Graduate - Pensions Consulting- Croydon 2024 In...

About Us

Isio was ‘born’ in , and we’ve been challenging existing thinking on pensions, benefits, and investment advice ever since. That’s because we know that only by improving on what’s been accepted in the past, can we provide the financial confidence our clients deserve. And while Isio is a young company, our people are some of the most experienced in their fields, bringing track records of having achieved commercial advantage for clients across pensions. Improving on long-accepted industry practices continues to drive us – and our business – forward. We are proud to work with a third of the FTSE , with over boards of trustees, and across all sectors. Creating greater levels of confidence in financial decision-making for companies, trustees, and individuals.

Starting your Career at Isio

We’re a People First business, so we want to make sure that you are supported to reach your goals, whatever they may be. We’ll support you with studying, be flexible around family life and enable you to give back to the community through paid volunteering days. We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion – bringing your whole self to work every day. We have hubs across the UK and many of our roles are flexible in location to help create a work-life balance that works for you. We are keen to support those starting their career at Isio with building a strong foundation for success. Whether as a Graduate, Industrial Placement student, summer intern or as an Apprentice, Isio will provide a great experience working alongside experienced professionals. You will have the opportunity to help fulfil our purpose of creating better outcomes for our clients, their members and society by empowering and developing our people. Isio is growing at a fast and exciting pace. Starting your career at Isio will be a great balance of working with experts in their field within an innovative organisation that is looking to drive positive and innovative change in its sector. Graduates at Isio have acknowledged their positive experience, as shown by our ranking as the Top Employer for Graduates to work for in Consulting according to the Job Crowd rankings.

Programme: Pensions Consulting Graduate Programme

Qualifications you’ll work towards: Potential to work towards qualifications from the Pensions Management Institute

Locations: Croydon, AMP House Serviced Offices, CR0 2LX

Entry Requirements: To apply for this role you need to have completed an undergraduate degree or higher level qualification by 1 September and have achieved a 2.1 or higher. If you are in your final year of university study, we are looking for those on track to achieve this. We are open to applications from those studying any subject.

Working as a Consultant in Pensions at Isio

Pension schemes are part of the backbone of the UK savings industry – relied on by millions to provide a reliable and secure income in retirement. Excellent governance of a pension scheme is essential in ensuring that the significant risks of running the schemes are managed. Meeting these governance requirements is becoming increasingly complex. The needs of the industry, individuals and our clients are ever changing. At Isio, we constantly look at ways to innovate and develop new solutions to overcome these challenges through our Actuarial & Consulting services. A consultancy career in pensions requires a high level of both organisational and communication skills – as well as the enthusiasm and drive to build relationships and gain a strong foundation in all aspects of running a pension scheme. Our clients value strong technical knowledge in understanding the required capacity of pension funds.

Isio’s Consultant Graduate programme offers the opportunity to build a rewarding career in a successful industry.

What you will be doing

As an industry leader, we offer a wide range of opportunities for graduates to train and build their core consulting skills. But, we also want to hear your views and help you introduce fresh ways of thinking. Some of the things you’ll be involved in as a consultant are below but remember, our work stretches beyond pensions and that’s where we set ourselves apart.

• Liaising with multiple stakeholders to draft Trustee meeting agendas and co-ordinate the papers required for the meetings ensuring they are available on our online system ahead of the Trustee meetings.
• Prepare other materials for the Trustees including risk logs, training logs, scheme returns etc.
• Attend client meetings and produce first draft on the Trustee meeting minutes.
• Take ownership for the actions coming out of the meetings and ensure these happen within the required timescales.
• Supporting in designing and implementing employee communications such as newsletters.
• Take an active interest in reviewing processes and implementing best practice across the client portfolio.
• Helping clients understand and manage governance changes that affect their pension schemes.
• Contributing to proposals for new business opportunities.
• Manages the trustees annual budget process and monitors advisors’ costs against this.
• Take responsibility for all aspects client management from an internal perspective.

Training and Development

As a graduate in our Pensions Consulting Team, you’ll enjoy a range of training and development opportunities and can study towards qualifications from the Pensions Management Institute. As well as study support and guidance to help you on your way to gaining qualifications you’ll benefit from:

• On-the-job training on a regular basis.
• Specific technical and professional skills training on a national basis.
• Regular technical training and opportunities to develop wider market knowledge throughout your career within pensions.
• A buddy from your first day to help you settle in.
• A Performance Manager to support you with your progress, performance and any work or HR-related issues.

Isio’s Graduate Programme is just the start. It will give you a strong foundation, great client experience, professional training and core consulting skills. Given our exciting growth plans, there are opportunities to progress a really varied career in Pensions as you build specialist skills and knowledge in your field of interest (obviously this is subject to what our clients’ needs are too). Throughout your career you’ll be offered ongoing support and opportunities to develop your expertise, both on challenging client projects and through training. As we extend beyond pensions and you move through your career you’ll also be given the opportunity to branch out and broaden your horizons. Some of the extra experiences you could get involved with include broader employee benefit design and advice, financial coaching and wealth management. We also have a growing Digital Solutions team, helping us innovate and using technology to drive change in our industry through the development of digital risk management tools, member engagement applications and other web based software applications. We’re also considering the use of AI and how big and complex data solutions can be applied across the whole industry to help change it for the better.

What we are looking for in Graduates in our Consulting teams

As a people first business personal attributes are just as important as academic qualifications. So, there’s a few things we’re looking for from our graduates including:

• Enthusiastic team players who are willing to learn and grow.
• A passion and energy to help us exceed our clients’ expectations and deliver against tight deadlines.
• Strong organisational and problem-solving skills, a natural curiosity and interest in the business and pensions world, and a global, forward-thinking mindset are also key.
• The ability to maintain a good level of self-discipline and time management to balance your working in our teams across multiple clients.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to make new relationships with colleagues and clients.

We will also be looking to see how applicants align to our core beliefs:

• Power in Partnership: We work in partnership with our clients & each other – building open and trusted relationships. Working together allows us to deliver the best for our clients.
• Future Focus: We want to push our industry forward by solving problems in better ways that benefit both our clients & society.
• Strength in Difference: We work with diverse perspectives to find better solutions. Working with differences makes us stronger.
• People First: We recognise that pensions is a people business. People are the source of Isio’s expertise, and it is people’s lives that we affect through our advice.