HR director Caroline Bixby explains what makes professional services a highly sought-after career choice, and why Scrutton Bland is proud to have recently received a gold accreditation from the Best Employers Eastern Region programme.

Professional services has had a traditional reputation as being static, impersonal and, well, a bit boring. Modern professional services, however, are people-centric, disciplined, dynamic, and very rewarding, both in terms of your total reward and the knowledge that you can really make a difference to clients and colleagues.

As you would expect, you will be required to train in your professional specialism to a high standard. You will be supported as you study for your qualifications in terms of practical support, time off, help and guidance, and your colleagues will be able to offer you the benefit of their experience to help you to achieve your qualifications. It is a respected and regulated sector, so you need to be accurate, analytical and rigorous in your work.

If you’ve decided that professional services sounds interesting – why should you choose Scrutton Bland? Well, we’ve been based in East Anglia for more than 100 years and aim to give our employees a real sense of belonging. As a mid-sized firm we offer a range of services to our clients, from insurance broking, tax advice and accounting to guidance on digital financial systems, corporate finance like management buyouts and company valuations, and other advisory work to help businesses thrive and grow.

We all come from quite varied backgrounds, and we encourage diversity as we believe this gives us an opportunity and advantage to look at things differently.

For people joining the firm from school or university, we will help you work towards the qualifications you need, whilst involving you in the day-to-day operations of the business. Business advisory assistant manager Jenny Binder did work experience with us before joining the firm full time in 2011. She went on to do her ACCA exams, and now manages a portfolio of clients with a net worth of circa £300,000 from our Ipswich office.

Jenny said: “Accountancy work is about problem solving and using initiative. It’s challenging and no two days are the same. For me it’s the people that make the difference and how we support each other. Scrutton Bland has provided me with opportunities to develop my career from a school leaver to an assistant manager and continue to support my development through training and coaching schemes with a great network of like-minded colleagues.”

Our gold accreditation in the 2021 Best Employers Eastern Region programme is a very public recognition for our colleagues that we are committed in investing in them now and in the future. Our work in learning, development, personal growth, inclusion and diversity as well as employee wellbeing, reward and recognition all supports our understanding of what we as a firm believe is important.

It ensures we continuously focus on trying to ensure Scrutton Bland feels like its a great place to work, we are absolutely committed to an ongoing review, listening as a group and adjusting as we go. That means that we are moving towards a way of working where everyone knows what is expected of them and what they can expect from the organisation.

The past 18 months have shown us all the importance of feeling cared for, and that you matter. We will listen to you and help you to grow as an individual, balancing that individuality with the collective demands of the business. We don’t always get it right, but we do try our best to listen and if we mess up, we put our hands up and try harder.

And outside work? We make a particular effort to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to meet up regularly, whether that’s rounders or football matches, quiz nights or country walks. Those that laugh together and feel comfortable to have fun together, build trust with each other, which is so important in all we do.

We also support our local community through volunteering days, fundraising activities, pro bono work for charities and many staff are trustees of charities and charitable trusts.

If you’d like to know more please take a look at our website where you’ll see details of our current vacancies, or give us a call on 0330 058 6559.