General
Expense Manager - 9 Month Fixed Term Contract
Division: Finance – Financial Performance
Key Relationships: Executive Management, Finance Leadership Team, Financial Performance Management, Finance Business Partners, Support Function Heads, Underwriting Function Heads, Underwriting Business Managers, Corporate Development and other Business Users.
Job Summary:
Beazley & Finance are on a modernisation journey aimed at improving our systems and processes, allowing us to effectively structure ourselves to meet the requirements of a growing business. This journey will require significant input and expertise from across the team – to help determine that new structure, but also to re-imagine processes and drive efficiency, allowing us to focus on adding value.
This role is focused around leading the current ‘strategic’ area of the team – with a focus on Expense Allocations / Transfer Pricing but also Medium / Long Term Planning for the group expense base. It will thus involve stepping into those Expense processes (Actuals & Planning related) and owning those processes and the accurate and timely delivery of expense information flowing from them. It will also involve leading, developing & potentially hiring elements of the team and helping to review and enhance the current expense team capability and offering overall.
As modernisation starts to deliver and the expense and overall Finance team structure starts to evolve – this role will also be required to support that transition state. This will ensure we adopt the correct structure to extract the maximum benefit from the systems & processes delivered.
To conduct oneself in line with core & partnership competencies noted below
Key Activities & Areas of Responsibility:
- To Lead, Develop & Hire across the Expense ‘Strategy’ team
- Appropriate assignment of responsibilities within the team to meet overall team and Beazley objectives. This may include defining and hiring roles into a team structure
- Ensure that people are deployed and developed to anticipate and meet current and future needs as well as supporting individual career progression
- Ensure that all employees have the knowledge and the skills necessary to perform effectively in their given roles and responsibilities
- Ownership, and development, of the risk & control framework in place for the teams responsibilities
- Work closely & collaboratively with the current expense managers (and team) to ensure alignment of outputs and synergies where possible.
- Ensure dependencies, deliverables and the impact of the teams process & outputs are fully understood across finance & wider business through effective business partnering
Expense Allocations
- Own the delivery of the end-to-end month end & quarter end (fast close) processes.
- Own the delivery of the end-to-end expense planning processes
- The production of a robust timetable which is acknowledged and supported by all stakeholders and ensure delivery in line with agreed timetable.
- Own the analytics process & commentary to be provided showing a robust understanding and interrogation of allocation process and impact on the Group result
- Deliver & own control & governance framework – with regards to allocation process.
- Review the allocation model, assessing any risks / weakness in current processes / structure and provide solutions to mitigate any findings.
- Continue to build out and define analytics with regards allocations and provide training / knowledge to all stakeholders (internal & external to the team).
- Medium / Long Term Plan
- Own the delivery of the MTP / LTP expense plan and all subsequent requirements.
- The production of a robust timetable which is acknowledged and supported by all parties including senior management & business planning process.
- Own the analytics process & commentary to be provided showing a robust understanding and interrogation of MTP / LTP and what this means for the Group result
- Review the MTP / LTP model, assessing any risks / weakness in current processes / structure and provide solutions to mitigate any findings.
- Continue to build out and define the MTP / LTP model and increase the value added to the group in pro-actively managing expenses.
Specific Business Partner Activities
These will include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Support the relationship management initiative for the support teams as follows:
- Expense reporting and analysis (incl. accrual management)
- Forecast/Budget templates
- Cost saving initiatives
- Reviewing and ensuring delivery of expense MI to key stakeholders and working with them to provide suitable commentary and where appropriate approval in a timely and professional manner as suitable for the report type and audience:
- Expense Management (Performance against plan)
- Key Underwriting metrics
- Expense (Actuals) Reporting
- Ad hoc requests from the business
Strategic Objectives
- Review current Expense team capability and offering. Then help to develop a strategy to implement on how we improve on this capability and offering – giving Beazley a robust and value adding expense capability to meet the future requirements of the organisation (i.e. develop the expense function of tomorrow)
- Own, manage & support the delivery of strategic projects from an expense perspective (both Actuals & Planning) to ensure they align to group requirements and are compatible with BAU processes
- Own, manage & support the delivery of local expense projects (both Actuals & Planning) to ensure they align to group requirements and are compatible with BAU processes
Core competencies
Core competencies in addition to those noted as specific requirements for the role and which are considered to be pertinent to the Expense team are as follows:
- Analytical Thinking: Logical analytical approach to rapidly changing data and situations. Considers wider implications across functions and varying scenarios to Beazley.
