Siemens Financial Services

SFS Graduate Business TraineeRecruitment Information

Siemens Financial Services is a global provider of a wide range of financial solutions. SFS in the UK is part of the wider Region North organisation structure, which includes Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. As Region North, we operate under a the same executive management team and use the same operating system.

SFS delivers market leading, and innovative business-to-business financing solutions across the globe. With approximately 1,800 employees worldwide and 330 employees across Region North, SFS is committed to offering its clients the broadest range of financing products, and the highest levels of service via traditional and e-business channels. These help customers acquire the capital assets needed to develop their businesses.

We provide financial solutions for our fellow Siemens businesses and third party companies, including sales financing and financing of major infrastructure projects. Our portfolio also includes the management of financial and insurance risks.

Our key business areas are:

- Asset finance & leasing- Receivables financing- Equity & project participations- Project & export financing- Investment management- Insurance solutions- Treasury & financing services

We offer our customers easy access to financing solutions, using our combination of financial expertise and industrial know-how to create added value through customised solutions. We offer outstanding individual service, with over 250,000 UK customers. 90% of FTSE 100 companies rely on our financial solutions and we provide financing for more than 50% of local authorities and NHS trusts.

Development Centre – June 2007

Company Overview

You will undertake three placements across the business throughout the SFS Graduate Programme, assuming an integral role within your relevant team.

The business provides numerous opportunities to gain a breadth of experience within Sales, Risk, Operations and Business Support.

Departments you may experience include among others…

Vendor Finance

Within our Vendor Finance channel, we provide innovative point-of-sale financing to end customers through a national network of approved retailers and manufacturers, known as ‘Vendors’. This division focuses on helping our customers improve sales opportunities and overcome competitive pressures, by providing financing packages for their products, termed sales aid financing

A highly experienced field sales team serves all UK geographies, and has more than 45 years expertise in digital imaging, IT, telecoms, vending, waste, security and office equipment markets. The team is divided into the Northern Region, with an office in Wilmslow, and Southern Region, with an office in Bristol.

Broker Finance

This area focuses on the Broker introduced marketplace, an alternative route to market where we work alongside a network of Brokers who specialise in assisting individuals and businesses in obtaining finance. This function is based in our Head Office in Stoke Poges, and through a team of external and internal sales executives, manage close relationships and are involved in every aspect of the sales process.

Vendor Referred Finance

Public sector and Healthcare

Siemens Financial Services has been independently recognised as the leading provider of asset finance to the UK public sector. Customers include more than 50% of local authorities and NHS trusts, and we provide finance for an incredibly diverse range of assets from beds, refuse trucks and wheelie bins to medical scanners, blood analysers and syringe drivers. Through a network of advisors we provide tailored solutions specifically for the NHS and Local Authorities.

Siemens Captive Development Centre – June 2007

Graduate Placements

Sales

A dedicated team works alongside other businesses within the Siemens Group in the UK, in order to provide financial solutions to aid the development and sale of Siemens solutions. The approach is built on long term relationships rather than one-off transactions, and is flexible to serving the needs of a customer over a period of time. There is greater freedom in this area concerning the size of the deal or the type of asset financed, effectively operating as balance sheet lenders.

Credit

All applications for finance, known as proposals, require underwriting approval before they progress onto the next stage. Our team of underwriters are predominantly concerned with the end customers ability to repay and satisfy all terms of the contract, but are also keenly involved in fraud prevention. The underwriting process varies in complexity, dependant on the structure of the proposed deal. Broadly speaking there are two areas:

Underwriting – serving the Vendor Finance and Vendor Referred Finance teams Structured Rating – serving Public Sector, Healthcare and Siemens Business teams

Asset Management

Asset Management are a concerned with the strategic management of assets within SFS. Consultation with this department takes place before, during and after the agreement period. Estimations of the value of an asset and how this may change throughout the period of an agreement are integral parts of this departments activities, which influence the pricing structure, along with remarketing of equipment.

