Caroline Jordan: How I made the transition from a supplier to a practitioner role
During my time I was promoted to director and stayed at Personal Group for more than 11 years. Then I moved over to Jardine Lloyd Thomson as a senior account director where I managed a portfolio of some of our largest clients for over two years.
After all that time on the supplier side I was looking for a new challenge but wanted to capitalise on the knowledge and relationships I’d built up within the industry. The opportunity of benefits manager arose and my name was put forward between divisions within JLT Group; as an employee who wanted to progress within the business and who had a suitable benefits background.
I’ve found that the biggest difference between a supplier and an in-house role is the level of involvement you have within the business. It is incredibly rewarding to cross paths with so many of our divisions, employees and types of businesses within our group.
As a supplier your touch points are limited to a client’s business, whereas an in-house role sees overlaps with global mobility, tax, legal, finance and the executive board, to name a few.
Previously I was trying to ensure our clients were always happy; now I’m trying to ensure our 4,200 UK employees are always happy!
And I’ve been pretty proud of what I’ve achieved so far in my first year as a benefits manager at JLT. By undertaking a fresh focus on communications, improving a third of our benefits and taking lessons learnt from my previous experiences with clients we have increased take-up of our benefits programme, Choices, across 71% of the scheme this year.
Choices is well established and understood by employees and increasing take-up in 2016 when a major restructuring programme was underway was a challenge! But because I have had the privilege to work with many fantastic HR professionals over the years and have been able to witness what has worked well in other businesses, I was able to use the knowledge I had gained from others’ experiences.
My supplier background was a perfect fit for the in-house role, and the number of people swapping from supplier to in-house roles, and vice versa, seems to be increasing.
For those suppliers hoping to make a similar move, the fact that they may not have an HR background (I didn’t) isn’t likely to prove an obstacle when applying for a purely benefits-focused role. However, the move does then open up new avenues to other specialist HR areas.
Caroline Jordan is benefits manager at JLT Management Services
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