What we do at Hewitt
We help a wide range of organisations around the world to manage their employees' pension schemes. Hundreds of billions of pounds that forms the retirement income for millions of people.
Our consultants analyse the past, assess the present and predict the future to help our clients control the risks that affect their pension schemes. To best ensure that the promised pensions can be paid when our clients' employees retire.
We analyse the pension promises made by companies, the investments backing those future payments and the financial and demographic changes that have affected the amounts and timing of those pensions. This requires detailed data analysis and mathematical modelling skills as well as knowledge of the legal rules relating to each particular pension scheme.
We predict likely future outcomes and illustrate to our clients the impact of the risks that they must manage. Scenario and stochastic modelling applying calculated probabilities and understanding of financial markets, general business practices and social behaviours. The calculated results must be communicated so that they are fully understood by people who are not highly trained in those skills.
We assess our clients' individual needs and advise of the particular solutions to best suit their situation and aims. A deep understanding of our clients' businesses, and the needs of their people who we work closely with, are vital in determining the right solution. Some fresh innovation may be required, but understanding practicalities is essential and often the simplest solutions work best. Common sense and people interaction skills are as important to the end product as the mathematical modelling.
Your career at Hewitt
Your career is your career. We employ a large number of people and all are different. Whilst numeracy is pretty commonly strong and desire to work with, and help, other people is prevalent, everyone has slightly different skills and different interests and aims.
We believe that our clients and our business will benefit if our people are able to develop the career that best suits their own skills, interests and aims. We would look to support and guide you in the opportunities that arise, but leave the decision making to you. Whilst many will look to follow fairly similar career paths, a great many others will explore different things and perhaps find a niche for life, or perhaps enjoy the variety of regular change.
Like any successful team, we are looking for a range of skills and personalities.
Some people will be our future pension or investment gurus, some will be more general advisers to businesses or pension scheme trustees, and others will manage our people and processes.
Whichever role you move into you will need to be highly numerate, with good communication skills and a desire to challenge yourself in everything you do. The 'future gurus' will tend to be stronger in mathematics and finance, while the general consultants and managers will be more expert in communications.
All will thrive on solving often complex problems to help our clients and their employees. We are looking for team players who have the drive and ambition to take on early responsibility and want to play a key part in developing our future.
In exchange, we will encourage and support you to shape your own career and help you to focus on the areas of our business you excel in and most enjoy. The global nature of our clients and the breadth of our services mean you may have opportunities to move to different practices and locations, or to travel overseas.
Roles within Investment
Our investment practice analyses the investments that finance the future pension payments for our clients' employees. The practice is smaller than our pensions practice, but still includes around 200 people.
The vast majority of work is in London where the practice is as large as our pensions practice. There are smaller teams in each of other five UK consulting offices, and each would provide a role for the right graduate.
The work involves analysis of the past: investment market returns; returns achieved by specific investment managers; and the theories and practices adopted by those investment management companies.
This information needs to be assessed: is the information credible; is there something unusual about the past compared to the future; and how material is it for the purpose of the assessment?
Our consultants can then help our clients predict the size and timing of the future investment income, compare this with predicted future pension payments and determine the precise investments that will best support those future pension payments.
We will be offering roles in our investment practice to a further 5 to 10 skilled and motivated graduates.
Our Consultant Development team is the starting point for our graduates looking to specialise in providing investment advice. Some will focus on technical research while others will support consultants advising clients, whilst they develop the skills and specialisms that will ensure a successful career.
You will work very closely with our consultants who will help you develop your own consulting style and introduce you to the clients they advise.
Roles within Pensions
Our pensions practice analyses the pensions that are promised to our clients' employees. It is the largest part of our business, but works very closely with our other practices.
Teams of 50 to 150 people can be found in each of our six UK consulting offices.
The work involves analysis of the past: changes in employees' pay; employee job movement; and pensioners' ever lengthening lives.
This information needs to be assessed: is the information credible; is there something unusual about the past compared to the future; and how material is it for the purpose of the assessment?
Our consultants can then help our clients predict the size and timing of the future pension payments and determine the amount and types of investments to support those payments.
Often our advice is to help our clients manage and monitor their risks and financing. On other occasions it is to help them re-design the type of pensions they provide. Sometimes our advice provides the make or break details in a corporate transaction, particularly in the ever increasing world of private equity takeovers.
We will be offering roles in our pensions practice to a further 25 to 30 skilled and motivated graduates. Our Pensions Actuarial Services (PAS) team is the first port of call. Over a period of four or so years, you will acquire the knowledge and hone the essential skills that provide the foundation of your career, whilst providing services to our clients.
You will work very closely with our consultants who will help you develop your own consulting style and introduce you to the clients they advise.
Specialist Roles
We have a number of small groups that focus on particular types of clients, technical support for consultants or extending client services. From time to time new graduate opportunities arise in these groups.
Currently, there are such roles available in our Public Sector team that specialises in advising Government and Local Authorities on the management of pensions for their employees.
There are roles for people with some experience of our business in our model development, client communication, health care, talent management, governance and legislation interpretation teams, although a graduate entry opportunity could also arise for the right candidate.
Pay and Benefits
Your starting package will be at least £30,000. It will be more than this if your degree provides a fast track on the professional qualifications that we support, or if you don't want to take your full holiday allocation.
Pay is reviewed annually and will reflect the development that you have made in your skills and along your career path. There are also increases to reflect success in professional exams. We would expect our strongest graduate recruits to see their pay double in four years, and our fastest developing consultants will see this double again by the age of 30. For our best client consultants the financial rewards greatly exceed those six figure levels.
There are also generous bonus schemes linked to your efforts and abilities in the office and the success of our business, and recognition payments relating to performance on specific projects. Some graduates have received around £4,000 on top of their regular pay in their first year.
The levels of potential bonus payment accelerate as your career progresses.
Your salary is paid in the form of a flexible benefits package, which gives you control over your benefits and cash income.
You could opt to receive a range of benefits, including private health and dental cover, travel insurance, a bicycle, shopping discounts, additional holiday and a sabbatical holiday bank. Or you could take the cash instead, and maybe pay off your student loan a bit quicker.
Retirement pensions and life insurance cover naturally form a standard part of the package, but also include options to buy more or to temporarily get extra cash instead of building up more for retirement.
You make your choice on joining and then every September, or at other times during the year for some of the benefits.
Applying to Hewitt
If you are ready to apply simply click on the Apply Now button on our website hewittgraduate.co.uk which takes you straight to our online application form.
If you meet the requirements and we like what we read about you, we will invite you to complete an online numeracy test. If this confirms that you are comfortable with numbers we will invite you to meet us at an assessment day. We can then find out a little more about your personality and skills and you can decide whether you like our work, our people and our culture.
We select candidates for further assessments based only on responses given on the application form.