A typical day for me start with getting to work, greeting the people that I've come to know and love for the last 8 years.
I log in into our system and start my work. Tea times and lunch time I normally take a walk with my neighbour and have a chat while going to the shops and shopping together.
When its time to go home we greet and wish each other well and go home.
I am learning new things every day with the kind of work that I do. I've learned that although you as an individual have your own responsibility, we are also part of a bigger picture. When a colleague ask for help. I help myself by helping them.
My co-workers is like my family away from my family. We share each other's sadness and each other's happiness.
The hardest part of my job is informing our clients that I cannot pay the funds into their bank account sooner than they needed. Especially when our clients need it due to an emergency.
The most enjoyable part of my job is getting that urgent request. Seeing the need that our client have. Then doing everything in my power to get the request done as soon as possible. Especially when our client need the funds for a personal reason like medical reasons or a death in the family. After all the struggle, phoning that client and informing them that the pay-out is done. The gratitude in their voices is reward enough.
I also enjoy assisting my fellow colleagues. I strive to help people. Seeing them struggle and stress is not nice. You
The deaprtment - disability claims are very demanding and you have to be able to put in more hours thats required of you-without extra pay
A typical day would start around 8h00 in the morning, your "post - work for the day" will be handed to your by your supervisor. You have a 10-day turnaround time to provide feedback to all your clients or brokers. During the day you will also have to deal with disability claimants making enquiries about their benefits payable or they require a payslip or proof of income. You will have to prioritise your duties as you receive new applications for disability and some of the applications would include trauma or dread disease, lump sum disability and monthly income continuation claims. You require a broad understanding of all these contracts or benefits to be able to assist client. You need to be able to assist your co-workers should they require your assistance with perhaps a difficult client or not fulle comprehending a policy. The toughest part of the job is when a claim is declined and you need to translate to the client as to the reason why should they not be able to understand. The part when a client calls you back to thank you for the great job you have done with the claim of a loved one is by far the best part of the job. Management would also form part of your day as to when they have their own requirements as to "squeeze" in a very important client's claim - then its time to take action and deliver asap.
ProsTo be handle to have fun while your also performing your duties
ConsYou have to be willing, put in extra hours, to deliver, demanding than others - not necessarily a con.
Company that create opportunities to grow individually
I was afforded various opportunities to grow myself by hard work and accepting every challenge that came my way. The company allowed me to grow in the business fraternity as I served on various business and public forums such as SAPOA, Vice Chairman of the Afrikaans Chamber of Commerce, I represented Sanlam Properties at the Peace Committees during the build up to the 1994 inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first elected black president of SA.
Whilst in East London, I got the company to sponsor a conference in conjunction with SAPOA to meet with some of core group of American who had changed The Bronx in New York to a small Disney World where people could walk about freely, enjoying restaurants and many other activities. The core of the success in The Bronx was the buy in of property owners whom contributed a special levy from which the area was managed by a core group of as well as people supplying all essential services like security and cleaning etc.
I have also amongst my general leasing responsibilities negotiated long term leases with The Special Heath Investigating Unit (PWD- 4784/m2 for 10 years), the Local Council who leased five floors of office space from us also in East London and various other big leasing contacts with national tenants.
In conclusion the company create opportunities for growth, one must identify this and take up every challenge that comes your way
Enterprise Architect: This role has helped me focus beyond the technical expertise as I gain a phenomenal experience in managing the application roadmaps through portfolio management, and help the business achieve its mission, optimise business processes, and ensuring that the business adopts the IT trends, which includes agility, new technology plartforms such as cloud, and help improve the value chain by trying to focus on value streams which add value to the business.
Solutions Architect: I provide IT solutions and ensure that the solution fits within the enterprise context. I get involved from the project inception to provide costing (for project budgeting), assist with high level design ensuring architectural suitability, become part of the project life cycle to provide a complete end-to-end solution. I provide direction in the overall solution by liasing with the business and technical stakeholders.
