Overview
We are proud to be a leading independent UK consultancy at the forefront of risk, pensions, investment and insurance and we are seeking an experienced pension system team leader to join our Bristol team. Internally, the job title is known as Senior Penstream Specialist Team Leader.
Penstream is Barnett Waddingham's in-house application covering all aspects of pension administration. This includes day-to-day administration, pensioner payroll, and pension scheme accounting. Its features include: Member self-service and Client documentation access, record keeping, integrated benefit calculations, reporting, and straight-through processing of investment instructions. Penstream is fully integrated with our work management system, known as Taskstream, and our electronic document management system.
For this role we are seeking candidates who have an indepth knowledge and understanding of DB pension and payroll administration, UK pension legislation (including PPF) and strong people management experience.
This is a full-time, permanent position. The successfully candidate will be able to work flexibly under our WorkSmart framework and will share their time between the office and home, getting the best of both worlds.
Responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities will include, but will not be limited to:
Technical
- Using advanced understanding of pension systems, peer review standard and complex work undertaken by the team
- Identify opportunities for the development of the pension systems
- Identify and recommend opportunities for the delivery of training relating to the pension systems
- Works with external parties, such as third-party administrators and pension managers
People Management
- Provides feedback for others in order to improve their understanding and knowledge and supports the development of the individual
- Ensure that team members are performing effectively, identifies development needs and provides coaching and training
- Conducts regular 1-2-1 discussions for all team members including the formal Personal Development Reviews
- Has an input into the recruitment process and conducts interviews
- With support from the Operations Manager, deals with holiday, adjusted hours and flexible working requests, return to work discussions after absence and any provides support for any other health-related issues
- Takes a proactive approach to ensure team members’ wellbeing is prioritised using resources available to signpost additional support if required
- Manages change to ensure the team effectively adapts to process and policy changes
- Supports the Operations Manager and works closely with HR to manage challenging people matters in line with HR policies.
Workflow / Team Management
- Takes overall responsibility for the team’s workload and monitors the team's performance against deadlines
- Responsibility for ensuring team members meet quality standards
- Motivates and facilitates effective team working recognises that team members may be working remotely
- Provides timely communications to the team to keep them informed of priorities and plans
- Holds regular meetings with all team members to discuss workloads, internal communications and other matters
- Takes responsibility for resource planning, ensures sufficient resources are available to complete the team’s deadlines and communicates any resource concerns to the Operations Manager
- Monitors team productivity and quality using the work management system (Taskstream) and provides regular feedback to team members
- Reviews the skills available in the team and takes steps to ensure that knowledge is shared
- Promotes team working across the offices
Qualifications
Essential:
An in-depth knowledge and high level of experience of DB pension and payroll administration (DB/DC/CARE/Cash balance, and Hybrid arrangements)
Demonstrate an awareness of UK pension legislation, current/historic issues, and their application to administration, inclusive of PPF specific requirements
Desirable:
A relevant degree (for example, Mathematics)
Hold, or studying towards, a professional qualification (for example Certificate in Pensions Calculations, Advanced Diploma in Retirement Provision)
Hold a qualification in project management (PRINCE2 : Foundation or Practitioner)
