Regional Manager Life AIFA (FAIS) at Absa South Africa

Job Summary

• To support Advisers in attaining the long term assurance (life and investments) sales targets within the region, ensure maintenance of a high sales morale and establish appropriate sales segments by producing business cases and driving and maintaining quality audits.

Job Description

Accountability: Coaching

• Coach all Life and Investments Advisers within the region to promote a productive sales environment to ensure sales targets are reached.
• Meet with Advisers in the regional team on a regular basis on a one on one basis to coach them on best practice sales processes.
• Coach the Advisers on issues and challenges they are experiencing in the region and provide guidance to them on
• resolving the issues by e.g. brainstorming around the issues / challenges or creating a support network for the Advisers to align to.
• Coach Advisers (one-on-one and/or in groups) on how to use the relevant AIFA Systems (e.g. Proplanner, Ebankpak, Siebel etc.) and advise them on diary management in order to upgrade their sales skills, to support the initial training done by the Consultant: Sales Support (AIFA)
• Coach the Advisers in instances where new projects, campaigns and products are lauched into the regions and provide them with all relevant, updated information to enable them to produce sales.
• Coach Advisers on all compliance-related processes, procedures and documentation and monitor their adherence to the same.

Accountability: Target Setting and Business Management

• Support the achievement of AIFA business goals (particularly related to Life and Investments) by giving input to all strategic initiatives within the company in order to enhance sales volumes.
• Contribute to the development of business unit's life and investments strategy for the next 2-3 years by providing a view on potential improvements to products or services, assessment of the existing situation and anticipated changes in the external environment
• Facilitate target setting between the region and relevant strategic partners by presenting the sales targets to the Advisers and managing the relevant relationships within the regions in order to provide support
• Facilitate the communication of agreed targets to Advisers and strategic partners within the region.
• Communicate the necessary expectations of all parties involved in order to meet collaborative goals by interacting with the correct level of strategic partners.
• Report, to the Advisers and strategic partners, changes in strategic direction, structures and operating models in order to ensure transparent communication and effective operation within the region
• Explain and agree targets with individual Advisers, communicate to all levels and take accountability for the overall achievement of performance objectives in the business area in terms of employee satisfaction, customer experience,
• cost performance, return on investments, risk, compliance and governance requirements
• Provide clear direction to team members on the AIFA strategic plan and key focus areas and ensure their understanding and buy-in by explaining their expected contribution to achievement of the business objectives
• Manage and drive the turnaround time in terms of targets for life and investments to ensure a high sales performance within the region.
• Manage the delivery of deviance reporting, on a monthly basis, to the Provincial General Manger in order to provide
• recommendations and mitigating solutions to deviances that have occurred (e.g. sales targets not met etc).
• Coordinate the efforts of the different operational areas under management to ensure minimal duplication of effort, maximum efficiency and value for money.
• Re-balance resources between different areas e.g. reallocating headcount or budgets, but within overall approved resources for the year.
• Manage regional budgets including signing off of invoices and quotes within mandate. Escalate out of budget items to the Provincial General Manager for approval.
• Analyse effectiveness of processes and systems in use in the region and make recommendations to the Provincial General Manager (PGM) for improvements.
• Review performance against balanced scorecard components as prescribed by the Provincial General Manager, discuss gaps and agree action plans to close gaps.
• Benchmark productivity of the region against industry standards and create measures to improve productivity.
• Agree and manage service offerings and Service Level Agreements with internal customers (agree annually and measure on a monthly basis).
• Assist Advisers, as necessary, by interacting with clients in order to facilitate sales and/or address client „h concerns/complaints

Accountability: People Management

• Work with Advisers in the team to achieve excellent business results through continuous people development and mentoring activities.
• Ensure the development of a high-performing team through embedding formal Performance Development and informal coaching. Encourage frequent knowledge sharing between team members.
• Conduct meaningful Performance Development discussions with Advisers and ensure that agreed action plans are implemented.
• Determine and analyse training and development needs for Advisers. Ensure that identified training is budgeted for and executed.
• Interview and recruit new members of the team, including determinimg appropriate compensation levels per the relevant remuneration model for advisers.
• Establish and maintain a succession plan for the regional team of Advisers by seeking and attracting new Advisers on an ongoing basis.
• Create effective workforce plans and recruitment demand plans for own region to ensure that current and future business requirements can be met. Plans should be revised at least twice a year.
• Approve leave requests for Advisers and manage the leave planning for own team of Advisers effectively.
• Act as first level escalation point for all grievances raised by Advisers in the region.
• Ensure that all poor performance is addressed through the Performance Accelerator (PA) Programme and that continued poor performance is adequately dealt with. Review PA interventions to determine their effectiveness and implement changes as necessary.
• Motivate Advisers in own region and ensure that their efforts are recognised.
• Participate in the creation and implementation of Employee Opinion Survey (EOS) action for the regional team of advisers.
• Perform the role of Management Representative at disciplinary hearings when necessary.

Accountability: Risk Management

• Communicate processes, control requirements and risk management frameworks that impact the sales process in own region and provide documented support to ensure understanding and for reference by Advisers.
• Coach team members on all the processes and controls that they have to execute in their daily work and ensure that they understand the reasons for the controls and the consequences for failing to adhere to prescribed processes
• Test a sample of activities on a weekly basis by reviewing documentation and checking business concluded by advisers to see if controls are being adhered to. Coach team members on areas for improvement
• Own and agree corrective action items arising out of Compliance, Internal Audit and/or Management Assurance findings related to the functional area under management.
• Cooperate with management assurance initiatives for issue assurance to close audit findings.
• Ensure that Advisers in own region complete all required compliance exams and attestations within the specified „h timeframes. Do not allow advisers to work until they have completed pre-requisite compliance training.
• Ensure that the team understands all compliance requirements and call for the area's Compliance Officer to conduct briefing sessions if gaps are identified.
• Ensure that all regulatory requirements are adhered to by facilitating knowledge acquisition by the Advisers. Provide information on all changes to policies, processes and procedures that are being planned and ensure that team members read circulars that are relevant to the area and answer questions they may have.

Accountability: Identify Business Opportunities

• Identify and manage the creation of new business opportunities (within the Bank or externally) for the region in order to expand the market size for AIFA and to support the Advisers with new sales opportunities
• Identify new business offerings for the Advisers in order to provide additional sales opportunities, and liaise with relevant product providers where necessary

Accountability: Client Complaints Management

• Address complaints lodged by clients with regards to claim payouts, service and/or advice rendered by investigating if all relevant compliance processes were followed by the Adviser and if proper feedback and / or information was given to the client. Cooperate with the Dispute Resolution Consultants to address client complaints by seeking and providing information as requested.
• Represent the Adviser at the FAIS Panel in cases where the complaint was handed over to the Customer Experience department, where appropriate
• Attend regular meetings / forums with AIFA's Customer Experience department to recommend solutions to customer complaints, understand and retrieve information e.g. changes to processes, enhancements to policies etc.

Education

• Bachelors Degree and Professional Qualifications: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)