace and taking that time to clear my head and reprioritise.

I tend to use it these days to exercise, prepare a proper lunch, or simply go for a walk around the block so that I can come back in the afternoon re-energised.

A big win for me was when I took more time to prepare my food for the week, soI could spend my lunch break relaxing and not scrambling around to find something to eat.

We all know that evening meet-ups are important for networking. What is the best after-work event you have recently attended?

Escape rooms. They’re my absolute favourite team activity. Everybody’s brains work differently, and it’s fascinating to see those differing skill sets come together to solve problems in a fun setting.

Team bonding is also key to a successful broking business. What have you found is a successful way to keep team spirits up?

I think it’s even more difficult when you consider the remote nature of our business, and it means we have to be super-disciplined in ensuring that we maintain focus on this.

Our approach is to get the team together regularly to celebrate our successes as a team, and when we have more than three or four people together from the team, we always encourage them to spend time with one another socially, and not just in a work setting.

It’s very rare that the team find themselves together and don’t choose, of their own accord, to spend time together once the working day is done.

Have you had a ‘workation’?

Workations aren’t for me, personally. I like to have clear lines between work and home life, and be entirely present in the one I’m currently focused on.

I can understand the notion of perhaps working in a new setting, but that inherently comes with compromises. I also think it’s a dangerous path to go down when you start combining work and home life – where does the line get drawn?

What would the ideal ‘workation’ look like for you?

If I was forced to take one, it’d probably be somewhere with huge windows overlooking the sea down in Cornwall. Having grown up by the sea, I feel at peace when I’m by the ocean.

On a Friday evening, how do you like to wind down after a busy week?

Wind down? Our week is just getting started at that point! With an active footballing family, weekends are all about getting our son to his football matches and training.

We’re lucky to have a wonderful team with warm, friendly parents, so that has become a big chunk of our social life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. On the rare weeks we get off, it’d probably be a Chinese meal followed by a family movie night.

Ed will be part of the panel Friend or foe? How can the broker community integrate and capitalise on artificial intelligence (AI) tools? at Broker Expo on 12 October at the NEC Birmingham.

To join him, click here.