National recognition for our UECS Finance team

Jez Simpson is the Head of Finance for University of Essex Campus Services. Here, he tells us more about the UECS Finance team, what they’ve been up to since the introduction of the new ECS (Estates and Campus Services) structure earlier in the year, and why their new ACCA Approved Employer status is so important for contributing to the future of the University.

The UECS Finance team look after the newly formed divisions of Estates, Facilities Services, Campus Services, and Sustainability. The team work as business partners linking the operational departments, like Essex Food, and the shared service finance teams, like the payments team. Our role is to provide management support and reports that help these teams evaluate their performance.

We have recently been awarded ACCA Approved Employer Status, which recognises our high standards of staff training and development. It is a great achievement for us. As an internationally recognised qualification from a UK awarding body working in over 179 countries with over 200,000 members, the award demonstrates that we really know what we’re doing and gives other organisations confidence when they’re working with us.

The award also provides us with a lot of benefits, like increased training support and help with CPD (Continued Professional Development) for our current team. Membership gives us access to a robust study policy with its own framework that will work together really well with the wide-ranging, in-house training provided by Organisational Development. Moving forwards, our Approved Employer status will also help us attract and retain good quality graduates and finance employees.

For UECS and the University, building a team and organisational capabilities is vital to ensuring a dynamic and responsive service for the executive and our students. We are living in turbulent times, and, therefore, to react robustly and confidently based on the continued development of our knowledge and skills will be vital in contributing to the development of the University well into the 21st century.

In the future, the competition for globally scarce critical talent will become even more difficult; providing a framework to attract and retain talented people that have internationally recognised standards will give UECS (the University is also recognised in its own right) unique access to an exceptional talent pool. With 50% of the team either full members of ACCA or in ACCA training pathways, we are well on our way to becoming a fully qualified team with the skills and knowledge to support UECS businesses well into the future.