Back Office Planning Manager

Job content

At M&G our vision is: to become the best loved and most successful savings and investment businessand we’re looking for people who are excited about joining us on our journey. We’re digitally transforming and investing heavily in technology and innovation to develop new and improved customer propositions that really raise the bar for our customers. To help us achieve our vision we’re looking for exceptional people who live our values and behaviours and who can inspire others; embrace change; deliver results and keep it simple.We know that an inclusive environment makes us more accessible and ensures we attract, engage, promote and retain exceptional people. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity/nationality, disability, or military service and welcome those who have taken career breaks. We will consider flexible working arrangements or home working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.What You Can Expect From UsWe are committed to creating an environment where you can be exceptional at all you do. To help us deliver this, we promise to:

• Challenge Your Limits by creating a stimulating working environment and providing opportunities for you to be involved in meaningful and challenging work
• Support Your Aspirations with a commitment to learning and development that helps you achieve and build your experience with people who want you to succeed
• Value Your Input whereby leaders and managers will involve you in key decisions, listen to your thoughts and recognise the important contribution you make
• Balance Your Life through a work life partnership that focuses on making this an inclusive, diverse and friendly place to work and offers the flexibility and support that enables everyone to be at their best

How Do We Support Our EmployeesAll M&G plc employees will be supported in the workplace through our M&G Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). If you need counselling, confidential financial or legal advice. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers access to qualified professionals who can provide specialist information, advice and support on many issues. It offers a broad range of services, including help with family issues, maintaining work/life balance and mental health support.The Role: Back Office Planning ManagerYou will be joining the Wealth Operational Planning team, helping us shape the future of our back office operational planning framework. This is a hands on role, responsible for the production, maintenance and future development of our operational plan. Focusing on the operational planning tempo that delivers a balanced future plan, which are periodically locked down and reviewed (plan V actual) on a weekly / bi-weekly basis. Responsible for the rigour of the rolling tactical resourcing plans, helping our operational teams understand risks and opportunities within the operation.The operational planning manager will be responsible for curation of the planning inputs i.e. the upstream systems from where the planning inputs originated, how they’re calculated, alongside applying business logic to the inputs in the plan. Reviewing basic planning hygiene factors and variances between updated plans, recommendations should be made as to the risks in the plan, alongside reviewing the relative workstack positions for the different teams. The operational planning manager will work closely with our data, reporting and operational teams to build insight into the plans on a continual improvement basis.Key Work Level Accountabilities

• For technical specialists, accountable for delivering expert advice or service, using specialist knowledge and subject matter expertise.
• Applies judgement to deliver outcomes, evaluating a range of potential solutions, considering the impact for customers, cost and risk.
• Manages conflicts that may impact delivery.
• Challenges upwards given knowledge of delivery and awareness of complex systems and the broader picture.
• Identifies and anticipates need for changes to continuously improve quality and efficiency of output.
• Manages resources and risks using expert judgment, know-how and experience.

Key Responsibilities For This Role

• Responsible for the weekly production of an existing operational plan, ensuring a joint understanding of the risks in the plans, and collaborating on assumptions and mitigations agreed with the operational teams.
• The role holder will have a hands on approach to reviewing and maintaining the plan whist agreeing and understanding the context behind planning methods and proposed changes to the plans.
• Analysis and interpretation of variances to plan, providing root cause analysis and collaborating with the ops teams to explaining deviations to plan.
• Turn analysis into insightful and business impacting recommendations, gaining buy-in and influencing changes necessary to improve planning process delivering trackable customer improvements.
• Work with other teams across the business to ensure best possible business and customer outcomes.
• Support and reinforce transformation agendas and programmes, providing the operational landing point for the change where necessary.
• Agree change governance to the plans and planning cycle.
• Engage across the Wealth operation to secure buy in to operational plans, helping stakeholders understand risk and working through mitigation recommendations on the best approach for service.
• Work with our data and reporting teams to develop planning support tools as required to provide insight and support for our operational teams.

Key Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Experience in capacity forecasting techniques i.e. gross capacity capture, applied shrinkage, net capacity calculations, unit times calculations, productivity calculations, overall closure calculations etc.
• Experience in planning mechanisms and applied logic to produce planning outcomes.
• Experience, or an understanding of allocation priorities along with workflow principles and the dynamics between Planning, Workflow and Allocation.
• Able to make recommendations in an environment of multiple and conflicting demands to mitigate service and/or risks in the plans.
• Experience of using Excel at a moderate to high level with basic data analysis and data manipulation skills
• Able to view the plans through multiple lenses i.e. background data build for the planning mechanisms and customer outcomes for Operational teams.
• Desirable - experience with Salesforce as a CRM system.

Work Level: Experienced colleagueRecruiter Name: Chloe MurphyClosing Date: 12th October 2022We live by four behaviours at M&G and we ask all our employees to:

• Inspire Others - Support and encourage each other, creating an environment where everyone can contribute and succeed
• Embrace Change - Be open to change, willing to be challenged and able to adapt quickly and imaginatively to new ideas
• Deliver Results - Focus on outcomes, set high standards and deliver with energy and determination
• Keep it Simple - Cut through complexity and bureaucracy, be clear and decisive and never overcomplicate things