Blackpool office!Choices Shelter & support for young people in Blackpool Togethermonththis inTandemPAGE14People MagazineSeptember 2022
3130272422212018161514121008060504New Shines.............................................Values.............................................TopAnnouncements............................TheMacmillan4Louis...................TheIt’sESGESGNationalLet’sFirstTandemInternalstarters...................................promotions.......................choices............................Chargemortgagelaunch......share.....................................allotmentday..................impact....................................monthlystats..........................anAforourBlackpooloffice...StreetlifeTrust..................................................coffeemorning............BoathouseYouth....................performers.............................. Contents
Welcome! New startersAva Kilpatrick Administrator Thomas Pearson Approvals Underwriter Liam Evans Underwriter Mark Shelper Key ManagerRelationship Mark Birchall Customer Relationship Manager Dom Thelwell Product and Pricing Analyst Tom Ellmers Senior Product and Pricing Manager Lauren Morley First AdministratorMortgages Stephen Gilkes Operational Risk - GRC Implementation Lead Jamie Stewart Account Manager Andrew Debens Development Lead Nathan Lyons Enterprise RiskOperationalandAnalyst Rothwell-HammondKaelum Completions Assistant Donna West T+C Manager Ellie Harrison Completions Assistant Gary Stevens Enterprise ManagerOperationalandRisk Alex Kasajev Management Accountant Nikki Paul Marketing Director Saira Ahmad First UnderwriterMortgages Vacancies!As Tandem continues toyourselfexcitinggrowwehavealotofopportunities,pleasehavealookforortoreferafriend! Click here!
Matt Jones Tony LewisJordanJeremyMichelleSara-JaneMahmutSarahKateJoshThomasAleksandrCiaraRobertSamanthaDavidSusieYipAlikerFisherAllenLePageFaughnan-MoncrieffKasajevSangsterCoxallMassieHentonEfeGilbertQuinnGriffithsColemanGrisenthwaite Chloe Mulhall Christina Bunting James Trail Lewis MatthewBoydDavenport Haotian Zhang Adam ChloeKelseyKatieRebeccaDavidJeromeMarshallHurleyRigbyHeatleyBuchanFryettOliver Olivia Fivian Steve VanessaCatterallStell Dan Killick Internal Promotions Kiera Bryan Underwriter to Approvals Underwriter Kiera joined our Personal Loans Lending team in March 2020 as a Completions Assistant, Kiera will now support the department as an Approvals Underwriter and we'd like to wish her the best of luck in this new role. Happy Birthday! We'd like to wish everyone who had a birthday in August a very
ChoicesTandem
Tandem Choices is our green hub where consumers can find out more about how they can make their lives more sustainable and save money on bills. We all want to do our bit for the planet by making our homes more energy efficient, but most of us just don’t know where to start. That’s where Tandem Choices can help! We will have informative articles, tools to check your current energy efficiency, money saving tips and partnerships with green energy product providers to make it easy to make greener choices to power and heat your home. We’re still in the design and planning stages, but we’ve already partnered with the Green Finance Institute and joined their Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings as our first step on this journey.
The Customer Engagement squad is busy designing the pages and getting ready to build out the site – we think it looks great, so take a sneaky peak at the work so far.
Specialist Residential First Charge Mortgage Launch! We are pleased to announce that Specialist Residential First Charge Mortgages is now live! This is a massive milestone for the business, which sees us launch a competitive product range into the Specialist Residential Mortgage Market. What is the Specialist Residential First Charge Market? The Specialist Residential Mortgage market offers mortgages to customers who traditional High Street lenders have typically underserved. The market consists of approximately ten lenders who between them helped customers with over £3.5 billion of borrowing in 2021. What products are we offering? � Loans for the re-mortgage of a residential property. � 2 Year and 5 Year Fixed Products � Loans from £25,000 to £750,000 � Rates from 4.75% � LTV up to 90% � We’re targeting £50 million of lending in 2022 and over £200 million in 2023.
