Working hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Duration: Permanent 

Location: Birmingham

Job ref: 203236

About the role

Ecclesiastical Insurance, who are proudly part of Benefact Group are looking for a Senior Underwriter to join our Birmingham office.

The role holder will deliver exceptional customer service acting as part of the underwriting team, supporting Ecclesiastical’s “right first time” approach to customer service.

Joining our rapidly expanding and innovative Group presents a fantastic opportunity to develop your career and become an integral part of an inclusive, purpose-led organisation.

About the Birmingham region

Join a highly successful business area within Ecclesiastical Insurance. The region has almost doubled in size, both in terms of headcount and GWP in the last 6 years whilst maintaining Underwriting quality. The Birmingham office has a great story to tell and you could become part of it. 

Key responsibilities

• Manage a defined caseload.
  
• Act as referral point for the team providing coaching, training in an appropriate time frame.
  
• Identifying and conducting specific training for individuals/the region.
  
• Support less experienced members of the team with their broker engagement.
  
• Develop, negotiate, and profitably underwrite existing business within own authority and in line with Brand strategy.
  
• Build and maintain commercial relationships including commercial visits and activity.
  
• Plan, prioritise and manage individual work to deliver agreed objectives and meet SLAs to deliver exceptional customer service.
  
• Use the appropriate method of communication (telephone, face to face) to support Ecclesiastical’s right first-time approach to maintain successful Internal and External relationships.
  
• Act on individual audit results and agreed action plans within agreed deadlines to improve own performance.
  
• Completion of file audits/audit actions in line with regional plan, attending audit consistency meetings and providing feedback for areas of improvement to RUM
  
• Understand and operate within regulatory framework and identify and escalate any risks to the business.
  
• Identify complaints, act upon them, and resolve in line with company policy.
  
• Conduct audits and provide feedback, coaching and training as appropriate.
  
• Provide team manager support as and when required.
  
• Actively expand personal technical and niche knowledge both informally (networking internally and externally, internet, industry press) and formally (In-house training, CII, CPD)
  
• Maintain, use, and develop your underwriting authority and take responsibility for your professionalism and development.
  
• Delivering underwriting excellence through specialist knowledge and support (Commercial Awareness).
  
• Share best practice and knowledge which would benefit the wider team.
  
• Identification of areas for continuous improvement and simplification in our processes and ways of working.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Minimum of 5 GCSE’s including Maths and English at grade C or above or equivalent experience
• Qualified Dip CII or commitment to achieve within an agreed timescale.
• A proven track record of delivering exceptional customer service.
• Appropriate IT skills
• Strong verbal communication skills
• Experience of acting as a coach within a commercial environment
• Experience of effective stakeholder management within a commercial environment
• Experience of meeting commercial partners/stakeholders.

What we offer

• A competitive salary - let's discuss it
• Hybrid working
• Group Personal Pension - up to 12% employer contribution
  
• Generous annual bonus scheme up to 24%
  
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, and a holiday buy and sell scheme
  
• A range of health and wellbeing benefits, including private healthcare, income protection and life assurance
  
• Up to £400 annual personal grant to a charity of your choice
  
• Encouraged to take at least one volunteering day per year
  
• Employee Assistance Programme
  
• Full study support to gain professional qualifications
• Access to virtual GP
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay

About us

Ecclesiastical Insurance offer insurance with award-winning service across a broad range of specialisms, including faith, charity, heritage, education, art and private client, real estate and schemes, across Ireland, Canada and the UK.

As a business, we’ve been trusted to protect some of the UK’s best-loved and most iconic buildings for over a century, and we’re not standing still. We’re a forward thinking, energetic organisation entering new markets, with an ambition to double our size, because when we grow, we give back more.

Benefact Group is a unique international financial services Group made up of over 30 businesses. We are owned by a charity and have been the 3rd largest UK corporate donor over a decade*, having given away £250 million since 2014. We have ambitious plans to become the UK’s number one corporate donor, with strategic objectives in place to double the Group’s size.

We believe it’s essential to attract, empower, grow and reward talented people, offering fantastic opportunities for career and personal development. Our giving ethos, 135-year history and the diversity of what we do, has enabled us to build a culture of kindness, great ambition, and of passionate people driven to do better and be better.

At Benefact Group, we are committed to creating an inclusive culture and building an environment where each and every one of us feels valued and respected. We are a community made up of people with a range of different backgrounds, abilities, perspectives, beliefs and interests and we value the strength this brings to us as a Group. We welcome applications from everyone.

If you need any additional support during the recruitment process, then please let us know. 

*Directory of Social Change’s UK Guides to Company Giving 2017-26