Hustle and Bustle - Working in the Ghana office
MEET THE AMAZING PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE AT BRIGHTER INVESTMENT
At Brighter Investment, our people are at the heart of what we do. Their unique personalities, perspectives, skills, and competencies have helped Brighter Investment grow in leaps and bounds over the last few years. And through the ups and downs; the victories and setbacks; the challenges and opportunities, every member of the team has remained committed to ensuring that every academically talented student in the world has access to quality higher education through Brighter Investment and our amazing investors who have seen and understood the need to make an impact in the world through education. They have provided the needed financial backing to put smiles on the faces of many and to ensure that the world is a better place because of them.
Propelled by in-depth gratitude to our investors and a passion to see our cohorts of amazing students succeed, the team at Brighter Investment has given their best and continues to improve on what they know to do best so that every investor and student will be proud to have been associated with Brighter Investment.
Now, it’s time to meet all the amazing people that are making a difference in the world through Brighter Investment:
Georgina - Our Charismatic Customer Relations Expert
Gina is BI's most people-driven team member, acting always as that glue that bonds the team together. Through her love for people and strength in building sustainable relationships, she has been able to ensure a stronger team spirit and coalescence among team members. As the Customer Relations Associate, she ensures that student inquiries are properly addressed and that students who begin the application process receive the required support to complete their applications quickly and seamlessly.
Alfred - Our Creative Marketing Strategist
Alfred is BI’s most eclectic team member. He interfaces the most with all departments of the company; providing value through design, communication support, and marketing experience. He is responsible for creating awareness about Brighter Investment and ensuring that student number targets are reached year in, and out. Thanks to Alfred’s creative eye, we now have a new look and feel to our website and have been able to update our style guide to match international standards.
Belinda - Our Smart Financial Expert
Belinda is considered BI's most proactive team member. You can always count on her to get things done the right way. Belinda is BI's Investor Relations Manager and doubles as the Chief Financial Officer. She ensures that BI gets more investors and that these investors are updated on their investments. She also makes sure that our accounting structures and processes are in line with universal best practices.
Joy - Our Determined Student Success Manager
Joy is the quiet implementer of the team. She is organized and the team can always count on her to get things done. Through her commitment to making things workable and better, she has created a mentorship program that caters to over 600 students and mentors at Brighter Investment. As the Student Success Manager, she manages our portfolio of students and ensures that they do well academically and are well prepared for the world of work and business.
Richard - Our Innovative Regional Manager
Richard is the deal-sealer of the team. Thanks to his relentlessness and passion to help as many students as possible, BI has the support of the Ghana Government and has MOUs signed with nine partner universities(All of which are top universities in Ghana). As Regional Manager and the team member in charge of collections, Richard ensures that the necessary structures are put in place to make repayments easy and less cumbersome for BI graduates.
Thijs - Our Visionary CEO
Thijs is the Visionary Leader of the team. He always sees the big picture and gets everyone to believe in it and work towards reaching the goals of the team. Through his commitment to excellence and to ensuring that investors get the value they signed up for, he has helped steer the team towards a path of continuous growth and helps the team be better and do better day after day. Thijs is BI's CEO and he's responsible for ensuring that the company succeeds.
Work at Brighter Investment has been an interesting journey for all team members. For Georgina, the most exciting thing of working from the office is: “I am always the first to get to the office, so I have the opportunity of welcoming the rest of the team and have a chance to put a smile on their faces with either a complement or tease with a Good morning smile.” She is eager to return to the office.
Belinda on the other hand, only had the opportunity to work with the team for two weeks before we had to close the office and work from home. According to her, although the time was short she misses the one on one interactions with colleagues during lunch and the chance to share ideas on other topics apart from work.
Working in close proximity with the team was something Joy looked forward to at the start of each week. According to her, ‘it was always wonderful to connect with everyone at the start of each week and especially during team meetings.’ These meetings, she opined, served as a reminder of what the team hoped to achieve now and in the future and provided a compass on what each team member’s path in achieving this goal was.
Thijs works remotely from Canada the majority of the time (over 10,000km from Ghana). Now, as well as before when not in Accra, he misses the personal connection, the jokes, and unscheduled discussions with colleagues.
Alfred joined the team during covid and didn’t get to experience working with other team members in the same space. He says working with a fully virtual team gave him the opportunity to explore working from home. “The best part about working from home is being able to manage my work hours and not burnout,” he said.
Richard is very used to working from home. When Brighter Investment started in Ghana Richard was the first employee and he worked remotely until an office space was acquired. “Working from the office came with its own headache; thinking of what to wear and how to beat Accra Traffic. It was interesting to get connected to team members daily. Most importantly Friday Pizza party.”
Working from home has been great for the team. Thijs mentions that “now the whole team is remote, team meetings are not just me on a video call and the rest in a meeting room together. It is easier to follow the discussions in the meetings now that everyone is on a level playing field.” He further adds that the team will not be returning to the office anytime soon as the majority of the team enjoys the flexibility it brings. And the team agrees. As Belinda indicates “working from home affords me the freedom to work without the stress of traveling long hours to and from the office.” Richard seconds this by adding that, “working from home is my new way of work. It saves everyone’s time.”
The team also agrees that working in an office helps to build relationships that remote conversations do not allow, such as conversations during coffee breaks or lunch breaks. As business returns to the office, most companies are sharing offices, where one company works from home half of the days and in the office the other half, where the other company takes on the opposite schedule. Everyone gets to benefit from regularly meeting colleagues in person, the freedom of working from home half the time, and money is saved on office costs that would otherwise be unused half the time.
Georgina is hopeful that once everyone on the team is vaccinated and restrictions are reduced the team can try this mode of work to reduce our cost of operation.
