Head: AFS Insurance Group Secretariat at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Provide complex advice and support in ensuring statutory requirements relating to the Company's Act are complied with.

Job Description

Accountability: Stakeholder engagement

• Act as the primary point of contact for the portfolio of companies.
• Establish trust and credibility by demonstrating knowledge of key areas within the AFS portfolio.
• Act as a trusted advisor on ICC related matters and provide guidance to the boards and/or committees on relevant regulatory matters.
• Build consensus amongst diverse viewpoints – able to champion the interests of all stakeholders in a balanced manner by applying the required discretion and diplomacy.
• Engage with relevant members of management, and the Group Secretariat team in alignment with relevant stakeholders to ensure effective calendar planning, meeting logistics and distribution of board and committee papers.
• Collaborate and contribute to the preparation of the companies’ annual financial statements and be accountable for the approval and distribution thereof to relevant stakeholders such as the Regulators.
• Work closely with Compliance to ensure the boards proactively and effectively comply with all relevant legislation and best practices.
• In regard to board and/or committees, liaise with relevant Chairman and other colleagues regarding the items referred to above.
• Manage the system of distribution of papers (Diligent) and ensure appropriate quality, availability and risk controls in relation to such system.
• Liaise with pack contributors and ensure appropriate training with a view to quality products.
• Access global and local practices, industry best practice and optimise the benefit of engagement with others in the field including in the Group Secretariat team.

Accountability: Board and Committee meetings

• Act as the Secretary to the nominated boards and/or committees.

In particular:

• Take accurate minutes at all meetings and distribute them timeously (within 7 days);
• If required, prepare a summary of the board and/or committee meeting for dissemination to the members (first submitting to seniors in the Secretariat team and thereafter to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, within 3 days of the meeting (or sooner if required);
• Identify all matters arising, verify these and distribute them to relevant stakeholders within 7 days of the meeting;
• Attend to the drafting of meeting agendas in consultation with the board and/or committee Chairman and the responsible executives to reflect the matters for discussion at each meeting;
• Update the board and/or committee forward planners;
• Distribute the agenda in advance of the meeting to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, for comments;
• Distribute the minutes well in advance of the meeting pack being distributed to the Chairman of the board and/or committee, for comments;
• Coordinate the preparation and distribution of meeting packs;
• Load agendas and papers on Diligent;
• Check that all logistical arrangements have been made in relation to the meeting (technology to be used; invitations to presenters; PDF extracts of the pack for presenters; etc);
• Obtain the timeous signature of the board and/or committee Chairman on the approved minutes;
• Coordinate the preparation of the annual meeting schedules;
• Assist with incoming queries related to the board and/or committee.

Accountability: Corporate Governance

• Advise Directors on the proper application of applicable governance requirements.
• Ensure that the Group Governance Framework, ICC Governance Framework, and Legal Entities and Directors Policy is applied to all entities within the assigned portfolio.
• Coordinate Board succession planning by ensuring that Board Succession Planning is discussed at least annually.
• Upon the exit or appointments of new directors, update the information on all company documents and advise the requisite authorities, regulators including but not limited to Prudential Authority, Financial Sector Conduct Authority, CIPC, South African Reserve Bank
• Make available to new members of the board and/or committee a suitable induction process and, for existing members, ongoing training where appropriate including developments and trends in regard to the mandate of the board and committee and as arranged with the Chairman.
• Identify Corporate Governance trends and training topics and ensure that the board and/or committee members are trained on a regular basis.
• Ensure directors and members are informed of changes in legislation as may be appropriate.
• Review board charters and terms of reference for relevant committees from time to time having regard to governance, operational and policy requirements and particular regulations / governance requirements.

Accountability: People Management

• Supervise direct reports to ensure effective daily operations.
• Develop a high performing team by conducting regular operational performance discussions.
• Coach and mentor team members on how to improve their own productivity and use of the bank’s processes and systems and on technical matters.
• Based on training plans agreed with the line manager of the area, monitor team members to ensure that planned training is undertaken.
• Together with the line manager for the area, interview candidates to join the team and provide input into the recruitment decision. The line manager for the area is the final decision-maker on who joins the team.
• Make recommendations to the line manager on how to improve the plans and suggest how resources could be reallocated in case of excessive workload.
• Review and update the team’s role descriptions on at least an annual basis to ensure that they are fit for purpose and contain all the accountabilities of each team member. Explain any updates to team members.
• When required, recommend to the line manager to initiate disciplinary processes for team members. Participate in collecting the evidence for the case.
• Identify employees that are not meeting performance targets and make recommendations to the line manager to place employees on the relevant performance improvement programme.

Accountability: Records Management

• Record all the critical documents such as minutes, annual reports, resolutions and CoR forms in the correct format as per the Companies Act, Insurance Acts & the Absa Records Management Policy.
• Ensure that records are kept at the registered addresses of the companies and that records are constantly updated on Secretarial Software Solutions (SSS).
• Ensure that signed minutes of meetings are maintained on the server and hard copies pasted in the minute book.
• Dispose of records 7 years after the liquidation or deregistration of the entry concerned, unless otherwise required.

Accountability: Your own career

• Agree your goals and objectives with your line manager.
• Advise your line manager if you have insufficient work or have insufficiently challenging work in order to assist with the balance of work in the team.
• Identify any training, or areas for development, that you feel that you have.
• Collaborate with peers in the team for the benefit of Group Secretariat as a whole.
• Contribute towards training initiatives for the benefit of Group Secretariat as a whole.

Role / Person Specification

Education And Experience Required

• B-degree in Commerce or Law. NQF level 6
• A recognised degree or diploma in Corporate Governance
• Registered with Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa (formerly Chartered Secretaries Southern Africa) or similar institution
• 5 -7 years previous experience in a reporting function dealing with reporting to Board / Board Committee / Exco / Exco subcommittee level
• At least five (5) years' experience in dealing with internal and external stakeholders, where deadlines require effective organisational planning, time management and a track record of delivering quality deliverables

Specific Knowledge and Skills for Board Committees to be supported

• Very commercially and financially literate
• Understanding of the banking environment in context of the bancassurance business model
• Sound knowledge of insurance and financial services sector
• Familiar with banking and insurance metrics including but not limited to financial, and risk management
• Understanding of legislation and regulations applicable to Insurance and financial services or the ability to easily familiarise in regard thereto.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Professional engagement with particularly senior and executive stakeholders
• High level of attention to detail and accuracy
• Strong written communication skills including minutes and report writing
• Effective verbal skills
• Team management and engagement skills
• Well organised
• Good time management skills
• Ability to operate under pressure
• Discretion - sensitive and confidential material Level
• PC literacy incl. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

Competencies

• Deciding and initiating action
• Learning and researching
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Relating and networking
• Adapting and responding to change
• Persuading and influencing
• Creating and innovating
• Attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to lead a small team
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a complex organisation across multicultural environments and teams
• Team player who can work collaboratively as part of a task or a process-oriented group

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)