Interim Responsible Investment Standards Lead
Company Description
ShareAction is an independent charity and an expert on responsible investment. We work to build a world where the financial system serves our planet and its people. We set ambitious standards for how financial institutions, through their investment decisions, can protect our planet and its people and campaign for this approach to become the norm. We convene shareholders to collectively push companies to tackle climate crisis, protect nature, improve workers’ rights and shape healthier societies. In the UK and EU, we advocate for financial regulation that has society’s best interests at its core.
Position
What you’ll do (key responsibilities)
In this position, you will help ShareAction continue its vital work to embed best practice on health in the investor sector, playing an important role in shaping a healthier and more sustainable future.
Our health is shaped by the world around us – the quality of work we do, the products and services we consume, the quality of air that we breathe. Companies and their investors have an outsized influence on our health but for too long the investment system has overlooked this fact.
ShareAction’s Long-term Investors in People’s Health (LIPH) initiative supports investors to consider population health – and the factors that influence it – within their investment decision-making, their voting and their company engagement practices. It seeks to drive up investment standards to narrow the health inequalities that we see today.
This post plays a key role in establishing health as a critical concept within the responsible investment community. Working with our network of 45+ investors, you will continue to define how the investment community should integrate health into their investment decisions and stewardship, showcasing the positive impact this can have on population health and the commercial sector.
This will involve deepening our understanding of the health ‘leaders’ in the investment sector, consulting with investors to understand their needs, developing solutions in the form of research and assets to build awareness and engagement, as well as supporting our investor coalition signatories to learn from one another.
A typical week will see you holding internal and external meetings to build insights and form strong relationships, managing several projects to keep momentum up, collaborating with researchers and producing a pipeline of assets to communicate the good work that this workstream is unearthing. You will work closely with a team Co-Head to deliver the work, as well as other colleagues within the LIPH initiative and across ShareAction.
If this role excites you, and aligns with your skills and experience, we would love to hear from you!
Requirements
What you’ll bring to the team
We are looking for an individual who is passionate about improving population health and leveraging the power of the investment sector to help achieve this.
We think this role would suit someone with experience engaging with external stakeholders, either in the private sector or civil society. You’ll need to be a strategic and creative thinker, and comfortable analysing and summarising datasets, managing multi-stakeholder projects, holding effective meetings and producing clear and compelling resources.
You will have great support from the Health team and across the organisation, but we are also looking for a self-motivated, entrepreneurial thinker with a desire to get things done.
While we hope we will find someone with strong direct experience, we are keen to hear from you even if you do not think you are the perfect fit. We appreciate transferable skills and welcome opportunities to explore different ways of achieving our goals.
ShareAction is currently formalising its hybrid working policy, however, the Health team meets in the office on a monthly basis (and on a weekly basis for those living in London depending on personal circumstances). As this role involves meetings with London-based stakeholders, the candidate may need to travel into London several times a month to attend meetings in person as required.
What we will do for you
We are a fast-paced organisation that has grown substantially over the past few years. We recognise that our people work hard to advocate for responsible investment and drive meaningful engagement with those who have the power to create a brighter future. Every day they bring their expertise, passion and persistence to build a world where the financial system serves our people and planet. We want to ensure we provide the right environment for our colleagues to thrive and we are committed to improving our employee offer where possible.
Currently we are pleased to offer:
- Commitment to flexible working; over 60% of our employees have some sort of flexible working arrangement in place
- Hybrid working; we are committed to supporting our staff to work in a way that suits their lifestyle and meets the requirements of their role
- Internal promotion and development opportunities; we offer a range of ways to improve your skills and focus on what you love, including promotion, secondment, or sideways development opportunities. For some levels of roles, we also offer direct progression.
- Opportunity to help make a difference; we tackle some of the world’s biggest social and environmental challenges. We offer opportunities for you to develop your skills and experience in a friendly, flexible and supportive working environment.
- Unionised work environment; our staff have the opportunity to join the union, and are supported by our recognised union, Unite. We regularly consult and negotiate with our employees on workplace matters ranging from working conditions to pay.
- Regular in-person meetings; including all-staff away days, retreats and directorate strategy days to create connected teams.
- 8% non-contributory pension; invested with NEST and their green funds.
- Healthcare cash plan; with Westfield that gives you money back on your healthcare costs.
- Employee assistance programme; advice and support, lifestyle discounts and short-term counselling.
- 25 days’ annual leave (increasing with length of service) plus office closure at the end of the year; ensuring everyone gets time to switch off together.
- Enhanced family leave pay; up to 18 weeks’ paid at 90% for either parent.
- Enhanced sick pay; starting at 5 weeks’ full pay from day 1.
- Season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme.
Other information
Contract type: : Fixed term 13 months (maternity cover)
Who it reports to: Co-Head of Health
Salary: £41,460 -£44,694 + 8% pension contribution
(We normally offer a starting salary at the start of the range)
Deadline for applications: Wednesday 16th October at 9:00 a.m.
Interview dates: : First round interviews will be held online on Thursday 24th October and second round, face-to-face, interviews will be held during week commencing 4th November
ShareAction values and respects all differences in people (seen and unseen) and welcomes applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries. We are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities and we are working hard to provide an environment where all can bring their authentic selves to work. We know that some people won’t apply for a role unless they meet all the requirements listed in the job description. If this is the case for you, but you think you would excel in this role, we want to hear from you!
Our hiring process is anonymised, we won’t ask for a cover letter and we don’t look at CVs until the interview stage. We do this so that we reduce the opportunity for unconscious biases to affect our decision making and so we prioritise skills and expertise over how well you can write a CV.
We also actively encourage incoming staff to consider flexible working arrangements; recognising that a better work-life balance can improve employee motivation, performance and reduce stress. Please talk to us at the interview about the flexibility you need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we do promise not to judge you for asking.
While we embrace hybrid working at ShareAction, we also think there is a lot of value in spending time together in person. We run all-staff away days, a yearly retreat and more regular team and directorate meet-ups so that we can develop our ideas and plans together. As part of the induction process, we’ll invite you to our office in Aldgate so you can meet and get to know your line manager, team and others from across the organisation.
To be considered for this post you must be legally eligible to work in the UK, unfortunately we are unable to provide visa sponsorship.
Please be aware that when shortlisting we are really keen to get a sense of your unique voice and individual experience, especially if you are using generative AI tools as part of your drafting process.
