Operation Manager- Advisory
Working with Axiom Consultants, our client is a large Life, Pensions and General insurance brand with offices worldwide. They are now inviting applications for 12 month FTC position of Operations Manager- Advisory.
The Operations Manager will function as the general operations lead for a self-contained business unit which has been formed following the acquisition of a local firm by our client. The unit will continue to function with a large degree of autonomy, and the Operations Manager will be key to the seamless integration into the wider company framework and maintaining the ongoing trading function and growth, with a primary focus on driving operational excellence and improvement.
About the Role:
* Organisation and hosting of weekly management team meeting - setting agenda, prioritisation of items, action tracking, project reviews, issue resolution etc to ensure constant progress.
* Projects - managing local change / projects which impact on team operation.
* Represent the business unit on central strategic initiatives where local input or action is required.
* Work with Compliance on process review, quality assurance and operationalising regulatory requirements into documentation and business workflow to ensure the business is always operationally compliant.
* Group Scheme management - oversight of DC, PRSA, (Group & Retail) and Risk only schemes, including renewals, invoicing, admin, leavers / joiners and supporting member engagement.
* Lead the local administration team ensuring service continuity and quality is maintained and workload equity and capacity are managed effectively. Provide backfill as required, deal with complex queries and tasks, manage local processes and input / execute on central processes.
* Reporting - provide operational and trading reporting for the business unit to the centre and leadership as required.
* Constantly reviewing and improving trading processes, operational resilience, and Business Continuity planning in partnership with our business leads.
* Ensuring business unit adherence to Compliance and Health & Safety policies as outlined in Staff Handbook and Procedures Manual.
* Responsible for roll out of Companywide employee engagement initiatives in the local team.
* Lead, manage and motivate direct reporting staff, through monthly 121 and performance review discussions, driving the performance strategy in line with HR policy.
* Identification of training and support needs for admin team. Development of team through continuous learning and effective empowerment of tasks.
* Manage coverage and capacity of the team in line with business needs and through effective diarisation and approval of leave.
About You
* Demonstrates strong market awareness and an ability to communicate with and influence senior level executives internally and externally with the intention of building long lasting work relationships.
* Extremely well organised with excellent time management skills.
* Ability to work on own initiative, meet deadlines and work under pressure in a busy environment.
* Keen eye for detail and strong ability to manage complexity and multiple competing items at once.
* Strategic mindset with strong business acumen and ability to implement strategic initiatives with proven track record of same.
* 5+ years relevant experience within the Life & Pensions industry, ideally in an operational type of role in a Brokerage business.
* Familiarity with Life & Pension broking platforms, provider systems, portals and products are essential.
* A proven capability of leading a team and managing people is desirable.
* A minimum Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) accreditation is essential.
* Third level business qualification ideally.
* A recognised qualification in Process Improvement would be helpful but not required.