Interesting fact!
Punter Southall helped me achieve a massive personal ambition; to walk the 630 mile South West Coastal Path in aid of a local Children’s Hospice.
Like most people outside the industry, as a carefree university student I had never heard of Punter Southall. To be fair, I had never heard of an actuarial consultancy! However, I was offered a year-long admin placement in July 2001 which I gamely accepted, and it wasn’t long before I realised what a fun, social, dynamic company I had stumbled into. I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to return on a full-time basis after my final year at university. Eight years later, having worked my way up through the ranks, I have recently been promoted to Senior Consultant and transferred to our office in Birmingham which is a brilliant new challenge and very exciting!
The role of pensions administrator is an unusual one. On the one hand, certainly in the earlier years, it involves a significant amount of administrative tasks. However, over time as my technical knowledge has developed at Punter Southall, the myriad of activities I have been involved in has become surprisingly diverse. One of the great things I have found about Punter Southall is that even seemingly innocuous talents are recognised and nurtured, and can lead to some unexpected opportunities. As an example, my love for pub quizzes, and my history of amateur dramatics, led to the Marketing Committee asking me to host a quiz evening for local clients and contacts. This then led to me being asked to direct a role play style presentation at a regional pensions conference, and to appear in some training videos for a new web-based pension projection tool – move over Howard from the Halifax ads! Beyond that, Punter Southall also helped me achieve a massive personal ambition, by supporting me (and permitting me to take an 8-week sabbatical) so I could walk the 630 mile South West Coastal Path in aid of a local Children’s Hospice.
The general day job of a pensions administrator is a balance between performing calculations, issuing letters, providing advice, reporting back to clients, and explaining often quite complex concepts to scheme members over the phone. Most administrators have different strengths, be they numerical, linguistic, presentational or organisational. At Punter Southall all those strengths are utilised and appreciated. We work in teams and support each other, and I have always felt a strong sense of camaraderie and friendship both within the teams and the company as a whole. The pensions landscape is constantly changing, meaning there are always new things to learn. Furthermore, an administrator works on a wide range of pension schemes performing a variety of roles, and, every time we win a new client, there is another set of scheme rules, procedures, and people to become familiar with. That said, my team is an ever-present calming influence and there is an excellent support structure in place throughout the company. Training (both explicit and on-the-job) is superb. Finally, everyone is so approachable that you never feel isolated.
I must admit that, in spite of the excellent career development, fantastic working environment and wide variety of activities you can become involved in, the biggest reason why I work, and have worked, at Punter Southall for so long is the people here. As well as being a great bunch to work with, they are also a great bunch to play with, whether it be at office socials (such as the excellent Christmas/Summer parties), as part of the usually defeated but always optimistic cricket team, or just on a Friday night when many will be found socialising in local establishments.
Basically, coming to work at Punter Southall was a great decision for me. If you’re ambitious and prepared to work hard as part of a team, then the opportunity to develop and progress is there, and I do not think there could be a better environment in which to work. In short, Punter Southall is both Pleasantly Social and Professionally Satisfying, and provides a real Platform for Success. It really is the perfect Place to Start!