Manager - Customer Vulnerability - 18-month fixed term contract in Bournemouth

We are navigating significant and ambitious change at Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, including the recent acquisition of Virgin Money. It is an exciting time, as we evolve to a new future that sees us accelerate delivery of value to our 16 million customers and culturally, engage colleagues in new ways of working. The Vulnerability team sits within the heart of the change as we want strive to deliver good service and good outcomes for all customers.

As a Manager in the Customer Vulnerability team, you’ll be responsible for supporting the defining, developing and delivery of vulnerability and inclusion strategies. During this 12 month fixed term contract you will help identify, build and manage internal and external activities to support vulnerability agenda and the Society’s vision of offering fairer and more rewarding banking to society.

This role reports to a Senior Manager in Customer Vulnerability in Customer Strategy, Insights and Propositions, within the Customer, Brand and Engagement function.

We are happy to consider flexible working approaches to help you perform at your best.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you\'ll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you\'ll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our Swindon, London, Bournemouth or Northampton office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll be responsible for creating and managing customer-centric initiatives; from identification of the initial customer or business need, through to delivery of business solutions and monitoring business success. To help you get an understanding of the work we do, recent successes include:

• Speak Easy cards – In-branch communication tool to support people with a communication difficulty
• Safe spaces – Access to private spaces in our branch for people experiencing domestic abuse
• Gambling blocks – Tools to help customers restrict access to certain merchants, to help manage their money
• A partnership with Experian Support Hub to help customers tell us about their support needs.
• Mental Health accessible Level One & Two accreditation.
• Colleague training and tools to help when dealing with vulnerable customers

You’ll be passionate about understanding customer needs and helping to develop solutions for situations as varied as divorce, carer responsibilities or dementia. You’ll achieve this by working collaboratively across the organisation, bringing together colleagues to get the work done and make change happen.

With a clear regulatory focus on good customer outcomes and the treatment of vulnerable customers, you will be involved in compliance related activity, including reviews, and play a role in co-ordinating and/or delivering organisation wide actions to address any issues and mitigate risks identified internally or externally.

You’ll work on-going priority actions/strategies and have the opportunity to develop new areas of consideration. You’ll contribute to regular papers and inputs to senior committees to prompt and provoke the right level of consideration and action. As well as being a key internal vulnerability expert, you’ll also be externally-facing, representing Nationwide at relevant industry forums, meetings and events. We’re specifically looking for you to:

• Enhance current, or design and embed new, treatment strategies to better serve customers in vulnerable circumstances and/or support our colleagues to feel what customers feel, and deliver simply brilliant experiences.
• Have the skills to use data and insights to better understand our target market and customer base.
• To have brilliant visual and communication skills to help raise the profile of the work we do across the society.

About you

• You’ll be curious, collaborative and have a can-do attitude.
• You have strong communication, organisation and influencing ability, and a history of delivering change.
• You have an interest in latest industry activity, consumer trends, government priorities and emerging technologies, in relation to customer vulnerability and inclusion
• You have experience in designing products or services that are customer-centric and inclusively designed
• Have brilliant written and visual communication skills
• You can evaluate insight and data from multiple sources, quickly identify key themes and join dots to solve problems.
• You’ll be able to manage your own workload and use your judgement to decide what needs to be prioritised and know when to ask for support
• You are influential and credible with all audiences.

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind

• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes.

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Wellhub – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society

We forge our own path at Nationwide.

As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.

At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.

We are Purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly Customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

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