The Team � The Originations team are based in our Blackpool office, they are: Head of Lending - Christine Duggan Head of Sales and National Accounts - Richard Angell Business Development Manager - Mark Shelper Lending Manager - Debbie Fitzgerald Underwriting - Gareth Fairhurst, Joe Mortimer, Sasha Ehlke–West, Sarah Winn Administration - Bethany Cavanagh, Melanie Harvey Additional Support - Nigel Brookes & Laura Walters (Supported the Sales team with launching the First Charge product with our existing Second Charge partners ) � The Servicing and Collections team are based in our Cardiff office; they are: Head Of Operations - Michelle Beattie Senior Operations Manager - Ceri Stacey Mortgage Operations Manager - Ian Wright Customer Operations Specialists - Tom Price, Kate Jarvis & Steve Li Additional support - Michelle Quinn & Karen Ford (Supporting the Customer Operations Specialists ) Launching a new product to market is not easy, but this challenge was made much easier through a well-run project and collaborative team effort. A big thank you to everyone involved, especially the following people: Christine Duggan, Richard Angell, Nigel Brookes, Ian Ashton, Sarah Wiggin, Steve Green (and his Team ), Dave Rigby, Joe Mortimer, Jake Colling, Laura Walters, Michelle Beattie, Ceri Stacey, Gareth Fairhurst, Sasha Ehlke-West, Debbie Fitzgerald, Emma McNulty, Alison Hart, Philip Snape, Nathan Kenny and Joseph Hall.... (Sorry if I’ve missed anyone) Exciting times ahead! A huge thank you!
HR Administrator “In July I took part in a sky dive from 14,000 ft! It was an amazing experience and I would highly recommend it! I very nearly didn't go ahead with it, however decided at the final hour to push myself and just go for it. For anybody considering doing a Skydive I would encourage you to go for it!”
Let's Share!
Each month we want you to share an experience with us all at Tandem and inspire us to do something different, maybe you've been backpacking in Thailand, welcomed a puppy to the family or even taken part in a skydive, like
JessJess…Richards –
Let's Share!
Jessica Elliott –Recruitment Advisor
“In July I welcomed a new puppy, Rupert. Rupert is a golden Cocker Spaniel who loves sleeping, destroying everything in sight and Havingcuddles. seen an abundance of pictures and videos of the latest arrival to our HR and Recruitment team. I would like to share some very cute pictures of Rupert to brighten up your day.” No experience is too big or too small, to share yours please email hr@myoplo.co.uk
9th August was National Allotment day so we are sharing the amazing allotments and vegetable patches that our Tandem people have been busy maintaining. We're so impressed with our people's passion for greener living both at home and at work. AllotmentNational Day Tuesday 9thAugust 2022
Personal Loans Underwriter grows on a half acre allotment and at home, he even teaches young people how to grow and perform land management. Take a look at his latest harvest.
William Banks Head of CollectionsConsumer is passionate about chillis, growing them in his back garden along with okra, herbs and a bay leaf tree to go with his passion for cooking. Chris Ryan
Head of Operations has a variety of fruit trees. She's got a neighbour swap shop going on - she swaps her fruit for veggies from her neighbours!
Michelle Beattie
UI/UX Designer has been growing these plants from seeds for two years, wintered them and will end up making hot sauces. He has 4 Habanero plants and 1 ghost pepper. He also likes to forage for blackberries on his way home from the pub.
Matt Jones
Ready to make Impact?anEverythingyouneedtoknowaboutourenvironmentalinitiatives
Tree Planting We planted 30,000 trees in March 2022 in our very own Tandem Wood, ahead of our 3−year agreement with Leighton Hall Estate. Since 2021 we have purchased / planted 40,945 trees across Trees for Life and Leighton Hall Estate. 11 of our people have a monthly Direct Debit to Trees for Life and an extra 11 people made a one off donation totalling 35 trees purchased for July. Pawprint 223 people signed up with average score of 12.6 tonnes co2. EV Scheme 10 electric cars on the roads saving 47,761.84 co2 emissions per annum. Bike2Work Scheme 4 people signed up. The Green Deal 42 members, 38 eligible rewards for redeeming. GiveAll 10 people total monthly donation £147. Swap Shop 22 items donated, weighing 6.2kg total since it started in November 2021, 394 items weighing 136.89 kilos! ESG Monthly Stats Million Minutes 6,330 minutes. Watch how we got on when we visited the Cardiff office in June!