Culture: Friendly people. The work bulding is people centric with shops and neccessary amenities. People have strong values of professionalism, yet have fun culture.
Challenges: Dealing with multiple-stakeholders, particulalry the senior executives from both IT and Business is sometimes a challenge. They both have strategic targets and often impose certain contraints and processes. Please all my stakeholders at once can be a challenge.
ProsGreat working environment, flexible work times, challeging job
ConsHighly structured and too much red tape, less innovation
Great environment to apply my skills and learn about business solutions and challenges.
A typical day at work for me wouls start at 09:00AM. I would be checking my emails and calendar for meetings for the day. We would have a stand-up meeting about the days work ahead, usually lasting about 15 mins.
I learned towork in a very organised corporate environment and how to analyse business requirements and to develope the best solution.
Management is good, I am responsible for managing my time and to be productive enough to deliver solutions on-time.We use Agile/Scrum/sprint project management.
Workplace culture is formal, but friendly and relaxed with emphasis on supporting the business's requirements and to learn about the bussiness and industry.
Hardest part of the job for me is to keep everybody happy. The worload is extremely heavy, however I've been praised by my manager for exceptional performance in spite of the hectic demands and requirements from the business.
The most enjoyable part of my job is the sattisfaction I get when deploying a solution that the bueinsess is happy with and being praised for how much the solution I've developed have improved their productivity and business proccesses.
ProsSubsidised lunches, staff get-togethers on Fridays. Informal dress code on Fridays.
ConsShort breaks due to heavy workload and lots of overtime, although I was never asked to do overtime, however it was neccesary for me to meet the demands.
Professional and vibrant environment with potential to learn
A typical day at my workplace is firstly logging in to five systems that I work on.
I then go Postbook and review the new cases that came in.
once my teamleader had delegated my work, I start printing my request sheet and also I will print my policy copies and see what the policy looks like and write on "before record adjustments" to indicate to other parties.
I then will do my adjustments eg. consolidations, Pension interests, Currency switches, One medical plans, etc.
I will print all the pages to show where adjustments has been made, I will then mark and sign and put the date stamp on it.
I will send my work via Post book to my checker and I will then check my work that my colleagues sends me.
I will also deal with other queries and liase with other department via email to ensure the workflow is moving in a steady rhythm.
Will also deal with email queries and make sure all my work is correct and my SLA is met.
I do +- 50 cases a day - production and +- 40 checking cases per day.
Our work is a lot everyday and I'm constantly busy and dealing with cases and adjustments.
I do calculations to various policies where Premiums should increase or decrease according to the contract and we do bridging cases as well.
I have a lot of experience in the Actuary dept. and I've worked in the Call centre as well for a year or more doing customer care and generating leads.
Sanlam Private Investments is a Stock Broking Company member of the JSE limited
I'm a people person.I really enjoy meeting and working with a lot of different people.I pay attention to all the details,and like to be sure that everything is just right.I react to situation,rather tha to stress.I actually work better under pressure and i've found that i enjoy working in a challenging environment.I find a past pace to be invigorating and thrive when the pressure is on.I've done some of my best work under tight deadlines,where the atmospherewas very stressful.I'm the kind of person who stays calm under pressure,handles stress fairly easily.I enjoy the people i work with,is a friendly and fun atmosphere and i actually enjoy going to work each morning.The leadership team is great as well.One of the reasons is that i feel that i'm not challenged enough at the job.The company offers a great opportunity for a good entry level position,howeverafter being there for so many years i feel i am not able to reach my full potential because of the lack of challenge and there is no room for advancement in the company.I feel my skill set can be better utilized elsewhere ,where mu capabilities is more recognized and there is the opportunity for growth.I like the fact that management dont show favoritismand they are understanding of employees needs as well as their strength
Follow up on all current and previous day emails
Contact all clients on my database that have a birthday
Lookup and follow up with new leads-Prospecting
Phone prospective clients to arrange appointments
Visit clients for the day where I have made appointments already
Preparing for each visit make sure I have all the relevant documentation for my visits
I have done an very tough and intensive training course at Sanlam which involves a pre-requisite training you have to achieve at least 75% to pass. There after a 4 week extensive training with exam as Level 1 to Financial Planning. During my time with Sanlam it is compulsory to attend study school every Friday at Head Office for a whole day of training in the different products. I am accredited to sell Long term insurance, wills, collective investments and can do a holistic planning of individual financial needs and do a complete analysis with the information.
