Title:  Head of Distribution

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Purpose

The Head of Distributions (HoD) primary objective is to lead the Group Protection sales team, ensuring that new business, retention and inforce targets are achieved and that business is written at the required margin. The HoD will be required to hold strong relationships at senior level within our key adviser partners. The HoD must ensure that our adviser partners understand the CL strategy , products and propositions. The HoD should regularly review our routes to Market, ensuring that our targets can be met both in year and into the future.

Key Duties / Responsibilites 

• Develop strong relationships with distribution partners. Focus those relationships on EBCs of strategic importance to ensure the Canada Life protection strategy is understood and partnership opportunities embraced. To develop effective working relationships with heads of internal departments to continually enhance and differentiate the Canada Life offering.
• Providing oversight of the sales function. To manage the function in line with policies and standards. This includes performance management, training and development and managing risks associated with advisers and any other potential/future distribution channels.
• To provide Group protection market feedback and insights that are considered and acted upon by the value stream function, pricing team and proposition team.
• To drive the growth (portfolio and earnings) of the business and where appropriate implement new distribution channels and partnerships.
• To assess and implement digital solutions that help the sales team drive growth, This includes a CRM and data provision that advisers, employers and employees value.
• To work with our proposition and marketing teams to evolve the strategic narrative of the group protection business.
• To lead on the delivery of this message to the market.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Strong knowledge of the Employee Benefits market and excellent knowledge of Employee Benefit Consultancies.
• Excellent communication skills required.
• An ability to articulate complex matters simply and represent Canada Life as a thought leader in the employee benefits market.
• A proven track record of building internal and external senior relationships.
• A clear ability to drive change behaviours through building trusted relationships
• Experience in building new products and successfully launching them into new markets. 
• A focus on continuous self improvement and a leadership style that drives trust and the development of both the sales function and the wider group protection business.

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance.  We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us.  We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures.  Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others.  Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward. 

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us.  We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus. 

“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.”  Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.