Manager - Annuity Customer Experience

The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it.We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.
The Retirement Customer Support Manager is responsible for directly leading and managing a team of 15-25 Advocates. This team delivers customer and advisor contact center experience with all retail retirement products with a managed-money approach and mindset. Advocates are responsible for professional, accurate, and responsive contact resolution—up to and including financial processing on the spot. The Retirement Customer Support Manager creates an environment and structure that motivates their team to make intentional decisions that consider long-term impact and contribute to achieving department goals. Additionally, the Manager is expected to support the growth and success of all Retirement Customer Support team members, both front-line employees and leaders, regardless of reporting structure. Our mission is to provide a first-class experience which mirrors our ambition to be a top Annuity provider from New Business through Claims.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain an in-depth understanding of KPI performance drivers
• Create, refine, and analyze reporting to identify critical data points and trends that inform recognition, coaching, and performance management action plans
• Be an advocate for your team members to ensure they have all the tools they need to be successful including: adequate training, correct system access and coaching support  
• Coach team members to provide professional, accurate, and responsive contact resolution
• Conduct regular one on one meetings with each direct report (monthly or greater)
• Conduct regular business reviews to understand performance gaps, perform root cause analysis that focuses on processes over behaviors, and develop action plans to rectify
• Collaborate with training partners, other key areas in Retirement Operations to socialize and learn best practices that drive operational excellence as evidenced by KPI performance 
• Support revision and execution of individual development plans (IDPs) that are independently created by a team member to foster their own growth and career development
• Drive closed-loop communication process for systemic issues that are escalated by the team
• Partner with Relationship Specialist team on opportunities, feedback
• Document and update progress for continuous improvement initiatives identified through regular team meetings and other feedback loops 
• Articulate how department KPIs align to Division strategy. Drive adoption of continuous improvement culture by painting the picture for team members to understand how they contribute to short and long-term goals
• Quantify and validate impact of continuous improvement initiatives
• Creativity in exploring differentiated shifts to support seasonality and day-to-day staffing needs
• Collaboration with Ops, Case Management and Relationship Management leaders to determine best practices and ramp up rep knowledge where appropriate
• Contributes to and supports both team and divisional strategy
• Demonstrated understanding of contact center operations technology used to drive operational efficiency
• Leverage flexibility of WFM system to identify staffing requirements 
• Utilize technology supported by Retirement Ops Services to drive operational efficiencies (Speech Analytics, Knowledge Management, IVR Self Service, Quality and Workforce Management)

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business or related field ideal, High school diploma required.
• 2+ years of contact center management or business operations management experience required.
• Financial Services experience is a plus, with a particular focus on Retirement/Annuity products.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to build trusted partnerships with staff and other Divisional leaders; demonstrated ability to build rapport and gain alignment with overall divisional strategy
• Track record of leveraging statistical analysis to make data driven performance improvement decisions 
• Ability to educate, engage and motivate teams, using real life situations to gain buy in and create accountability to support and drive operational change
• Ability to quickly analyze a situation and offer solutions to improve operational processes and service performance
• Uses a combination of personal experiences and industry best practices to ensure standard operating procedures and expectations are understood and consistently audited 

Employee Benefits:  We aim to protect our employees' wellbeing through a broad benefits offering. For example, w