How Severn Mortgage & Protect used My Group to overcome challenging recruitment conditions and really differentiate their reward package
- Hybrid and renote workers across the UK
- Financial services / mortgage broking
- Challenge: Recruitment differentiation and scalable recognition
- Outcomes: Retention, engagement, recruitment edge
The business
Severn Mortgage & Protect is a mortgage and protection brokerage based in Shrewsbury, with seventeen people spread across hybrid and remote working arrangements.
Rob Brookes is the Business Principal, and as is often the case in a growing professional services firm, the person responsible for pretty much everything, including how the business recruits, retains and rewards its people.
The challenge
Recruiting into financial services has its own particular pressures. The roles require specific qualifications and experience, and because a great deal of the work can be done remotely, the competition for recruitment is not just local, but national. Severn Mortgage & Protect was competing for candidates against businesses of every size from every part of the country.
“It’s very easy to keep throwing money at people, or at least to talk about numbers. But it’s much harder to make that financially viable in the long term,” Rob explains. “We wanted to add something extra – a way of making the overall package more attractive and make people’s money go further.”
At this time, the business had grown beyond the point where informal, ad hoc recognition was enough. With a small team, it’s easy to buy everyone an Amazon voucher or a one-off treat. With people spread across different locations and the team growing year on year, it just wasn’t enough. Recognition needs structure, consistency and something that can keep up with the pace of the business.
“We wanted to differentiate ourselves and add value to what we were offering. My Staff Shop gave us the opportunity to make people’s pounds go further, and to reward and recognise them in a way that actually feels professional.”
Rob Brookes, Business Principal, Severn Mortgage & Protect
Why My Group
For Rob, the decision came down to two things: the discounts and the recognition capability. The platform offered a practical way to make salaries stretch at a time when cost of living pressures were increasing rapidly. The Reward Beans recognition tool gave Severn Mortgage & Protect a structured, professional alternative to the ad hoc approach they had been managing with.
“The breadth of what’s on the platform is enormous,” Rob says. “I looked at the holiday offering the other week and even as a pretty engaged user, I was blown away by how many tour operators are on there. You don’t have to look through a narrow window to find savings, it really is a huge range.”
The Rollout and ongoing support
Four years in, the support from the My Group team is high on the list of what Rob credits the most. It has never been a case of signing up and being left to get on with it.
“The support has been brilliant. There are always ideas about how we can grow and improve things. It feels like a partnership rather than a service we pay for and then forget about.”
Severn Mortgage & Protect also introduced a ‘My Group Champion’ internally: a colleague whose job is to keep the platform in people’s minds, share what’s available and talk about what others have been saving on. It creates an extra point of connection for a team that is spread across locations.
“It gives us another opportunity to have a different conversation with people, to remind them of the benefits of being here, talk about what others have used the platform for, and keep that sense of belonging in the team even when people are working remotely.”
The impact
Isolating the exact contribution of a benefits platform to business outcomes is never straightforward, and Rob is candid about that. Retention, engagement and culture are the result of many elements working cohesively together. What he is clear about is that My Group plays a meaningful part in all three.
• Staff retention: Severn Mortgage & Protect has a settled, consistent team. People are staying.
“Retention and engagement are not just about how much you pay someone. There’s always going to be someone willing to offer more. It’s about adding value that people genuinely appreciate and assign a worth to themselves.”
Rob believes My Group is a meaningful contributor to that.
• Recruitment differentiation: In a remote-friendly sector where candidates can work from anywhere, a benefits package that goes beyond salary stands out. My Group is part of how Severn Mortgage & Protect introduces itself to candidates and positions the business as a more attractive employer than salary numbers alone would suggest.
• Structured recognition: Reward Beans now plays a central role in the business’s annual awards. What was previously an ad hoc voucher or gift has become a structured, visible part of the company’s recognition culture.
“It looks far better, it’s far easier to manage, and it gives consistency for everybody across the team.”
• Day-to-day financial wellbeing: The discount platform has become the default way many team members approach their everyday spending.
“It’s not about encouraging people to spend more. It’s about being rewarded for what you’re going to do anyway. From booking a holiday to picking up a Greggs at lunchtime. It’s all on there and it’s all talked about.”
• Low absenteeism and strong productivity: Severn Mortgage & Protect describes itself as one of the most productive teams in the wider network it operates within. Rob is clear not to attribute this to a single factor, but My Group forms part of their culture that supports people turning up, staying engaged and doing good work.
A platform that goes further than the team
One of the more distinctive things about how Severn Mortgage & Protect uses My Group is that they have taken it well beyond their own team; it has become a business development tool in its own right.
Their introducer partners, estate agents and other businesses who refer mortgage clients to them, now have access to the platform. It gives those partners access to the savings and benefits, which in turn strengthens the relationship further and keeps Severn Mortgage & Protect front of mind.
They have also extended access to customers. Buying a home or remortgaging is one of the most expensive things most people go through. Being able to offer a platform that delivers genuine savings at that moment makes their proposition meaningfully attractive.
“We definitely see the value and we don’t want to keep it a secret,” Rob says. “It’s an extra reason for customers to remember us, to come back to us for their next remortgage and for partners to continue recommending us.”
Part of a people strategy that has grown with the business
Rob reflects on how his business’s approach to people and benefits has matured alongside the organisation itself. When the business started, the priority was compliance: the right contracts, the right procedures, paying people on time. Those things still matter, but the question has shifted to “how do we make this a genuinely good place to work?”.
My Group sits at the centre of the answer. All benefits, from the discount platform, Reward Beans, private medical and more, are easily accessible and in one place. It gives employees a clearer picture of the full value of what they receive and makes it easier for Severn Mortgage & Protect to talk honestly about their overall offering when speaking to potential employees.
“It’s helped us to offer a more structured, more professional, more consistent benefits package. I think that helps with the value people assign to working here.”
“We’ve seen genuine improvement in retention, a more engaged team, and a far more professional approach to how we reward and recognise the people here. My Group has grown with us and so has the value we get from it. If you’re on the fence, I’d say just do it. The value that people assign to it and the impact that has on your team makes it a very straightforward decision.”
Rob Brookes, Business Principal, Severn Mortgage & Protect
“What Severn Mortgage & Protect shows is that a benefits platform can do far more than the obvious. They started by wanting to attract better candidates and recognise their team more professionally. Four years later they’re using My Group as a customer retention and partner engagement tool too. That’s the kind of creative, committed use that only comes when a business genuinely explores what the platform can do, and from a relationship built on more than just a monthly account.”
Jamie Keeling, Group Sales Director, My Group
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Last Updated: 29th October 2026
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Published: 26th Oct 2026