It’s an A for our Blackpool office! We are at the top of the class with an ‘A’ Rating!
The Blackpool site has achieved an ‘A’ rating in its EPC certificate. Why is this a great achievement? Energy performance certificates have become the benchmark for energy efficiencies and the measurement of climate risk across the UK. Measuring a number of different indicators, their standards have become more and more rigorous over time. How impressive is that? ••• So, what does this mean exactly? It means that we have reached exemplar standards in the way we manage the energy in our buildings and that this has been tested by an independent assessor and reflects all our hard work over the last few years. How will this help other sites? Tandem now has a property model that can be used across its other sites. We now understand the principles of the EPC model and how it can be applied. We have learned what gets assessed and how it gets assessed and what needs to happen to achieve ‘A’ ratings across other sites. Most vitally it means that we are living our brand. Our expressed commitment to an environmental agenda is not just words, we live it in our physical spaces. We are climate-sensitive in our home lending portfolio and this means that we are clearly showing integrity to that agenda in our own working spaces. Only 3% of non-domestic properties in the UK get an ‘A’ rating. Can we say that again? Only 3%. Our Blackpool site is in the top 3 of every 100 company offices that get assessed.
Best statistic? We installed 248 LED panels into our Blackpool lighting system. Lighting counts for 40% of all non-domestic carbon emissions. Our actions have vastly reduced this level and type of impact. Thank you to all who played a part in this significant achievement. Debbie Waterman Head of Facilities
The Streetlife Trust –Shelter and support for young people in Blackpool ESG - Volunteering
“On the run up to Christmas last year we began looking for a charity to work with, something we could do regularly as a department to give back to our community with the support from Oplo to complete this in working hours. We decided to support Streetlife –they’ve been established since 1982, they assist vulnerable young people in Blackpool, a lot of whom access the service as homeless. Their aim is to enable and empower them to make informed choices about issues affecting their lives. They provide support for those up to the age of 26 – from The Base, Day Centre, and Night Shelter, which serves as alsosortbutharvestsfoodfilledInneedaccommodationemergencyforthosewhoitmost.December,theirbasehadroomstothebrimwithdonationsofandtoiletriesfromschoolandvariousotherprojectsonlyoneregularvolunteertothroughitall,whoatthetimehadabrokenarm(blesshim!!).
I can’t thank the team enough for the amount of effort put in over the month of December. Streetlife were over the moon with our support and I think I can speak on behalf of everyone that attended, it was a huge sense of achievement seeing the difference that just a few hours can make. This month we have been back supporting Streetlife get back on track with their donations again. Our team managed to get everything organised again, including cleaning/tidying their loft areas in just two short visits.
wearestreetlife.org
Each week throughout December we volunteered in groups of 3. To start with we sorted through all the food, ensuring everything was in date order and organised into food types ready to be picked for the food packages. After all the food was sorted the team put together food & toiletry packages and on the final week the teams got to make up Christmas gift parcels.
Hannah Bryce T&C Supervisor in Consumer Lending
Secondly, thank you to Shannon, Katie and Josh who also went down to Streetlife. As the other team did so well these guys didn’t have any parcels to make but the guys at Streetlife still needed some support with ad hoc tasks. These 3 were still open to taking part and have cleared and gutted over 20 bags of rubbish and organised their attic, that is some serious graft, and again, thank you so much!! You three have done an amazing job. Although we can’t directly get involved with the young people this charity support, the background support is just as important in ensuring the organisation of the charity so the people on the front line can do what they do best!! We have built up a great relationship with Streetlife and we can’t wait to continue supporting them.”
Firstly, huge thank you to William, Aimee, Helen, and Jay who spent their afternoon with Streetlife creating food and toiletry parcels for those in need!! You guys absolutely smashed it! We can see by the sheer number of bags and boxes filled!! You did that much you left no work for the guys this week!
