Global Services and Solutions Graduate Programme

The Business 

The support provided to clients by the Global Services and Solutions (GSS) team is varied and challenging, encompassing a wide range of different types of work. We group our services into three main areas as follows:

Retirement

• Accounting consolidation for employee benefit plans globally
• Technical expertise on global risk management including financial, cost and risk control solutions for retirement plans
• Support with the management of defined contribution plans
• Global oversight, governance and strategy
• Actuarial valuations for defined benefit pension plans for expatriates

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Due diligence associated with cross-border mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
• Post-merger integration support

Global Benefits Management (GBM)

• Global broking or other benefits procurement activity
• Co-sourcing of Global Benefits Management support to multinationals
• Advisory services focusing on strategy, financing, benchmarking and inventories of clients’ global employee benefits portfolios
• Support on health and wellbeing strategies
• Support to clients expanding into new countries or markets

The Role 

*** Please note that we do not accept multiple applications and you should only select and apply to one programme per year***

Opening Date: October 2020

Closing Date: January 2021

Location: London

Salary: Competitive 

We are looking for someone with people skills and a desire to have a career in consulting on a broad range of global HR and finance topics. As part of the role, you will be required to demonstrate your technical skills through studying for the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries exams, to supplement the consulting work. As you progress in the role, we are looking for you to take on more responsibility for project managing large global projects and developing trusted relationships as advisors to the HQ functions of multinational clients across the range of services that WTW offers.

The types of projects you could be involved in during your career with GSS include:

• Coordinate the actuarial valuations of a client’s pension and other long-term benefit plans for inclusion in their annual reports; working with local actuarial teams around the world to review for consistency and produce analysis and reports for the client
• Delivering advice to the headquarters of our multinational clients on employee benefit matters around the world. This includes the coordination and project management of global benefit benchmarking and compliance exercises, cost savings projects, developing governance frameworks and, setting up expatriate benefit programmes.
• Assisting senior consultants to provide advice on people issues as part of a merger, acquisition or divestiture, including performing due diligence on the target company, recommendations of benefit harmonisation approaches and some financial aspects such as the impact of pension liabilities on the purchase price of a company.
• Delivering advice to multinational clients about how they can more effectively finance their insured employee benefits (such as life insurance and health insurance) in order to take advantage of potential cost savings and other non-financial advantages. Activities might include cost projections, provider selection and negotiation, implementation and ongoing support.
• Implementing new pension plans and undertaking provider selection processes in countries where Willis Towers Watson does not have a local retirement team.
• Keeping up to date on changes in legislation and market practice to identify issues that clients should be addressing, both in specific countries and in a wider macroeconomic sense.
• Supporting the use of Willis Towers Watson’s tools to help clients to maximise the value from their benefits data.
• Working as part of a team to perform actuarial valuations of pension plans for expatriates under different accounting standards.
• Supporting the administration of complex defined benefit pension plans for expatriates.
• Supporting on research to enhance our intellectual capital.
• Supporting new business pitches, e.g. drafting proposals for new projects for clients.
• Getting involved in ad-hoc projects in other areas such as Global Health & Wellbeing, Global Benefits Management, Defined Contribution pension consulting, embedding corporate Inclusion and Diversity principles in their benefit provisions.

The Requirements 

• Minimum 2:1 degree in a numerate discipline OR 
• 2:1 degree including A-Level Maths grade A/B or equivalent qualifications

Skills and Attributes:

• Relationship building skills in order to work effectively with colleagues in other teams, other offices and other countries, as well as outside third parties, when delivering to clients’ needs.
• Self-motivation and the ability to work effectively both independently and in teams, including remotely with colleagues in other countries.
• Strong project management and communication skills, specifically the ability to juggle several different projects concurrently and deliver on all of them.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• An ability to think creatively in order to develop tailored solutions or advice to clients.
• A desire to work towards an actuarial qualification. We suggest you understand this commitment before applying.
• Flexibility to work outside of normal business hours in order to communicate with clients/colleagues in other time zones or to meet client deadlines when required.
• Attitude to always deliver high quality work in line with clients’ expectations.
• Keen to learn
• Ability to manipulate and analyse data will be advantageous 
• An interest in people issues affecting multinational companies

Career Path and Study Support  

Our development programme will equip you with the skills you need to progress in your career. During the first few years, the focus will be on technical and consulting skills, and you will follow a structured development programme of blended learning consisting of a mix of classroom sessions, eLearning, webinars, recorded videos, self-study and reading. You will also benefit from access to our career pathing materials, enabling you to take control of your career from an early stage. 

Trainee consultants in the Global Services & Solutions team study to become Fellows of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Willis Towers Watson will support you through the actuarial exams with a study mentor as well as a complete and flexible study support package that includes: 

• Membership fees of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 
• Study materials for each exam such as course notes, sample questions, past paper questions, mock exams and revision notes  
• Tutorials for each exam  
• Exam entry fees and a re-sit attempt if required  
• Study leave roughly equal to one day per week  
• You will also have the support of a large body of students and qualified actuaries, who can share their experiences of studying for the exams. 
•  Trainee consultants receive salary increases for each exam passed in addition to increases that are awarded as part of their annual salary review. 

Equal Opportunity Employer

Start date for the UK Graduate Programme will be September 2021.