Assignment Projects, News and Articles
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On this page...

• Assignment Projects
• IT Security
• Specialist Project Management Recruitment
• Moves Through Hunter
• Article 'Living Too Long?'
• Previous Articles
• Vacancies at Hunter

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Assignment Projects

• Recruiting for a new division of a world class technology organisation
• Contracts, Procurement & Technical Sales Management opportunities
• Human Factors / HCI Specialists
• IT Manager
• Software Quality Specialist
• Consultancy
• IoD

IT Security
A synopsis of Hunter developments within this specialist field.

The commercial importance attached to IT Security seems to grow and grow. This has been reflected in many of our client organisations increasing their commercial and technical capabilities to protect against sophisticated attempts to gain access to key data.. Moreover, the management consultancy field has not been slow to respond to this business need, being reflected in substantial organic growth of their respective IT Security practices.

It has been due to this increased demand, and our own track record in successfully filling specialist technology positions, that Hunter has been approached to add recruitment value in this business critical area. This continued growth in recruitment of IT Security specialists is set to continue for some time to come.

For further information regarding Hunter's activities within IT Security, please contact Haydn Parry in confidence on 020 8334 8804 or email him directly - hrp@huntersearch.com

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY
We are working closely with this major consultancy to assist in their goal of growing their well established IT Security practice by 25%. The practice offers clients the whole spectrum of IT Security services, from Enterprise Security Assessment to Penetration Testing across a diverse application spectrum. IT Security professionals with a minimum of two years experience are sought who are considering a career move into a forward thinking and team oriented consultancy environment.

MAJOR UK RETAILER
The need was recognised for a dedicated, in-house IT Security function. We assisted in scoping the required level of resource and experience, from both an IT Security and more general IT perspective. We also advised on market rates regarding salary level for the selected recruit.

STOCKBROKER
The need was identified to recruit an additional person to work with the current IT Security Manager. The skills profile required a working understanding of the technical issues associated with Networks and the Internet, and in addition, the ability to articulate the benefits IT Security to a non-technical audience.

ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY
This asset management company identified the need for a Senior Security Analyst to fill a position with a strong strategic and non-technical bias. The incumbent needed to act as a central point of contact across the company for security related issues that arose as part of the development and project lifecycle processes. Good project management skills were also requisite.

Specialist Project Management Recruitment

PROJECT MANAGEMENT - the essential link
The Project Manager is the catalyst, performing the essential link in ensuring the business vision is translated into IT reality. At once politician and hard task master, the ability to reconcile conflicting need, to manage effectively under pressure from all sides, to forge effective relationships with senior business management and esoteric technical specialists is no easy task, and little wonder, that it is perhaps the most difficult field in which to recruit - hence Hunter's involvement in being able to address such a key recruitment issue.

Our approach is based upon delivering selected specialists who are able to add real impact from all aspects: process, infrastructure, implementation and skills transfer. These are specialists who are recognised as experts within their chosen field with whom we have developed strong working relationships over a number of years. Typical project services in this area are:

• Programme and project management: managing a complex programme of related projects or managing a single project in a complex or challenging environment.
• Project architecture: ensuring that all aspects of a project (organisation, business, technical, testing, implementation, etc.) are set up properly and that they fit together to create a well designed and well implemented Service Delivery for the users.
• Project services: project audits and reviews (a quick health check or in-depth analysis), project rescue, a blueprint for managing projects, and creating project infrastructure.
• Quality management: defining, implementing and monitoring the processes needed to implement and manage projects; including, communications, risk management, resolution of gaps and disconnects, and relationships with other projects and departments.
• Management of outsourcing: ensuring that your vendors deliver: quality service, good value, flexibility for changing requirements, and protection of your long-term interests.
• Operations management: implementing change, problem and service management; to raise service levels, to improve responsiveness and to meet the changing needs of the business.
• Re-engineering: creating change-teams with business and IT staff, provoking breakthrough thinking, and developing practical but revolutionary solutions to business problems.
• Strategy implementation: creating business and IT strategies that are relevant to the company, and developing solutions that use the strategies to give real business benefit.

These may be individuals recruited on a permanent basis or, alternatively, a fixed term contract.

Moves through Hunter

Simon Whitehead has joined Prudential Annuities in the capacity of Finance Director.

Simon joins from Bank Of Ireland and was previously with the AA and KPMG. Simon has direct experience of setting up Finance Organisations and joins the Annuities' market leader at an exciting time in its further growth and development.

See our article below ‘The Retirement Challenge - living too long?’ by Nigel Emery.

Kin Tsang has joined Cazenove in the capacity of Global Architecture Manager to apply his in-depth expertise to the application of a new technological framework for the Investment Bank. Kin joins from ING Barings and was previously with UBS Warburg.

Article
The Retirement Challenge - Living Too Long?

Nigel Emery of Prudential Annuities offers a solution to the current problem facing retiring company executives.
(The whole of this article, including the supporting table and chart is available as a small Adobe Acrobat pdf format for convenient reading and printing. Click here to download).

According to research conducted on behalf of The Rowntree Foundation, life expectancy for men has increased by about 10 years since the end of the Second World War. Whilst this improvement spans the whole population, recent work by Prudential shows that wealthier people have benefited most from improvements in diet and public health, reflected in their living longer than the population in general.