ESG4Louis-Volunteering Very proud of the fabulous team of volunteers, Amber Langley, Chloe Smail, Dawn Pallin, Charlie Smail, Tamsin Kentfield, Chris Watson, Adrian Watkin and Gavin ThisLangley.isthe volunteeringseconddaywith 4Louis and you can see just how hard everyone is working when they go. Huge thank you to you guys for this super special charity 4Louis - Stillbirth, Childloss. If you’d like to get involved please don’t hesitate to contact Amber, Gavin or the ESG team.
This world's biggest coffee morning and quite literally our biggest with all our new offices on board! As the official coffee morning date is at month end, we have moved our coffee morning forward a week so everyone can get Callinginvolved.all the Mary Berrys and Paul Hollywoods out there to dust off their aprons and get out their mixing bowls and get ready for a monumental bake sale here at Tandem.
Macmillan CoffeeMorningESG-Charity Fundraising Friday September23rdat11am Reminder to get those mixing bowls ready!
Youth,BoathouseBlackpoolESG-Volunteering
Huge thank you to everyone that has given their time throughout August, visiting the camp and taking part in the above.
The
A few of us went to lend a hand setting up the camp at the end of July, the Summer Camp provides 175 young people with a 5-day fully-funded experience during the first three weeks of August. Not only do the young people get to enjoy a wonderful camping experience, but all the outdoor activities throughout the 5 days, such as kayaking, baking cakes over the campfire, trips to Manely Mere and Rivington Pike, and not forgetting all the games in between keeping them entertained.
Holly Wadeson ESG Manager
Massive credit to Laurance Hancock, the CEO and the whole BHY team - what they do every day for their community is just incredible. We managed to film some of the activities and we will share the amazing video next month!”
Following the transition from Oplo to Tandem Bank, we continue our social impact to support this superb charity, not just through financial means, but our time too.
“The Boathouse Youth is a product of its local community requirements in Blackpool, with the seaside town having 8 out of 10 of the 'most deprived' communities in the UK. Its mission aims to break the cycle of deprivation for children, young people, and their families in Blackpool. By removing barriers and creating opportunities that are engaging, relevant to their developing needs, and enable positive relationships to form so that every young person is able to realise their own potential. With our Head Office being in Blackpool, we became Platinum Patrons of BHY in 2021.
I am currently involved in the Customer Advocacy and Process Optimisation workstream namely to document operational requirements for a collections platform, the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ customer journeys and define the Bank’s collections strategies with an aim to align best practice across the Bank’s Operational teams.
Introduction for those who may not know Jab Miah.
This workstream is working towards delivering the target state operating model which is centred around:
UpdateIntegration
In the coming weeks, I will be starting my new role as Collections Strategy Manager and be responsible for the existing and future development of collections procedures and loan management system platform design.
I am currently an Operations Manager based in Cardiff, I have been at Tandem (previously Allium) for just over 3 years. Prior to this project role, I was responsible for the Home Improvement and Holiday Ownership servicing and collections teams.
What is your involvement with the Brilliant Basics Project?
1. Simplified organisational design 2. Consolidated processes and policies to deliver best practice across the group. 3. Standardised technology to enable cross skilling and economies of scale. 4. Providing outstanding customer and colleague experience and outcomes. 5. Strengthened capabilities needed to effectively manage operational risks associated with accelerated growth. 6. Closer alignment between business growth and operational capability.
with Jab Miah
Why are you reviewing Tandem’s collections strategies?
“ensuring our customers receive good outcomes”
Ourapproach.collections
strategies will be developed to segment customers into 3 areas: 1. Payment reminders 2. Pre-Arrears 3. Arrears
The new combined one bank strategy will create a streamlined journey for customers who are facing financial difficulty by offering a variety of contact methods and channels. Internally, Tandem colleagues will benefit from standardised processes, providing an easier view of performance. The implementation of the strategy will also strengthen our adherence to the FCA’s recently published guidance on Customer Duty and objective to provide excellent customer service and Workingoutcomes.with our Credit Analytics team, we have increased our understanding of payment and operational performance and refocused efforts on strategies that can make a significant difference and are more pertinent to the customer. By adopting these changes and segmenting the arrears strategy, the impact of forward flow of debt sale and using the available resource to cleanse the current arrears portfolio will allow resource to be used for growth on existing and new products. The optimisation process provides more choice and channels for customers and will ensure customers receive good outcomes which is in line with Consumer Duty requirements. The enhancement to the strategy will increase operational efficiencies and maximise scalability for the business.
