BPA team build for leading international savings and investment business

The client

Our client is a leading international savings and investments business that manages investments for both individuals and institutional investors. They offer a range of solutions, including asset management and insurance, with a focus on helping their customers manage and grow their savings.

The challenge

“The standard is so high when sourcing for this particular team. It was important that we took the time to really understand the business before we could source candidates that would fit the team, not just based on their CV and skillset but also through their personality, ambition and attitude.” Ruby Kingdom, Senior Consultant, Specialist Disciplines

Our tech recruitment team had started working with the client’s wider business towards the end of 2022. When the client needed help hiring a hard-to-fill contract financial reporting role in Scotland in January 2023, they were put in touch with Jo Frankham, associate director for specialist disciplines at Eames Consulting, who was able to fill the role within two weeks.

This coincided with the client launching a new bulk purchase annuities business, which needed to put together an entire pricing team, and Jo saw the opportunity to support them in the build.

The solution

“The bar for hiring for our client’s BPA business, whether in pricing or business development, is very high and we’re really proud to have developed a strategic partnership. They recognise the importance of specialist agency support in this area due to the niche nature of the roles and the small pool of candidates, so it’s all about building relationships within that market.” Jo Frankham, Associate Director, Specialist Disciplines, Eames Consulting

The TA manager Jo had supported on the financial reporting role recommended her to the TA manager overseeing the build of the new pricing team. Jo worked closely with the talent attraction team to understand the required skills across pricing and business development in the BPA space. As BPA is such a high growth area with a limited pool of talent – and therefore a very competitive talent market – Jo had to dip into her network of highly skilled, in-demand pricing professionals, who she’s worked with for a number of years, and was quickly able to identify the right people for the new team.

The result

Having successfully established their pricing team, our actuarial life team were then engaged by the client’s new business development function to fill a number of junior roles. Since we started working with them two years ago, we’ve placed ten new people in the team across bulk annuity pricing and business development, from associates up to associate director level. We’ve achieved this by maintaining a positive relationship with the head of the pricing function and the TA team, based on transparency, mutual support and clear communication.

The future

Following the appointment of a new managing director for BPA, our actuarial life team was invited to pitch for the next stage of expansion and we were very proud to be engaged on the project. This will involve doubling the size of the team over this coming year, including hiring three director roles, and we’re very excited to continue supporting them in their hiring needs.