Leading superannuation fund Prime Super is the principal partner and long-time supporter of the RCSA.The Brief sat down with Regional Manager Louie Gorgijeski to discuss his personal life, his career and the superannuation challenges facing RCSA members.Q: Tell us about Louie Gorgijeski away from work.I grew up in Sydney for the first 13 years of my life and then Dad and Mum decided to move to Brisbane after the World Expo in 1988, as Dad worked in the construction industry.I’m married to Anna, who works in the aged care sector as a construction manager and we have three amazing kids – Matthew, 12, Kate, 10, and Elizabeth, 3, as well as one crazy Boston Terrier called Billy.Away from work I love spending quality time with my family, including plenty of weekend sports and enjoying the moment, whatever that is, with my family.I love all sports and do F45 and play soccer in the local competition. I also love rugby league, AFL and tennis. My favourite teams are Liverpool, Carlton FC and the Canterbury Bulldogs.I am also in the final stages of completing my MBA and looking forward to getting some more time back in my life.Q: You have a strong history in financial planning and superannuation with some of Australia’s leading brands. Tell us about your professional career to date. How did you get into the superannuation game?My first job, while I was still at school, was with Woolworths, which offered me a management position while I worked out what I wanted to do career-wise.I decided I wanted to get into the financial services industry to help people grow their wealth and protect it, through education or awareness.I was inspired by my parents who didn’t understand insurance, superannuation and wealth creation.My Dad worked for a friend who owned a construction company for more than 15 years and then he went bust and my Dad was left with no super. From that experience I realised that I wanted to work in finance and change peoples’ lives through education.My first role in the financial services industry was as a BDM for Budget Direct Insurance, dealing with motor and home insurance through partnerships.After four years I moved to Suncorp as a financial planner and got the chance to help people realise what is possible with sound advice. Unfortunately, during my first year at Suncorp the GFC hit and the company axed more than 800 staff in 2009, including me.I later joined BT/Westpac and spent four great years in management in the contact centre (superannuation, retirement and investments) and as business development officer in insurance.I spent time with Sunsuper, managing the member service and advice team and learning how Sunsuper functioned and operated compared to the retail space in financial services.I moved back to a BDM role with AIA Insurance, which was the insurance underwriter for Sunsuper, and was given a great opportunity to implement AIA Vitality Health and Wellness product to market through the financial advice channel.I went overseas for a while and decided when I returned I started a financial advice business called Mi Life Wealth.I enjoyed financial planning, but the new regulatory changes made it difficult, so I decided to sell my book with the hope of getting back into the industry in a relationship position, helping members and businesses to better understand the importance of superannuation and insurance.I then obtained my perfect role with Prime Super working in and servicing the recruitment industry.Q: What is your key role as regional manager of Prime Super?My key role is to service and grow our relationships in the recruitment industry space by adding value to all stakeholders and working closely with RCSA.I also plan, coordinate and attend many RCSA events and key industry events.I love the opportunity to have businesses network, collaborate and grow through challenges and opportunities facing the industry and facilitating these interactions amongst recruitment businesses.My passion is to engage all businesses to be more proactive around super and it all starts with educating their workforce on why super is more crucial than ever.Q: What do you love about your job?I love the fact that I am doing what I love - talking super and learning more and more about the recruitment industry and the synergy recruitment and super play in making a difference to peoples’ lives.Super may not be sexy but by making it sexy through engaging sessions, events and getting people to think about their super is what I love to do. When you can help individuals to better understand the importance of super, it really can be very sexy.What I love about working in the recruitment industry is the passion that everyone displays and the buzzing energy I feel when I walk into the business.The fact that I can go home happy after work really says a lot about the industry I service and work with, and I want to thank you all for the smiles I take home!Primes Super’s tagline is “Surprisingly Straightforward” and that’s what I love doing is making super surprisingly straightforward. At Prime Super our members, partners and employers are at the heart of everything we do.Q: You work closely with RCSA members in recruitment and staffing. What do you find are the most common challenges and opportunities that they face?In my time working with recruitment businesses, the key challenges I have come across are retention, billing, engagement, learning, candidate generation and new business opportunities.I believe RCSA offers many training sessions and events that can cater for improving these challenges that will greatly add value to recruitment businesses.Artificial intelligence is another challenge facing the industry and I view it as an opportunity to advance capabilities and efficiencies. My view is still that intelligence can’t replace empathy and I believe that recruiters will only benefit through AI by using the data to improve the overall experience for their clients when it comes to data relating to candidates and their fit for prospective employers.Employers across a range of industries are becoming more driven to match job outputs to candidates’ skills and having candidate data to match this need from prospective employers will only better position businesses when it comes to job placements related to candidates’ performance and profile match.Q: Can you tell us about a time you assisted a member?Darren Winmill of Omni Recruit has kindly provided the following testimonial of his experience with Prime Super:“I first became aware of Prime Super in 2017 when they took over as major sponsor of RCSA.“At the time, Omni Recruit was using another default fund for our labour hire employees. Out of loyalty, we stayed with our previous supplier until they merged and after several changes in account managers the service level and support offered disappeared.“By the end of 2018 I had met with Louie Gorgijeski several times and by March 2019 we made the switch to Prime Super and have never looked back.“Louie and the team at Prime Super made the transition process so simple, switching over almost 500 casual employees to whom we contribute superannuation.“Louie engaged with my Payroll Manager and ensured that setting up our profile, mapping our super files, and the ability to register new employees was effortless.“We were provided information to pass on to new employees and our payroll staff were given training and support throughout the process.“The level of support Louie has provided to Omni Recruit has been fantastic and he has always been accessible to answer and questions or concerns, and he has also extended invitations to many RCSA and Industry functions.”Q: What are the main challenges you face?I would like more businesses that have yet to review their super arrangements to take some time and give me the opportunity to meet with them and their payroll team to discuss Prime Super and what we can do for their business and their workforce.We do have some key differences when it comes to superannuation and insurance that are crucial for the workforce in the recruitment industry and understanding what this is will make the switch to Prime Super a lot easier.So calling all businesses that haven’t taken the time out yet, please reach out if you have not done so as I’m looking forward to meeting you and your employees.

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