Operations have clarity on what capabilities our platform, and service and collections strategy must have to enable operations to scale efficiently and effectively whilst maintaining control. Furthermore, in preparation for the rising cost of living, importance is placed on ensuring our collections strategies are tailored to individual customers’ needs; the current economic climate is expected to require a multitude of interventions depending on customers circumstances vs a one size fits all
Announcements Helen forWhat'sPersonalUnderwritingTravisTeamLeader,LoansLendingkeptyouatOplo/Tandemalltheseyears? The growth and community. So many exciting changes have been implemented during my time here and many more to come! Oplo feels like a family to me, and hard work is rewarded and recognised. Which part of your role do you enjoy the most? I enjoy all parts of my role, but my favourite part is helping guide and train new starters to become competent. It’s very rewarding seeing them work hard and progress. It’s also nice managing them and getting them to really come out their shell. What advice would you give to new starters? Really get stuck into your training and get to know your peers. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t understand something at first! Be productive always! 5 years service -
What's kept you at Oplo/Tandem for all these years? The people here, especially the Durham office, are brilliant people to work with. They are my family away from home as we have a great comradery, they can turn a not so great day into a great day, best people I have ever worked with. Which part of your role do you enjoy the most? I enjoy helping customers that are going through difficult times and trying to help as best I can to make the situation easier. What advice would you give to new starters? Everyday is a school day, in Durham there is support every day, don’t expect to know everything within a week or two or even a year! Your knowledge will come with time, don’t be afraid to ask for help as everyone is very supportive and want you to succeed. Chris CustomerWatsonRelationship Manager, Motor Finance 5 years service -
Announcements
Announcements
Anthony Corbett Risk & Compliance Officer, Personal Loans Lending What's kept you at Oplo/Tandem for all these years? I would say the people mostly. I’ve made some friends for life here and I count myself very lucky to work amongst such a great group. Which part of your role do you enjoy the most? I really enjoy the opportunity to help the team and being able to give advice if needed. I like knowing that people can come to me if they’re struggling with anything. What advice would you give to new starters? Try your best to integrate and get involved in any group events or activities, as the people here will definitely make your experience that much better. 5 years service -
PerformersTop
“Aftab has been supporting a Motor Finance customer who is currently suffering severe mental health issues including suicidal thoughts and is unable to work. Not being able to make payments is also causes further anxiousness. Aftab through his skills and natural empathy put the customer at ease focusing on understanding what support the customer was receiving so we could evaluate what harm the customer was at risk to and reassured the customer there is no pressure to make a payment at this time. We reassured the customer that the most important thing is that he is receiving the support he requires. Aftab has ensured the customer has received a tailored solution to provide the right outcome for the customer. Aftab also took note of a service that the customer is using called ‘Andy’s man club’ which has been a great support to him which has allowed us to signpost other customers who may need their help along with other relevant support services. Well done Aftab great to see this support to our customers.”
-Adrian Watkin Collections & SST Manager Aftab Aziz Specialist Support Agent
-Helen Travis
-Mark Hardman Collections Team Leader Eliot
“Amber works extremely hard day on day to ensure we achieve target. She is massive asset to the team and always available to offer help no matter how busy she is. Month on month she has shown her commitment to the department.”
“Outstanding performance in all areas for July. Over exceeded targets that helped the team during a short staffed period. Thank you and well done.”
Secured Sales Advisor
“We would like to nominate Eliot Helm as personal loan collections employee of the month, Eliot has been a standout performer from a QA and productivity perspective for the month of July. Well known for his witty one liners and his dry sense of humour, Eliot is a pleasure to work with and always demonstrates a strong work ethic. Thank you for all your hard work Eliot!”
