Pensions Manager

Role: Pensions Manager

Function: People

Employment Type: Perm, Full Time  

Location: Dunstable, Bedfordshire (Hybrid working – 2 office days a week)

Salary:   Competitive salary plus bonus and other benefits

You’ll be using your strong pensions knowledge to evolve our pension arrangements and ensure that they are delivered through operational excellence and engagingly communicated. You’ll provide a full support service for the Trustee Board and Benefits Sub-Committee in addition to supporting Whitbread on funding-related considerations.

What you will be doing:

Pension Policy

• Pro-actively reviewing our pension arrangements to ensure that they evolve as the legislative environment, market best practice or the needs of the business change
• Engaging and working with other Whitbread stakeholders to determine the appropriate positioning of any changes and then leading the delivery, supported by engaging employee communications
• Supporting the Reward Pensions & Insight Director on Company-side funding-related matters
• Supporting the Reward Pensions & Insight Director in responding to government consultations

Operational Delivery

• Owning and managing partnerships with external suppliers, including the third-party administrator, to ensure operational excellence and that service targets are met. This includes working in partnership to pro-actively develop improvements and innovative solutions that enhance delivery and / or reduce costs
• Setting and managing budgets with external suppliers
• Ensuring accurate and timely production of data required by the Scheme Actuary for valuations
• Monitoring and ensuring correct pensions treatment for senior new hires
• Managing the life cover for senior leaders
• Managing the pensions inbox

Trustee Board & Benefits Sub Committee

• Providing a support service to the Trustee Board and Benefits Sub-Committee to enable them to efficiently manage their responsibilities, including production of agendas, minutes and papers and ensuring delivery of actions

• Ensuring death and ill-health cases are processed for presentation to the Benefits Sub-Committee

Member Communications

• Evolving the communications strategy to deliver informative and engaging communications to scheme members and potential members
• Using technical knowledge and experience to deal with complaints, including those raised through the Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure
• Supporting colleagues within the organisation (including the leadership team) with personal pension issues

What we are looking for: 

• A proven leader with strong knowledge of pensions, including current and pending regulations, and understanding of implications for Whitbread
• A great communicator with the ability to quickly build relationships across all levels including stakeholders and external advisers; ability to challenge and influence at a senior level
• Sound judgement and decision making based on relevant data / information
• Strong planning and organisational skills with the ability to manage conflicting priorities.
• Strong analytical skills - able to interpret complex information and provide meaningful insight
• Curious - ability to grasp new technical issues, generate ideas, articulate them and apply them to our context
• Pensions technical/ administration management experience
• Proven project delivery
• APMI qualification would be desirable but not essential

In return for your commitment, we’ve got some great benefits to offer:

• A market competitive base salary + up to 30% annual bonus

• Sharesave scheme

• A collaborative work culture that focuses on supporting your success

• A flexible working policy you can rely on

• Up to Family Cover BUPA healthcare

• Optional contributory pension matched up to 10%

• Up to 25% discount off our brands

We’re 1,200 hotels and restaurants in the UK, Germany and the UAE, but we’re more than that. We’re the 35,000 people supporting our brands every day. The ones sourcing the nation’s favourite breakfast, plating up family favourites, and the great night’s sleep guaranteed people. We’re also always preparing for new openings, looking ahead and revamping our online presence. We do it for our guests, and it’s the details that keep them returning time and time again. We could be at the end of their road, their trusty choice for business trips, or we could be the place they associate with big celebrations up and down the country. We’re a constant in a changing world, and we’d love you to join us. Bring your energy, ideas and sense of fun, we’re waiting and so are our brands.

Meeting our ambitious goals to expand and reach new locations across the globe requires serious planning. It means analysing every little detail, spotting and overcoming barriers and working towards our ambitious plans. Think decision science, pricing, revenue and sales, and you’re there. With a lot of doing to be done, you can be part of making big change happen across the globe.  Bring your drive and enthusiasm, and we’ll welcome you in.

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Whitbread is an inclusive employer. We believe that everyone is unique and there should be no barriers to entry and no limits to ambition. We welcome your application whatever your background or situation. Under-represented groups such as women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities & members of the LGBTQ+ community (those who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans sexual, non binary or use another term), are strongly encouraged to build a career with us. We are open to part-time and flexible working and, where possible, will try to support this.