- Professionalism: Consistently demonstrates integrity, is highly credible, respectful and trustworthy and represents the expense team in a professional manner. Builds and maintains successful working relationships and is seen to go the extra mile
- Learning and development: Identifies strengths and weaknesses and seeks to improve performance. Recognises and takes responsibility for mistakes and learns from them. Continually seeks self-development opportunities. Regularly engages in self-assessment and gives/receives feedback to enhance personal awareness
- Adaptability: Effectively manages changing priorities in a dynamic environment. Seeks training opportunities to understand new working methods. Proves resilient in uncertain and difficult situations and adapts approach/plans/style as required.
- Responsibility and Accountability: Assumes full responsibility for the consequences of own behaviour and decisions. Delivers on commitments to clients demonstrating reliability and dependability. Admits mistakes and takes responsibility for correcting them.
- Communicating Effectively: Timely communication of new information to relevant parties. Adapts communication style / form as appropriate to the audience and illustrates an understanding of their experience and needs. Conveys complex information clearly and
- concisely. Persuades through uncovering shared benefits and outcomes, looking for mutually satisfactory solutions.
- Demonstrating Teamwork: Seeks collaboration as appropriate and shares knowledge/best practise and helps others when asked. Acknowledges when other members of the team are under comparatively increased pressure and volunteers to support them while maintaining responsibility for own tasks. Teaches new team members & coaches others; identifies opportunities for collaboration (NB: definition of team is extended beyond the expense team as appropriate).
- Innovative approach: Independently finds solutions to advanced problems and identifies potential barriers to solutions and provides alternatives. Challenges assumptions and “the way we have always done it”. Embraces change & communicates the benefits of change to others.
Integrity and Control
- Use business knowledge to identify potential errors with financial impact and take steps to prevent and/or correct such errors, highlighting where necessary to management.
- Act as a conduit between the Finance department and other departments in order to maintain financial data integrity.
- Produce and maintain procedures documentation for own tasks.
General
It is important that within all your interactions both internally and externally you adhere Beazley’s core values - Being Bold, Striving for Better & Doing the Right Thing. We also expect Beazley employees to:
- Comply with Beazley procedures, policies and regulations including the code of conduct
- Undertake training on Beazley policies and procedures as delivered by your line manager, the Culture & People or Assurance Teams (Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit) either directly, via e-learning or the learning management system
- Display business ethics that uphold the interests of all our customers
- Ensure all interactions with customers are focused on delivering a fair outcome, including having the right products for their needs
- Comply with any specific responsibilities necessary for your role as outlined by your line manager, the Culture & People or Assurance Teams (Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit) and ensure you keep up to date with developments in these areas. This may include, amongst others, Beazley’s underwriting control standards, Beazley’s claims control standards, other Beazley standards and customer relationship management
- Carry out additional responsibilities as individually notified, either through your objectives or through the learning management system. These may include membership of any Beazley committees or working groups
Personal Specification
We are a flexible and innovative employer offering a friendly, collaborative, diverse and inclusive working environment. We actively encourage and expect applications from all backgrounds. We empower people to choose where to work given the work they need to do. Collaboration in office spaces is important but we do not mandate a set number of days in the office or from home – you decide what works best for you and the role you are in. Beazley will offer the person a competitive salary and discretionary bonus with a strong benefits package including commuting reimbursement, free in-office lunch, excellent parental leave and financial physical and mental wellbeing contributions among others.
Relevant qualifications and capabilities are listed as follows:
Education and Qualifications
- Experienced qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA)
- Experience of the insurance market, preferably Lloyd’s
- Experience of Expense Allocation process
- Experience of Financial Modelling
- Experience of month end reporting / planning cycles within complex organisations
Capabilities
- Customer focus, Stakeholder management & relationship building
- Understanding of controls frameworks including documentation
- Adaptability & experience of a deadline driven environment
- Strong attention to detail & strong written and verbal communication skills
- Problem solving, decision making, analytical and conceptual thinking