CustomerHelmRelationship Manager, Personal Loan Collections
-Michelle Mills
Secured Sales Manager
Matt Gargett
Underwriting Team Leader Amber Sloan Underwriter
“William only joined the business at the start of May and has already shown his willingness and dedication to the role. He always gives 100% every day and has taken it upon himself to stay late most days to help with the volume of calls the department has been receiving. Last month alone he did over 2600 on his own! Massive well done for all your hard work.”
“Fantastic Team player – consistently has amazing call stats and talk time with great call quality. Manages workload really well and willing to work overtime when required to help achieve team targets. An asset to the department - Thank you for your hard work! ” -Salma Ahmed Colletions Team Leader
Joanne Coey Customer Relationship Manager
-Helen Travis Underwriting Team Leader William Weston Customer Service Advisor
PerformersTop
Together We believe in one shared vision and that we’re all vital cogs in the wheel. When we rise together, everyone succeeds. Enterprising We’re entrepreneurial, creative and authentic. Always looking to add value through our actions. Simple We make things easy by being straight forward and practical, and arming you with the tools you need to succeed. Brave We encourage you to push the boundaries, challenge and share your opinion.
Values
“My shine would be for the approvals team - Tanya and Amy. The number of applications they audit and sign off in a day is ridiculous. They’ve had to deal with some extremely busy days and not once do they complain. Always happy to help the team with questions and give great feedback. The team would be lost without you both! Well done for working so hard over the last few months! Go girl power.” – Helen Travis
“A few special mentions for all their help on the Motor Finance launch. A special shout out to Jake Quinn, Liam Baugh, Mark Wylie, Abimbola Ajala, Adam Cooper, Jerome Hurley, Chris Orton, Olivier Mollies, Chandrabose,SujathaCameron Schofield, Lewis Grisenthwaite, Scott Edwards and Declan Lever for all your help and support in getting Motor Finance to this point, it really is appreciated.” -Dave Briggs
Shines
“I will nominate David Rigby for him delivering all the of the DE work for 1st charge and managing implementation.”the - Liam Baugh
“Please could I recommend David Rigby for Shine. We are quite an isolated team on the Decision Engine and David does a great job supporting us and the testers that work in Sentinel, he’s an asset to the team in that regard – it would mean a lot to him as he’s very much an unsung hero.” - Declan Lever
“I’m a new starter with Tandem and my buddy is Anita Haley. She has gone above and beyond with my training also doing her own work as well. She has made sure I have all of my logins and templates and is very thorough with her training. I have looked forward to coming to work which is nice. I would like to nominate Anita Haley. She’s just the best.” -Lisa Dyball Unsunghero!
- Sally Howcroft Send your nominations to: hr@myoplo.co.uk “Huge thank you to Chris Whittaker our Videographer for all his hard work recently on lots of videos for the ESG team.”
- Holly WadesonWell done!
“Please can I shine a light on Hannah Bryce. She is the most kind, supportive and all round lovely person! She works so hard everyday not only with her own role which would be enough for two people to handle but she has also taken on another team as their team leader! She gives everything her upmost effort, making even the most menial of tasks fun and engaging, increasing everyone’s productivity. I really hope she goes far in Tandem as she deserves it and is such a great asset to the company. Thank you for everything you do Hannah! You are greatly appreciated!”
- Tanya Rowbotham “Nicola Kendall for passing all CeMAP exams and is now fully qualified. And Kim Gough for passing CeMAP 1. Well done to both.” - Michelle Mills
“I’d like to shine on Joe Hall in Compliance. We put him under pressure on a couple of Financial Promotions this week, asking for a very short turnaround. Joe was absolutely amazing and, without question or hesitation, understood the importance of the document and reviewed straight away. He always has a great ‘can do’ attitude and is a pleasure to work with. Big thank you for your 5 star service Joe!” - Sheila Sanderson
“I'd like to give a huge thank you to Matt Davis, HR Advisor who has taken the lead on the data migration for our transition in HR systems, all whilst continuing to support our managers with the day-to-day challenges and starting his next HR qualification.”