HOST Finance Business Performance Europe

Job description

Role Title: HOST Finance Business Performance Europe

Business: Finance
New or Existing Role? Existing
Grade: GCB4

Role Purpose
· Cost Performance & Analysis (CP&A) sits within the Global Cost Management function in Core Finance. The Regional HOST Finance team is a small l team responsible for the performance management and reporting of the HOST costs for Europe.
· HOST is HSBC's Technology, Operations and Services division supporting the Global Businesses and Global Functions and currently has a cost base of c. USD 9bn and an employee base of ~75K.
· HOST comprises of Technology; Operations; and HOST Services which is made up of Corporate Real Estate (CRE); HOST Support Services (Global COO, ServCo, CCO and Transformation); and Procurement.

Overview
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The role holder is responsible for HOST Business Performance including planning, reporting and analytics, acting as a key contact point for HOST financial queries with a focus on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of HOST services to the global businesses and functions.

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The role holder will work closely with the Regional and Country HOST teams and Functional Finance heads in the Hub to carefully manage the cost base.

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The role holder will be part of the Regional HUB team and will also support the Regional CFO to provide timely and accurate information to support senior stakeholders to make effective decisions on key points as well as resolving queries.

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The role holder will also support the Global Head of HOST Business Performance in managing the annual plans and forecasting throughout the year for all entities within the HUB.

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Due to the high degree of change expected both within HOST and HOST Finance, the jobholder will be required to be comfortable with ambiguity and be adaptable to the evolving environment in order to support the HOST Finance change programmes enabling the realisation of programme objectives, including working closely with the offshore team to re-engineer processes.

Key Accountabilities

Impact on Business

· Provide insightful, commercially-driven analytics for the HOST functions to understand their cost base, keeping senior management apprised of status, risks and issues.
· Support the definition and implementation of the strategy for effectively managing the Run the Bank (RTB) and Change the Bank (CTB) cost base across HOST.
· Review and drive cost management and transparency of HOST cost base split between RTB and CTB.
· Manage planning & forecasting to help HOST stakeholders to translate business strategies into relevant & robust financial plans.
· Review and perform analysis on HOST recharges and recoveries, and increase transparency/credibility of HOST recharges to businesses/functions.
· Provide support to HOST change initiatives, attending and contributing to working groups where required.
· Ensure adherence to Group financial reporting timelines.
· Work with Global Head of HOST Business Performance to provide input into strategic reviews/investor presentations


Customers / Stakeholders

· Ensure key stakeholders are provided with necessary value added financial analysis in a timely manner.
· Identify, build and maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders and team members, adopting a joined up approach, to execute change at pace with minimum conflict.
· Maintain contact with customers, suppliers etc. to identify and communicate status, progress, risks, issues and manage expectations.


Leadership & Teamwork

· Drive a high performance culture by embodying the Group values, leading by example.
· Working with Global HOST Finance team to ensure delivery of team objectives whilst promoting HSBC values and behaviours.
· Develop and maintain close working relationships with offshore teams, promoting a ‘one team' culture.
· Assign responsibilities to offshore team, providing them with the direction and confidence to deliver results.
· Implement the global finance functional model to support the new Cost Performance and Analysis organisation.
· Build strong commercial finance and business partnering capabilities balanced with robust governance and control.

Operational Effectiveness & Control

· Ongoing review to streamline work process. Drive and manage change to ensure quality services are provided in the most efficient manner.
· Compliance with external regulatory requirements, internal control standards and group compliance policy
· Clear operational procedures established, documented and complied with by all.
· Lead the local implementation of Global HOST Finance strategies.
· Maintain close working ties with Global Cost Performance and Analysis team and counterparts in other HUBs, promoting sharing of best practice across the teams
· Work closely with the offshore teams to promote offshoring of activities where efficiencies can be gained and/or stakeholder service improved.
· Identify and implement opportunities for improvements to HOST financial management processes, with a particular focus on improving transparency and relevance to the business.
· Timely implementation of recommendations made by internal/external auditors and external regulators.

Major Challenges
· Global Finance has been recently restructured and the model is still evolving for Core Finance. The jobholder will be required to deal, and be comfortable with, ambiguity and be flexible / adaptable to the evolving environment, and be ready and willing to challenge the status quo.
· HOST supports the entire HSBC group and is one of the largest and most geographically complex, internal corporate service organisations. Driving change across HOST and HOST Finance, whilst maintaining business as usual service / support, will pose significant challenges and require an ability to prioritise and manage multiple deliverables.
· The role has multiple stakeholders - ranging from immediate HUB team, Regional and Local Heads of HOST Functions, Regional and Local Heads of the Global Business and Functions as well as the Global HOST Finance team and the offshore teams. This diverse (and senior) stakeholder set will mean that the role holder will have to carefully navigate and prioritise agenda that are potentially conflicting in order to drive the best outcomes for HSBC globally.
· Current HOST financial MI reporting and planning processes are highly manual, largely due to a lack of automation and inadequate tools. Whilst plans are being developed to improve the technology infrastructure, the role will require creative solutions to re-engineer processes and redesign outputs to improve the support provided to the business/functions.

Management of Risk
· The jobholder will also continually reassess the operational risks associated with the role and inherent in the business, taking account of changing economic or market conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, operating procedures and practices, management restructurings, and the impact of new technology. This will be achieved by ensuring all actions take account of the likelihood of operational risk occurring. Also by addressing any areas of concern in conjunction with line management and/or the appropriate department.

Observation of Internal Controls

· Maintain and observe HSBC internal control standards, implement and observe Group Compliance Policy, including the timely implementation of recommendations made by internal/external auditors and external regulators. Foster a compliance culture and implement Group Compliance Policy by managing compliance risk in liaison with the Head of Group Compliance, Regional Compliance Officer, Area Compliance Officer or Local Compliance Officer, ensuring adequate compliance resources are in place and training is provided, and optimising relations with regulators.

Desired profile

Qualifications :

Knowledge & Experience / Qualifications

·  Experience in operating at a senior level within a complex Financial Services international environment
·  A professional Finance qualification is essential (CIMA/ACA/ACCA)
·  Subject matter expertise in planning and analytics required
·  Strong interpersonal skills with proven ability of excellent stakeholder management, working effectively across teams and problem solving
·  Ability to work effectively under pressure with competing and rapidly changing priorities.
·  Execution oriented: proactive escalation of issues whilst maintaining solution focused and flexible approach to accommodate the changing business/function needs.
·  Ability to develop cohesive working relationships with internal/external stakeholders at all levels of seniority.
·  Excellent analytical skills and ability to bring analytical rigour and structure and effective solutions to poorly-defined problems
·  Strong communication skills – applicable through multiple channels (written, spoken, workshops, presentations)
·  Continuous improvement and change management experience­

As a business operating in markets all around the world, we believe diversity brings benefits for our customers, our business and our people. This is why HSBC is committed to being an inclusive employer and encourages applications from all suitably qualified applicants irrespective of background, circumstances, age, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or belief and sexual orientation.

We want everyone to be able to fulfil their potential which is why we provide a range of flexible working arrangements and family friendly policies.

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