ShareAction

We are at a pivotal moment: the climate and biodiversity crises are deepening, and inequalities are even more marked in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The global investment system has an oversized impact on many of these global challenges We want to make sure that impact is positive. At ShareAction we work with investors, policymakers and individuals to unleash the positive potential of the investment system. We aim to build a world where our financial system serves our planet and its people.

Team

Following a year of scoping and design work, we are now one year into our new Long-term Investors in People’s Health (LIPH) programme. ShareAction’s 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. LIPH brings additionality to the plethora of existing health-related initiatives by focussing on population health holistically, as well as building support and advocating for health to rise up the agenda and sit alongside climate change as a systemic risk for the investment system. The programme will make the business case to investors and seek to harness their influence to build better population health, addressing the health impacts that companies have on their workforce, consumers and on the communities they operate within.

This post will develop and lead the Investor Standards workstream of the Health programme at ShareAction, engaging many of the world’s largest asset managers. Good health is heavily influenced 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 theme as an ESG factor. This post will play a critical role in establishing health within the responsible investment landscape.

This post will define ‘good practice’ for investors’ health impacts and work with our alliance of 39 investors representing £5.9tr in assets under management to help them reach a good standard. This will involve: consultation with investors to understand their needs and develop solutions and resources, deepening our understanding of the leaders and laggards in the investment sector in relation to health, critically assessing investors’ approaches to health and suggesting improvements, as well as supporting our investor signatories to learn from one another. It is anticipated that this work may involve partnering with others to improve the health data landscape, making it easier for investors to understand and access the data they need.

Key objectives include:

1. Establish a robust process for assessing progress of investor signatories’ health-related policies and practice year-on-year, carry-out these assessments, critically analyse responses and provide investors with clear feedback for where they could improve
2. Consult with investors to better understand what they need to improve practice in relation to health, and develop or commission the development of a suit of practical tools, templates, case studies and other resources to meet these needs
3. Integrate health into broader ShareAction research such as our Leading Practice and Voting Matters reports
4. Understand investors’ data needs and the role ShareAction should play in relation to health data. This may involve partnering with external data providers and / or facilitating dialogue to build consensus around the most important metrics to develop or measure.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver a new Investor Standards workstream within the Health programme (Long-term Investors in People’s Health).
• Consult investors to understand their needs and develop a set of solutions which help the sector to improve their practice in relation to health. This may involve writing reports and guidance to help investors better integrate health into their investment approach, or commissioning others to develop resources.
• Be the health team link to ShareAction’s Financial Sector Research team, supporting the integration of health into their research, supporting analysis of this data and advising on key recommendations for the investor community from a health perspective.
• Build on our initial Investor Guide to set out what good looks like for investors, and commission and develop practical tools, templates and case studies to support investors to further integrate health into their work.
• Develop a robust process for measuring and assessing the progress of investor signatories, build capacity across the team to critically assess investor approaches and strategies, and provide feedback to investors to help them improve.
• Develop partnerships with other NGOs and possibly data providers to improve the health data landscape. This may involve building consensus on a set of key health metrics and influencing others to embed these into their work.
• Organise and facilitate meetings, roundtables and other events in support of the above.
• Work with the Senior Engagement Manager to build a programme of learning and development for investor signatories, including opportunities for them to share learnings in-person or virtually
• Provide general support to the Health and Financial Sector Research team in raising the bar for responsible investment in relation to health outcomes, carrying out ad hoc tasks, as required Informing ShareAction’s policy influencing agenda for health and responsible investment
• Keep up to date on developments relevant to the area of work, sharing information with the team and ensuring their own continued development

Essential criteria required:

• A clear strategic thinker, able to critically assess a set of options and prioritise these to develop a plan which can be implemented
• Strong analytical skills and ability to conduct a critical assessment of investor approaches
• An understanding of the wider determinants of health and/or wider topics relating to social impact, responsible investment or ESG factors. This may relate to past experience in areas such as the finance sector, research, corporate campaigning or policy making.
• An interest in driving social impact through influencing commercial actors, including investors and companies
• Experience of working with others to understand and define a problem and identify a set of solutions
• Experience of developing high-quality written outputs to improve practice
• Ability to build constructive partnerships and represent ShareAction externally
• Ability to influence a range of stakeholders toward our goals, using persuasive arguments, tailored communication and negotiating skills
• Great written and verbal communication skills, able to present clearly to groups of senior stakeholders and to distil complex information into easily understood language
• An interest in supporting investors to learn from one another, and willingness to facilitate dialogues and events in support of this.
• Good team player with ability to join dots across teams and a keenness to help others to learn.
• Excellent organisational skills, proven ability to manage competing demands while still meeting deadlines

Desirable criteria:

• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills
• Experience of how decisions are made within institutional investment companies and how investors use data to inform their approaches i.e. as an investment analyst
• Experience of working with metrics and/or delivering research around health, or wider environmental, social, governance (ESG) topics
• Experience commissioning or outsourcing work, developing specifications, and contracting with providers

What we will do for you

Working with ShareAction will offer you the opportunity to achieve significant personal impact in one of the most respected and exciting organisations in the responsible investment space. ShareAction seeks to offer all its employees an exceptional working experience with opportunities to develop existing and new skills, applying them in ways that help change the world for the better. You will be challenged but also supported very actively to succeed within a friendly, high performing and highly motivated team.

We commit to:

• Supporting you to be able to continue to grow your experience and give you space to try new and innovative ideas and approaches;
• Offering you formal training to build up your skill-set (as identified with your manager) and time to conduct informal training;
• Providing a flexible working environment – including options to work from home and compressed hours;
• Providing opportunities to attend, and play a key role in, meetings with high profile stakeholders from across the public health, corporate and investment sectors.

Contract type: Permanent

Who it reports to: Head of Health

Salary: £45,200 - £50,092 + 8% pension contribution

Deadline for applications: 2nd May 2023, 9 a.m. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis and the vacancy may close earlier than advertised if a suitable candidate is found. Please apply when you can. Candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application as soon as possible after applying.

Interview dates: TBC

ShareAction values and respects all differences in people (seen and unseen) and welcome 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 so if you are not 100 per cent sure that you meet all the requirements but believe you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply and use the application questions to tell us about your experience and what you hope to bring to this role.

We also actively encourage staff to work in ways that best suit their needs and our flexible working policy outlines many of the options available- such as part-time and term-time working, job sharing, home working and working compressed hours. 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.

Please note that to be considered for this post you must be legally eligible to work in the UK. Due to current restrictions we are unable to hire anyone that isn’t already living in the UK.

Due to our size we are unable to sponsor visas.

(was Senior Manager – Investor Standards, support and accountability)