Brookfield Office Part of Second-Place 'Best Place to Work in Conn'

Speaking with Daniel Haines you can hear the enthusiasm in his voice as he talks about his employer, Barnum Financial. The Brookfield resident has been a Financial Planner and Investment Advisor for 30 years, and during that time he has worked for his own company and for larger companies, but he believes he has found the perfect fit with Barnum Financial. Haines wanted to work with a good company that had great business benefits and growth potential. 

In March, for in Connecticut in the “Large Employee” category through a survey conducted by the Best Companies Group. Barnum Financial, an office of Met Life, is a financial services firm of 380 financial advisors and staff.

According to Jackie Miller, program coordinator for Best Companies, the firm surveyed full- and part-time Connecticut employees from every employer in the state as part of the Hartford Business Journal’s annual Best Places to Work in Connecticut.

If the company has over 250 employees, they use a random sample, which increases the larger the company is in size.   Best Companies uses two surveys, one for the employer and one for employees. The Employee Benefits and Policy questions are weighted at 25 percent, while 75 percent is given to the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey.  Best Companies also takes into consideration what is unique about the company’s benefits and policies when considering them for the award.

Haines said what he likes most about working at Barnum Financial is the “energy and synergism between advisors.”

While he has an office in Brookfield, Haines mostly works out of the company’s Shelton headquarters because, while his ideas may be good, by working together the employees come up with great ideas. The training and education plus updates on information changes he gets as part of Barnum Financial are important. The company also has employee get-togethers throughout the year that help foster the relationships between co-workers. 

Haines has praise for Paul Blanco, the firm’s managing director, stating that Paul cares very much about the firm and building the advisors’ businesses.

“We couldn’t have a better leader,” he said.

“We took No. 2 Best Place to Work because of our culture of fun, family and accountability,” Blanco said. “Everyone genuinely enjoys coming to work every day. You can tell our associates are happy to be here."  

With this much employee satisfaction, it’s easy to understand why Barnum Financial was named “Met Life Firm of the Year” for five consecutive years and why Haines and his fellow co-workers are proud to be employees.