Collections

Late payment and arrears cause businesses to loose a substantial amount of expected revenue over the course of a contact. Customers who do not provide payment within the specified terms of the agreement are contacted by this department, where arrangements are made to resolve the situation.

Legal Recoveries

If non payment by customers continues beyond what is deemed acceptable, the collections team hands over to our Legal Recoveries team. Through working closely with the customer, Asset Management and Sales, Legal Recoveries manage all agreements where it is expected that the result is likely to be bad debt. This team hold specialist legal expertise, working with solicitors, insolvency practitioners and the courts to obtain payment where appropriate.

Commercial Services

All documentation used in the business which relates to the creation of legally binding agreements comes through our Commercial team. This may occur in the generation of our standard product agreements or through a bespoke requirement for larger and more complex deals.

Business Processing

Once a proposal has been authorised by the relevant areas of Sales and Risk, it proceeds onto the final stage. All documentation is completed, verified and processed in order to activate the proposal. A number of checks are performed in this area of the business to ensure we are correctly paying suppliers, and also to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions. By activating a proposal it becomes a live agreement.

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Risk

Operations and Business Support

Customer Experience

Customer Experience are our dedicated customer service team who respond to queries on all live agreements. They are the first point of contact for all queries for our end customers. Due to the breadth of activities covered in this area of the business, this team hold expertise in all area’s of administering live agreements.

Customer Accounting

This team manages the monies received from end-users in the form of rental payments. Customer payments are banked and the relevant systems are amended to show payments made.

Finance

The team undertakes various activities including budgeting, controlling, planning, forecasting, and financial analysis to ensure the business has current, accurate information regarding its performance.

HR

The team works alongside the management population, to aid the development of SFS as a ‘great place to work,’ recognising and rewarding high performance, listening to our people and helping them develop and realise their potential.

Marketing

The Marketing team provide an integral service to the sales teams, strengthening our sales approach by designing and executing strategic marketing plans to support the sales objectives. The team also has a strong Communications element, strengthening our organisational brand within the external marketplace.

Development Centre – June 2007

Job Title: Graduate Trainee Department: Various

Reports to: Departmental Manager and Line Manager during various placements

Direct reports: N/A

Date prepared: April 23

Purpose:

To join Siemens Financial Services as a business resource undertaking various roles throughout a two year period. The Graduate will be expected to fully perform an sales or operational role as part of an existing team whist being involved in both project based assignments and cross-functional working. It is intended that the Graduate will build a compliment of skills that will enable them to progress throughout the business, contributing to an efficient and effective business flow.

Key Accountabilities:

The key activities and accountabilities will depend on the various placements, however it is envisaged as a minimum that the graduates will be doing the following:

To learn specific in-house systems and applications to be able to contribute to future decision making in process improvement.

To be able to meet all targets and objectives that have been set by the Line Manager. Typically there will be a minimum of 4 objectives per placement.

To be able to contribute to the team performance both individually and by suggestion to overall team performance. To undertake research and offer suggestions for improvement

To manage and drive their own career path and network. To participate in and lead graduate meetings.

To take a proactive role in participating in team, company and graduate events.

To develop a deep understanding of Siemens Financial Services, our customers, and the markets in which we operate, to develop a sound knowledge base for personal and professional development.

Relationships: Development Centre – June 2007

Line Manager during placement

Graduate

Department Manager andHuman Resources Officer

Job Description

All levels of managers and employees within the organisation

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

Experience:

Essential – Has a minimum of 1yrs working experience Preferred – Work experience is from a sales or customer services environment

Qualifications and Training:

Essential – Educated to Degree level – 2:2 from any discipline.