This expectation of a much longer, healthier retirement creates a challenge for providers of Retirement Income products.

To date in the main there have been three pension routes by which company directors can save for their retirement: personal pensions, executive pension plans and small self administered schemes. The options available depend on the type of pension scheme that they have when they retire, although forward planning means there are opportunities to switch between different types of scheme in the lead up to retirement.

Having reached retirement, the executive is faced with the thorny issue of how to arrange his or her retirement income. There are two options:

1. Secure a guaranteed lifetime income for themselves and their spouse and/or dependants immediately by buying an annuity; or
2. Draw an income directly from the fund as an interim step before buying an annuity.

Recent press comment suggests that buying an annuity at the current time may represent a poor deal. This autumn gilt yields fell to below the 5% for the first time since the 1950's.

So does income drawdown provide the obvious solution? Drawdown has benefits as well as risks associated with it. One often overlooked is that an annuity must be purchased at the end of the day. Since most professionals are likely to live to a ripe old age it is important to consider not only the method used in the early years of retirement but also how to secure an income for the latter years. This means considering the long-term outlook for annuities.

Annuity rates comprise two elements. The first of these is the likely pattern of deaths among annuitants - known as mortality. The size of the mortality element depends on when annuitants are expected to die; the longer people live, the smaller the subsidy. With such dramatic improvements in longevity the mortality cross subsidy element has fallen, which is already being reflected in the annuity rates on offer. Prudential and other leading annuity providers have reduced their rates in 1998 to reflect lighter mortality.

If people continue to live longer annuity rates will be forced down.

The second element is the yield on long dated gilts. Gilt prices depend upon a number of factors, including the supply of gilts, which in turn depends upon Government macro economic policy. Both the UK Government and EMU members' monetary authorities are committed to reducing the level of government borrowing The shortage of gilts has certainty contributed to the fall in annuity rates throughout 1998. Furthermore, the long-term outlook for inflation is that it will continue at modest levels and this is likely to depress gilt yields further.

The problems experienced with income drawdown are leading some experts to conclude that they have only a limited role to play at retirement. They are best suited to those who view their pension fund as an investment, designed for capital growth, rather than as an income-generating asset. Although originally intended as a safe haven whilst waiting for annuity rates to rise, in practice in the last three years they have only been advantageous to those who have died rather than those who have survived. But how many people plan to die? Indeed, as mentioned, Prudential's records show that on average the wealthy are less likely to die before age 75 than the less well off.

Is the outlook for retiring professionals all bad?

Income drawdown can be risky and in the long-term annuity rates are more likely to fall than rise - so is there a way forward that combines the best of both worlds? A product combining the guaranteed lifetime income of an annuity with the equity backed investment of drawdown?

Until now investment-linked annuities, introduced in the late 1980s, have received little publicity. These benefit from being backed by equity investments, which historically have produced higher returns than gilt investments over the long term.

An investment-linked annuity is very similar to a conventional annuity in terms of the payments options and widow(er)'s and dependants' pensions available. The main difference is that the annuitant has some control over the starting income and the degree of risk they want to take. With a with profits annuity this is achieved through a mechanism known as the anticipated bonus rate.

The way it works is that the director selects at outset an anticipated level of future bonus, normally in the range of between 0% and 6%. Where a higher anticipated bonus rate is selected, the starting pension will be high but the prospects for growth will be proportionally reduced. In contrast, selecting a low anticipated bonus rate means the starting income will be low, but the growth prospects substantial.

The graph shows the historic effect of anticipated bonus on starting pension and subsequent rates of increase. For instance, a Prudential with profits annuity bought in 1991, with an anticipated bonus of 0% would have grown by 124.7%. In contrast, 6.5% anticipated bonus, would have limited the pension growth to 49.4%, although the starting pension would have been 25.8% higher at outset.

To conclude, the products currently available at retirement often struggle to meet the needs of those retiring. Conventional annuities suffer from low gilt yields and improving mortality. Income drawdown is really only suited to those with large funds looking for capital growth. The With Profits Annuity meets the retirement challenge by combining equity backed growth with a safe income payable for life. Or put another way, it's an insurance against living too long.

Nigel Emery
Marketing Manager
Prudential Annuities

(The whole of this article, including the supporting table and chart is available as a small Adobe Acrobat pdf format for convenient reading and printing. Click here to download).

Previous Articles

An archive of articles that have previously appeared on this news page. The articles are in Adobe Acrobat pdf format for convenient reading and printing. Most browsers now have an Acrobat Reader built in, but if yours doesn't, click here for a free download of the latest version direct from Adobe.

• CSC - Smart Travel Solutions Practice
  The key to launching a world class consulting practice is netting individuals who not only have the required skills and experiences, but also the character and courage to really make a difference in whichever sector they operate. (pdf file, December 1998).

Vacancies at Hunter

Recruitment Consultants

We seek high achievers who wish to develop our consultancy within our chosen markets. Key skills are the ability to develop excellent working relationships with Clients and Candidates alike.

Depth of experience is not as important as the desire to achieve without compromise to the high standards to which we aspire. In return we offer the opportunity to work on behalf of key industry leaders managing the most challenging of recruitment programmes.

Full training will be given where appropriate.

For further information, please call Haydn Parry or E-mail your CV to hrp@huntersearch.com

All replies will be treated in the strictest confidence and under no circumstances will this information be shared with any other organisation.