I was working in a small team of a Independent Franchise Blue Star firm in Paarl.
The biggest challenge for me was to source clients and to do pospecting.
The most rewarding part is to achieve my targets and to work for a goal.
ProsFree Lunch during training days, exposure to seminars and events
ConsLong hours, mostly after hours work sometimes until 9 in the evening
It was not much productive considering where the offices are situated is far from the clients. The products are a little unaffordable to many clients
Foresee and help clients with managing in regards to insurance(funeral, investments, life plans, etc) and deal with complains of clients to particular and different problems. Help with the claims and assisting with funeral arrangements. Helping the clients to make an informed decision in terms of their financial problems and solutions i offer. A typical day would be when clients fail their appointments, and when they miss their premiums. The hardest part of the job is when policies laps and the client can't be reached to pay, and you know in your heart that the client is nolonger covered and should anything happen to them or family members someone will point a finger at you. And when the policy lapses, that money is deducted from your salary. The most enjoyable part is you have done a grate job by helping a client to make an informed decision and know that their tomorrow is well taken care off, now they sign and you make money.
Prosnow and then the manager would take those who manages to be on target to lunch.
Consthe is no time for sicknesses because you don't work you don't make money, and your clients don't see you they lapse their policies and you owe the company
I pose over ten years of experience in Insurance, Customer Service industry and the skills and experience of an Administration which lead to me becoming Team Leader/Manager at Sanlam Group Risk.
My management experience includes managing a team of 8 people, supporting and upskilling the staff managing daily set goals. Assisting with weekly and monthly reporting on stats for senior management and well as exco reports. Assisting with projects such as the migration of business processes onto a new paperless system integrating the old and new platform onto a workflow process.
My objective as a Team Leader/Manager was to maximise customer satisfaction through quality service by ensuring that client queries and requests are resolved timeously and efficiently. Also to enhance and deliver superior customer service through ensuring ongoing satisfaction from the client and internal departments.
I'm an honest, trustworthy and hardworking individual that always strive to grow more. I get along well with individuals and adapt quite quickly to a new environment. I have taken on the tasks of assisting with company functions and events and in my spare time I have also done a few events for friends and family i.e birthdays, baby showers and also planning corporate functions.
Questions And Answers about Sanlam
What should you wear to an interview at Sanlam?
Asked 09 Apr 2017
Formal wear is the best, wear something you comfortable in and remember first impression always last.
Answered 26 Sept 2019
I will wear formal
Answered 24 Aug 2019
How did you feel about telling people you worked at Sanlam?
Asked 29 Mar 2017
I feel good
Answered 24 Aug 2019
Proud as it is one of the biggest companies in the country.
Answered 09 Jun 2019
Does Sanlam require background check? What kind of background check does Sanlam do and how long does Sanlam take to complete a background check?
Asked 27 Feb 2017
Credit and criminal checks took about a day
Answered 11 Mar 2019
Yes they do. They have a department that does criminal checks and verification on academics
Answered 09 Feb 2019
What are the perks offered by Sanlam?
Asked 23 Feb 2017
Staff pension
Answered 16 May 2019
Pension fund, group life and medical aid
Answered 20 Aug 2018
What questions did they ask during your interview at Sanlam?
Asked 23 May 2017
Disgraceful conduct by a young DM. Panel interview consisted of 2 people in a tiny room. Irrelevant questions asked.