Job Skills and Knowledge:

Essential – Ability to use Microsoft packages, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook Ability to communicate effectively both over the telephone and face to face Ability to work with detail and learn information quickly

Key Competencies:

Change Agent

Coach

Communicator and Influencer

Creative Innovator

Decision maker

Organised Planner

Performance Manager

Personal Leadership

Problem Solver

Has a positive outlook with a can-do approach, shows flexibility in approach in order to meet business needs

Tries new approaches to tasks and demonstrates a willingness to learn new ideas

Builds a strong positive of own ability and expertise

Originates new or radical alternatives to existing practices

Takes calculated risks in the interests of the organisation

Maximise the use of resources to achieve results aligned to the organisations strategy

Demonstrates high personal work standards and is flexible in approach

Able to work with ambiguity, works outside the box and seeks stretch development and opportunities

Utilises appropriate business modelling to arrive at conclusions

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Employee development is extremely important to our businesses overall success. As such we assign each graduate to a mentor – these are managers who can offer a range of advice especially around career development. The aim of the mentoring programme is to give graduates an opportunity to discuss any area of their professional development with an impartial colleague.

Benefits of mentoring

Benefits for Mentors: satisfaction at the mentee’s success recognition of the mentor’s development skills by senior management challenge and stimulation identifying future potential development opportunities for the mentor: coaching, counselling and motivating skills future goodwill from the mentee who may well overtake the mentor career-wise improved job satisfaction

Benefits to the Mentee career enhancement in terms of advice and sponsorship speedier and easier induction into the formal and informal world of our organisation exposure to senior managers can undoubtedly aid the mentee's self-confidence a role model who can be observed closely as well as from a distance. In such ways, mentee’s can

often develop the skills of managing very quickly and effectively a sounding board for personal initiatives

Benefits to the Line Manager: a more effective member of staff a second opinion of mentee’s performance or potential

Benefits to the Organisation: more effective staff, line managers and mentors as well as mentees demonstrates a commitment to developing our people improved communication across the organisation, between mentor, mentee and line manager increased motivation of all parties involved

A poorly planned and unstructured mentoring relationship cannot give graduates the support needed. Using a systematic process, mentors and mentees can be more effective and productive in their relationships.

The four steps that mentors and mentees need to take for effective mentoring are: building the relationship negotiating agreements developing the mentee ending the relationship.

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Mentoring

Siemens UK

Graduate Development Programme

In addition to providing training in core generic skills, the central Graduate Development Programme aims to encourage the graduates from the different Siemens Businesses to network with each other and to learn more about the wider Siemens. The principal aims of the programme are therefore, to: Support the Siemens Talent Management strategy Provide an opportunity to network with other Siemens graduates, from other Businesses. Provide generic skills specific and relevant to their overall work Assist in their professional career development Provide the opportunity to learn how to work effectively within teams and to build on each other’s

skill sets Be enjoyable and innovative

There is a standard set of training given to all graduates during the 2-year programme which includes:

Siemens Graduate Orientation

All the graduate intake attend together to launch the programme and orientate them to Siemens as a whole.

Objectives: Introduce the development programme Allow the graduates to get to know each other Meet key Senior Executives for a Q&A session Develop a wider understanding of Siemens world-wide Outline the businesses the structure of Siemens in the UK Understand the career development processes available within Siemens

Team Working

This is an interactive workshop with indoor, outdoor group and individual activities. All activities mental or physical will vary to suit weather conditions and will be appropriate to challenge each individual and team collectively. The event will end with a whole group exercise to illustrate and apply what has been learned.

Objectives: To give all delegates an understanding of their abilities to learn, whilst recognising and adapting to

styles and abilities of others within their interaction. To develop the insight to utilise the skills of the team, and identify the right people to create the best

solutions. To enhance communication skills within teams, and understand the potential pitfalls and how to

avoid them Understand how to identify team strengths – Breakdown of roles, responsibilities and abilities. Effective use of problem solving tools – using a framework to recognise and eliminate problems. Appreciate the importance of setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant

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To develop a personal plan of action – Each delegate will commit to a personal plan of action to be passed to their line manager for monitoring to ensure the skills, knowledge and attitudinal changes are being used to add value.

Presentation SkillsThis module is primarily focused on the development of professional presentation skills. It will equip delegates with proven techniques and approaches that will increase confidence and lead to persuasive and effective results.

