About Skipton Financial Services

Andrew Barker joined SFS over 22 years ago as their Technical Manager and has subsequently worked his way up to become Managing Director in 2011. Due to his experience of working in SFS, Andrew has extensive knowledge of the whole business and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by staff in each area. With this in mind, he maintains open engagement with his staff at all levels and has launched many innovative staff engagement initiatives such as License to Grill where staff can ‘grill’ him in team meetings and License to Chuck. Andrew is committed to attend every Financial Planning Manager Roadshow nationwide and is a guest at department team meetings once a year. He also holds quarterly business update briefings to all HO staff and issues a monthly update email with his personal thoughts. Upon his appointment to MD, he abolished the MD’s private office and remains seated with his colleagues. Andrew asked for this room to be used for study purposes to help staff who want to gain further qualifications to enhance their career. Andrew is well liked by many staff due to his ability to engage with people on all levels. Whilst he is already well respected for his knowledge of the business, he is well known for encouraging a ‘fun element’ to working for SFS by organising many staff events and competitions and with his references to popular culture, which he often demonstrates in his presentations to staff.  At previous conferences, Andrew has taken part in a comedy video and the outtakes often sees him at the end of a joke, and for this, amongst many other things he does, he is respected by staff for not taking himself too seriously and they see him as very approachable.

Financial Planning Manager and Head Office working groups are groups that represent views of all regional teams and Head Office teams to act as a sounding board and help implement new initiatives. These groups have been responsible for the implementation of many new activities to make working life better at SFS.  Every quarter briefings are run for Head Office staff by senior management to give an update to all staff on what is going on within the business. It demonstrates the values in which the business is run on and keeps everyone informed of how the business is performing and what its key priorities are. 

The single best example of a community initiative is Skipton's Charity Challenge. Their aim was to raise £50,000 as a company for their two chosen charities of the year - IDAS and SELFA. Rather than just encouraging their staff to take part in fundraising events, they invited them to take part in a ten week fitness programme which included the well-known fitness sessions ‘spinning’ and ‘body pump’. These sessions are open to all staff and, to encourage the highest participation possible, the sessions take place in work time and are funded by the company, allowing employees to get fitter and then eventually raise money for good causes without having to give up their valuable spare time. 67 out of 202 took part in the ten week programme and then all went on to take part in a physical challenge. Challenges included their 26 mile walk/run, the Yorkshire Three Peaks, The Yorkshire Dales Cycle Way - 130 miles and their Head Office Cycling challenge of cycling double the distance of the UK route of the Tour de France. As a result so far in 2014 they have raised £42,000 for IDAS and SELFA with more fundraising events yet to come for the rest of the year! The two charities of the year are currently: Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS) – Formerly known as Craven Domestic Violence which was founded in 2000, and becoming IDAS in 2011, this charity provides comprehensive support services to all males or females experiencing or affected by domestic abuse, including the affect domestic abuse has on children, working in the Craven, York, Harrogate, Hambleton and Richmondshire areas.