Executive Reward Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

A career in our Reward practice, within People and Organisation services, will provide you with the opportunity to help our clients reset their talent strategies and deliver extraordinary business results through their people. We focus on evaluating and managing their unique challenges so our clients can maximise their return on the overall investment in human capital. You’ll gain a tremendous depth of expertise in all aspects of human capital, including creating sustainable value through people culture and change, designing compensation and retirement strategies, and improving human capital operations.

Our team helps organisations set their compensation strategies through analysis of industry benchmarks, company policies and culture, and employee performance. As part of our team, you’ll help our clients determine their compensation structure, executive pay packages, legal and regulatory requirements, tax implications, and financial reporting and accounting advice.
To really stand out and make us fit for the future in a constantly changing world, each and every one of us at PwC needs to be a purpose-led and values-driven leader at every level. To help us achieve this we have the PwC Professional; our global leadership development framework. It gives us a single set of expectations across our lines, geographies and career paths, and provides transparency on the skills we need as individuals to be successful and progress in our careers, now and in the future.

As a Manager, you'll work as part of a team of problem solvers, helping to solve complex business issues from strategy to execution. PwC Professional skills and responsibilities for this management level include but are not limited to:

• Develop new skills outside of comfort zone.
• Act to resolve issues which prevent the team working effectively.
• Coach others, recognise their strengths, and encourage them to take ownership of their personal development.
• Analyse complex ideas or proposals and build a range of meaningful recommendations.
• Use multiple sources of information including broader stakeholder views to develop solutions and recommendations.
• Address sub-standard work or work that does not meet firm's/client's expectations.
• Use data and insights to inform conclusions and support decision-making.
• Develop a point of view on key global trends, and how they impact clients.
• Manage a variety of viewpoints to build consensus and create positive outcomes for all parties.
• Simplify complex messages, highlighting and summarising key points.
• Uphold the firm's code of ethics and business conduct.

Brief Outline/ Purpose of Job     

As a PwC Reward Consultant you will be part of South Africa’s leading Reward practice, consulting on various remuneration-related matters to high-calibre clients on projects across all industries.
As the team is divided into two specialities, you will be expected to consult primarily on your area of speciality but will need to acquire and operate a secondary knowledge of items within the other sub-speciality, representing a fantastic way to grow and acquire a new skill-set, honing your business acumen in a balanced and valuable way.
As a legal resource within the team, you would form part of the ‘tax, legal and governance’ sub-stream, and your primary speciality would be reward consulting. Your work will include variable pay review and design, drafting of remuneration reports, drafting rules for short- and long-term incentive plans designed by the team, researching and consulting on institutional investor views regarding remuneration and associated matters, and understanding and consulting on corporate governance best practice as it relates to remuneration structures and related items. A strong legal basis and excellent contract-drafting skills are required, as well as a practical consulting mindset and the ambition to go the extra mile for your client. You need to be flexible in terms of the way that you approach your work, and the way that you solve problems, in order to deliver legally-sound solutions which address the client’s requirements from a tax and corporate governance perspective. You will also need to be agile to adapt to a new way of working, in a fast-paced team which is constantly innovating in response to external pressures on executive remuneration and associated topics.

You will be expected to acquire a working knowledge of items outside of your main speciality, including executive and non-executive director benchmarking, indicative financial modelling, and KPI-consulting.

Role/Job Description

As a Manager/Senior Manager you will be required to assist clients with any reward/remuneration related assistance which they require which falls within the realm of expertise or research capabilities of the team. This will primarily include the following

• Conducting critical reviews of client’s remuneration practices, and drafting papers including review outcomes and recommendations for new structures to clients.
• Short-term and long-term incentive review and design.
• Drafting short- and long-term incentive plan rules and other associated legal documentation and policies, as required.
• Research on technical, legal, tax, and topical issues arising in connection with executive reward and incentives.
• Drafting tax opinions associated with variable pay plans or other remuneration and benefits arrangements.
• Ensuring legal/regulatory compliance with regard to long-term incentive / share plans e.g. JSE Listings Requirements, Companies Act. This may include liaising with sponsors, external lawyers, JSE contacts, etc of clients.
• Analysis of remuneration reporting in light of King IV (corporate governance recommendations) and assisting clients with preparing remuneration reports and policies to be contained in the integrated annual report of the company.
• Monitoring of institutional investor voting patterns and regulation, and analysis of these trends with respect to both design and disclosure of all aspects of remuneration (in particular executive remuneration).
• An awareness of topical issues surrounding executive reward, both globally and locally, and the preparation of communication material to remuneration committees regarding this information, as well as providing ongoing advice.
• Advising PwC offices in other countries on the South African tax consequences of incentive arrangements, and liaising with foreign PwC offices to ascertain the implications of South African incentive arrangements in foreign jurisdictions, compiling responses and presenting to clients.
• Managing client relationships and project managing client engagements, including managing teams and taking responsibility for junior members, including coaching/mentoring and upskilling.
• Responsibility for risk management procedures and managing costs/fees for assignments, including WIP and debtors.
• Attending client meetings and presenting to C-suite individuals, and at Board level.
• Assisting with the preparation of thought-leadership publications and practice development.

Key Competencies and Attributes

• Strong legal foundation, particularly in commercial and labour law, and corporate governance.
• Strong drafting (contractual/policy) and research skills.
• Strong analytical tendency with attention to detail and logical thinking ability.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Good organization and time management skills and the ability to work under pressure.
• Agile thinking and problem-solving approach.
• Ability to work in a team as well as independently and to interact with stakeholders at all levels.
• Client service and results orientated.
• Ability to be an effective coach/mentor and transfer knowledge.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively independently or within a diverse team.
• Ability to deal with multiple demands under tight client deadlines.
• Self-managed, motivator, enthusiastic.
• Ability to take ownership of personal development and a focus on continuous self-improvement and personal growth in all areas.
• Able to learn and adapt quickly, and desire to upskill in terms of a new knowledge base. 
• Integrity and judgement about work and relationships.
• Comfortable building relationships and communicating with people at all levels, and able to present comfortably at C-suite level.
• Comfortable with Microsoft Office programmes e.g. Powerpoint, Word, Excel and the Google Suite of applications.

Qualification & Experience Requirements

• Legal degree, preferably BCom LLB with a relevant post-graduate qualification
• Admitted attorney would be highly desirable.
• 3-5+ years of experience as a commercial lawyer, remuneration consultant or other relevant/transferable experience.