Head of Employee Benefits, Product Development & Underwriting

Job description / Role

Head of Employee Benefits Product Development & Underwriting

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Chief Employee Benefits Officer, the purpose of the role is to develop and sustain a market leading position in the Health and Corporate Life insurance market segment within the Gulf.

The position represents a key leadership role having direct responsibility for leading the profitable growth of Employee Benefits insurance throughout the Gulf region on the medium & large corporate segment (Including SME) through the effective “direct” management of a specialist team of Product Development Underwriting Managers with the direct support of generalist distribution channels (direct & brokers).

As a senior leadership position, the role is responsible for all product reviews, product development and underwriting of Corporate & Individual Healthcare products as well as Corporate Life covering Bahrain, Oman, UAE and Qatar

The role will be responsible for liaising internally on Group Life product reviews, product development and underwriting of Group Life Products as well as developing and shaping external relationships with key stakeholders including major clients & brokers.

Key Performance Areas

Area of Knowledge:

• Sound knowledge of Corporate & Individual Health products and underwriting principles
• Sound knowledge of Group & Corporate Life products and underwriting principles
• Sound knowledge of Reinsurance
• Strong knowledge of claim and policy administration/operations.
• Strong strategy implementation and business management skills
• Strong business intelligence aptitude

Main Accountability:

• Business, Market, and Sales Development
- Maintain competitive advantage and customer centric view on product benefits, packages and the definition of all group, tailor made and packaged products
- Liaise with the Pricing team to define, review, authorize and ensure implementation of approved assumptions for the Underwriting Period (inflation use, ensure committee submission and implementation)
- Work with the pricing team on the annual review of the quotation modeling tool
- Develop systematic market and business intelligence by:
- projecting, identifying, and anticipating market trends/practices, changes, threats & opportunities in specific countries of the region
- in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, competitors’ strategies, products and offering
- Co-Lead the customer journey with the operations team to ensure the benefits defined within the products are implemented from an operational aspect.
- Be the voice of the customer in the revision of all Terms and Conditions
- Create a robust market positioning of the company by:
- crafting specific strategies and implementation of plans/tactics for mitigating threats & capitalizing on opportunities
- Organizing and implementing external/internal trainings and product road shows for sales, brokers, intermediaries or customers, in order to enhance the company image, competitiveness & positioning
- Lead or supervise the crafting of complex and customized customer solutions/deals together with intermediaries &/or reinsurers to ensure strategic wins, final client’s satisfaction and profitable growth for the company
- Maintain and develop reinsurance and co insurance details internal and externally
- Product - Design Terms and Conditions in line with local regulations while safeguarding companies’ interests. To ensure Policy terms & conditions are continuously updated in line with market requirements, maintaining competitiveness in the market
- Attend local regulators sessions to insure the company is strongly represented
- Ensure overall sustained customer (final clients) satisfaction through apt coordination with the sales team and or intermediaries and the internal operations.
- Lead the Product Offering team

• Underwriting, Risk and Profitability Management
- Host and lead the Underwriting committee related to large business ensuring strict governance is maintained. e.g. business greater than $5M
- Manage a team of Senior Underwriting Managers by setting Underwriting targets and monitoring their activity and efficiency through the use of detailed Underwriting KPIs
- Actively support the management in negotiating with the reinsurers in relation to the placement of complex reinsurance treaties for Corporate Health line of business, within the Global Health & Life Reinsurance Plan.
- Fully responsible for the underwriting, risk and profitability for Health and Corporate Life businesses in the, pursuit of the strategic objectives and specific profitability targets of the company.
- Define and implement strict governance in terms of the authority matrix
- Responsible for the management the underwriting of renewal and new business for Tailor Made
- Key liaise with PPP (Product and Underwriting teams) MSH etc.
- Liaise with Risk, Legal & finance in case considerations.

• Operations, People and General Management (applicable across the functional responsibilities of Business Development and Underwriting)
- Define the delegation protocols to Operational teams to insure a proper administration of policies and claims
- Monitor performance of the portfolio and implement corrective actions with the support of the team Continuously seek, propose, & monitor improvement opportunities in the operations, both internally in the company or externally with intermediaries
- Organize and promote a clear and multi-level communication with other departments (Operations, Sales, IT, HR etc).
- Organize the teamwork to ensure internal and external client satisfaction
- Regularly report results/suggestions to top management.

• Responsible and accountable for the overall management and continued satisfaction of the clients, reinsurers, intermediaries, Health and Life Managers Peers and specially of the final customers across Health businesses
• Develop and ensure regular review and maintenance of Standard Operating Procedures for all key processes

Business Knowledge:
• In-depth and comprehensive knowledge of Health and Corporate Life business across 4 countries in the GCC region (UAE, Oman, Qatar & Bahrain).
• Strong network of business relationships with leading intermediaries & reinsurers
• Strong knowledge and capability to project and strategize on market’s development/practices, industry trends, operational setups throughout the region
• Comprehensive knowledge of local and international competitors’ Corporate Life, Group & Individual Health businesses: products, operations, strategies, strengths & weaknesses

Supervisory/Managerial/Leadership Complexity

The role will require complete responsibility of Group and Individual Health and Corporate Life business from strategy formulation to implementation with clear top line & bottom-line responsibilities.

As such, the role will require comprehensive leadership and management of various senior or expertise functions that will cover the length & breadth of the Employee Benefit operations: from strategic/tactical planning and Implementation, to portfolio & risk management & underwriting.

This role will be responsible for the management and development of Underwriting Managers for Group and Individual Health and Corporate Life businesses

Level of Discretion

Independent Thought and Judgment:

• The position requires a high level of specialized thought and judgment as, under the Chief Health & Life Officer leadership, it provides strategic leadership of the Employee Benefits line of business across the Region.
• The position is responsible for the top line (revenues) and bottom line (profitability) results of the Employees Benefit portfolio.

Level of Authority:
• As such and under the Chief Employee Benefits Officer leadership, the role will have to act with wide autonomy but in full alignment with all other corporate requirements & objectives and take total operational and business initiatives / decisions in pursuit of the KPIs and strategic objectives of the growing Corporate Health business in organization.
• Underwriting authority, as per the authority matrix

Requirements

Minimum Requirements of Role

Secondary or Tertiary Education:
• Masters degree (preferably in Insurance / Business Administration)

No. of Years’ Experience
• Min 10 years in Health insurance experience

About the Company

One of the leading Recruitment Agencies in UAE.