Lowes Magazine Issue 119

SPOTLIGHT

Spotlight on Lowes staff

JACKIE SCOTT HEADS UP THE LOWES Technical department.

“Our job is to work with the Consultants to find the right solution for each of our clients and put their recommendations into writing,” she says. “We’ll discuss things with the Consultant and do any necessary research and then we will write the letters and documents that are given to the client. We try to do it in a way that makes everything we write easy to understand for the client, without the industry jargon, in language we would understand if we weren’t doing the job every day.” If there is a bane in Jackie’s life it is the number of standard paragraphs that have to go into the documents to ensure all the necessary regulation is covered off. “Sometimes this makes the documents so thick and I feel for the clients having to read them. But we make sure they have all the information they need to understand the advice we are giving in as readily accessible and as easy-to-read a format as we can.” Jackie is another longstanding member of the Lowes team. She joined the company in 1995, as her first full-time job, working first in the Administration department before transferring into the Technical department in 1999. She left for a period of 15 months but when she heard the Head of Technical job was open, she came back eagerly. “That period away showed me what a great place to work Lowes is. People say it’s like a family and that’s true. It was more so back then when the company was smaller, when everyone knew each other. But even now, with nearly 100 people, everyone is so friendly and there is a great feeling of camaraderie, and we have a really good social side. It’s why so many Lowes people stay Lowes people for years.” The Technical department consists of eight people, including Jackie, and alongside working with the Consultants on their reports, the team regularly reviews the products in the market. “We don’t look at pensions or structured products, which have their own specialist departments, but there are still a lot of products out there and we analyse them, looking at what they offer, their charges and terms, finding the ones that would suit and be best for Lowes clients.” Asked if she had a magic wand and could change any part of her job to make her life easier what would it be, she says: “I’ve really wracked my brain on this. I’ve been doing the job for a number of years now

and I have a great team around me and the support from other departments and people in Lowes, so everything runs relatively smoothly. “If there is anything, I would like a piece of software that could automatically pull in all the information I need, from all the different providers I have to go to, using all the different passwords, into one place. That would save a lot of time. That would make my life easier. But I’m not holding my breath on getting it.” But when asked what she enjoys most about the job, Jackie comes back quickly on that question: “It’s when we have a complex case and we’re discussing it with the Consultant and we come up with an answer, which may be something that no-one has thought of before, and that gives us the solution for the client. That is a really satisfying feeling and what I like most about the job.”

14 Lowes.co.uk