Objectives: Plan and structure a presentation to meet the audience needs Deliver presentations with confidence and impact Use facilitation skills with the audience to handle question and answer sessions effectively Structure the order and content of the presentation to achieve maximum influence on the audience

Effective CommunicationThe main focus will be on effective communication skills for working with people Elements of NLP and conflict management will be used as a framework. The courses cover a complete set of practical interpersonal communication skills for getting the best from others that can be applied in one-to-one and group settings.

Objectives: Understand how to quickly build rapport with people so as to achieve effective working relationships

and maximise personal effectiveness. Understand how they communicate to others through non-verbal messages, and how to tune these

appropriately to end the desired message. Appreciate how their communication style may affect others Understand the importance of other communication styles and the need for their own style to be

flexible Recognise and identify different methods of communication adopted by others Be able to adapt their own style to build better professional and personal relationships Understand how improved communications can impact on business results

Project Management FundamentalsThis introductory programme has now been adopted within the UK as the preferred entry level training for Project Management. For the Graduate Programme a simulation will also be used to enable the skills and tools learned to be applied.

Objectives: To recognise the need for projects To understand the project lifecycle To put in place a project structure To recognise and use the various progress monitoring techniques and use them effectively to

anticipate and detect problems To handle conflict and manage changing requirements using change control procedures To minimise difficulty and delay when handing over the project To understand the importance of reviewing the project

Customer FocusThis course covers the full sales lifecycle and customer orientation. It will be based around the Promoting Customer Orientation (PCO) programme developed by Learning Campus and currently being rolled-out in UK businesses and globally within Siemens. For the graduate programme, a business simulation will be used to enhance and develop the key messages about individual responsibility for internal and external customer responsiveness.

Objectives: Understand the Sales Lifecycle and their role in it Understand the difference between the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ aspects of customer service Be able to see Siemens from a customers perspective

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Understand how they personally can contribute to, and make a difference for customers Have developed a mindset more tuned to the needs of their customers

Commercial and Financial UnderstandingThis course focuses on the practical skills of interpreting and using financial management as a tool to aid better business decisions. It also addresses the key financial metrics that are used to assess Siemens businesses. For the graduate programme a business game will be used to develop and understanding of the commercial implications of financial decisions.

Objectives: Use management and statutory accounts with increased confidence Consider the financial impact of decisions for their business Make better use of budgets to manage their business Understand the use and impact of the Siemens financial metrics Understand the role of finance in business Be able to measure financial performance and understand how to use financial information to help

run the business Understand the application of the budgeting process Assess the business using key ratios

Business Writing SkillsThis workshop assumes that the graduates already posses the basic skills of good written English. It teaches delegates how to produce the concise, clear, impressive documents and emails and is based around interactive exercises and examples to illustrate the potential problems in written communications and their solutions. Delegates will have a chance to practice applying the ideas taught and receive constructive feedback to develop their learning

Objectives: Clearly define the objectives of their communication Adapt the tone and style of their writing to suit their commercial purpose Plan and organise their material and ideas Identify many of the basics of written English, as it applies within a commercial environment Plan, organise, structure and layout all types of business communication (memos; letters; faxes;

reports; email) for an effective and professional communication style.

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Graduate Development within SFS

Graduates recruits play a key role towards the long-term development of talent within our business.

We look to recruit high calibre individuals who are committed to learning our business, growing to become our successful leaders of the future.

We undertake a number of activities in addition to the Mentoring and Siemens UK Graduate Development programme as already outlined:

Presentations to the Executive Team

Every 6 months, we will ask you to put together and deliver a presentation to members of the Executive Team, Senior Managers from your area of the business, and your Graduate colleagues. The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate your learning and development at key intervals throughout the programme, providing you with an opportunity to consolidate your learning and to share this with key Managers from the business.

Quarterly HR Review

This is an opportunity to talk through your current role and responsibilities within the context of longer term career aspirations. Personalised development activity can take place as desired and required, and planning will take place as to the departments you will experience throughout your rotations. This session is also an opportunity to check that you have all the support you require and that you’re clear on your objectives for each placement.

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