Organisational overview
Nest is a great government delivery success story. Established in 2010, Nest has been a critical pillar of the government’s automatic enrolment programme, with a public service obligation (PSO) to accept any employer wishing to use the scheme to discharge their automatic enrolment duties.
From a standing start, we have delivered a high quality, low cost pension scheme, open to all, which has not only delivered on its mission, but helped to drive up standards and best practice across the industry. Now with over 12 million members, Nest is playing a critical role in helping people save for their retirement many of them low to moderate earners who may be saving for the first time and moving jobs frequently.
Nest now occupies a place in the market as a major Master Trust, a sector that has grown following the introduction of automatic enrolment and that we believe has great potential for delivering pensions to mass market consumers for many years to come, leveraging scale to offer low cost, modernised services in the context of strong Trustee governance.
To best serve our diverse customer base, it’s important that Nest has an equally diverse workforce and
promotes an inclusive culture. This is in line with the organisation’s values and ensures that Nest is a corporation fit for the future.
Directorate overview
Nest has a bold new purpose, and an ambitious corporate strategy, which we are delivering at a time of significant anticipated market reform. The Strategy & Transformation function is new at Nest, and this role will establish a highly strategic, outward-looking, enterprise-wide Impact and Public Affairs capability which will super-charge our impact and effectiveness over the coming years.
The wider team comprises a globally-aware, forward-looking team of professionals. We push ahead, define and embed Nest’s strategy and its transformational agenda. We are multi-disciplinary. We identify and resolve strategic questions which will shape the future of Nest and our context in fundamental ways, including questions about Nest’s operating model, and our role in the UK financial services landscape.
We own, maintain and embed a compelling, commercially successful strategy for Nest and ensure that the organisation is aligned with its goals both in terms of intent and delivery. We are a team which sees the big picture, asks stretching questions, challenges and collaborates, and demonstrates the confidence, curiosity and leadership to ensure Nest’s purpose, vision and direction are traced into all aspects of delivery at all levels.
Crucially, we recognise that strategy isn’t formulated and delivered in a vacuum. The strategic capability this role will build will make sure that Nest understands, influences and shapes its external environment and is a visible, respected part of the UK and global pensions landscape.
The role
This role is part of our new Strategy and Transformation function and offers a rare opportunity to build an expert, influential, externally visible capability within a purpose-driven, strategically minded organisation.
Working closely with the Board and Executive, the Director of Impact and Public Affairs will make sure that Nest has an astute understanding of its external environment, and is able to translate that into strategic choices and decisions. They will define and own our engagement strategy, lead our policy and government handling teams and work across the organisation, and externally, to drive communications and wider public affairs activity. This function will be critical to delivering Nest’s purpose and strategy; we don’t just want to respond to the system as we find it – we want to shape it, to better meet the needs of the UK’s low to moderate earners.
Scope and deliverables
Accountability
- Accountable for ensuring our strategy (which is set by Nest’s Board and maintained and delivered by its Executive via the Strategy & Transformation function) is supported and enabled by key external stakeholders including and not limited to, UK Government
- Responsible for making sure we have a clear, coherent and understood strategic engagement strategy which is supported by Board and our Executive
- Accountable for translating our engagement strategy into clear and impactful tactical approaches and activity plans, working with teams across the organisation to execute
- Accountable for establishing a new function and capability in Nest which understands, captures, responds to and shapes external stakeholder sentiment and translates this into strategic choices and positions at enterprise-level
- Accountable for making sure that there are clear lines of responsibility and communication between all external-facing teams in the organisation, so that we can be confident we are clear, consistent and having the effect we are seeking
- Accountable for our partnership activity with the Department for Work and Pensions, and other Government stakeholders as required
- Provides leadership across the organisation, ensuring we have enterprise-wide positions, views, priorities and championing strategic action-taking where it ‘shapes the system’
Deliverables
- Defines, with the Executive and the Board, our engagement strategy
- Establishes a corporate affairs, stakeholder management and impact function which is capable of delivering in line with our strategy
- Establishes and nurtures strategic external relationships with key stakeholder communities and organisations to ensure favourable conditions for the delivery of our corporate strategy
- Increases Nest’s external visibility and influence in demonstrable, strategic, measurable ways
- Defines how Nest measures its societal and systemic impact; and works with leaders across the organisation to drive aligned activity – including across Nest Invest and Nest Insight; in particular it builds internal effective working practice and stewardship with Nest Insight
- Demonstrates the effectiveness of stakeholder management and corporate affairs activity and can define and measure the outcomes of their approach, linking it back to our corporate strategy at all times
- Establishes effective internal working practice and demonstrates, through enterprise leadership and strong management, the outcome and value of our engagement strategy and activity plans
- Makes sure Nest’s external positions, behaviours and ways of working are coherent and at all times aligned with our strategy
- Identifies and facilitates the creation of, positions and thought-leadership which supports the delivery of Nest’s strategy
- Embeds a network of external stakeholder expertise at Nest, building on existing strength across the organisation and at all times ensuring our strategy and our approach is clear and aligned and effective
Relationships and autonomy
- Reports to Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer (CSTO)
- Central part of the Strategy and Transformation leadership team, plus the wider Nest leadership community; expected to deputise for the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer
- Leads our policy and government relationship teams and works with teams across the organisation, including external communications
- Extensive and deep external relationships including with the Department of Work and Pensions (this role will oversee our partnership engagement) and wider Government stakeholders as required
- Partnerships with external organisations, including those identified as valuable by the Director of Impact and Corporate Affairs
- Strong and productive relationships with our Director of Brand and Communications, and key roles in Nest Insight and Nest Invest; facilitates approaches, positions and thought-leadership which can identify and capitalise on strategic opportunities (and mitigate risks)
- Strategic owner of the Corporation’s relationship with Nest Insight
- Is a key part of Nest’s enterprise-wide leadership community; leading by example in terms of the behaviours and ways of working which will enable Nest to truly shape the system in the interests of the UK’s low to moderate earners
- Advocates for our strategy & transformation internally and externally; is expected to be externally visible and to promote the visibility of Nest’s leadership
- Builds a policy and stakeholder function which can quickly develop and mature in order to add significant organisational value