Ask Exco

Thank you for your continued enquiries into Ask ExCo. Below are some answers to most of the themes and topics asked in recent times. Our plan is to use In the Loop, and maybe one TGT each month, to respond to the very latest Ask ExCos. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email us!

Could you please provide information as to why many pay rises have been less than half of the rate of inflation after we were told on many occasions that Tandem has now become very profitable?

Our pay award process this year was an extremely di cult task. As a new bank, we are only 3-4 months into our journey and as yet, we have not become "very profitable" as the question suggests. We are progressing well and hope to have a great first year as a combined business which will help with our new 2022 Bonus model as well as future reward. As a result, our 2022 pay process was di cult but we felt that team managers were able to best distribute the pay pool to reflect priorities locally.

What is the growth in Cardiff going to involve? Is savings coming to Cardiff as well as motor finance?

We have recently moved our Savings Administration work from an external outsourced supplier and now based it fully within our o ces in Durham! The team there have completed several weeks of training and a considerable amount of planning and as at last week, the new team are live and assisting our customers! We also have exciting plans to expand our Car Finance teams out of Cardi and Dave Briggs, MD of Car Finance, is busily forming his recruitment plans to help us do this.

When will all new job roles be advertised internally across all sites to ensure everyone has visibility of the roles that are available?

At the moment, the respective teams in London and Blackpool are managing localised recruitment but we do intend to share all roles, probably on a weekly basis, in the very near future!

If basic salaries increase as a result of the benchmarking exercise that was discussed when will this take effect? If paid in April will this be backdated to February?

No, we did not intend to backdate our pay awards for 2022. All agreed rises will be e ective this month, April.

What is the plan for front line operational colleagues to integrate and create relationships with other sites? Will site visits be allowed?

Great question! The first quarter of 2022 has been intense for all colleagues as the new business took shape. As we move forward through 2022, we expect to see many more opportunities for colleagues across the bank to work with colleagues and visit our di erent sites.

Hopefully you will have heard a little bit more on our Savings plans in recent weeks but we'll look to provide a more detailed overview of our future plans and strategy from Ben Mitchell and team in the weeks ahead.

When will further detail of org charts and reporting lines be shared? We've not had any further information since the Senior Leadership was confirmed on 21 January.

The first quarter of 2022 has been about 'putting the bank' together and allowing teams to settle down a little into new structures. Over the next few weeks we'll look to share the very latest organisational design so all colleagues can see how we are shaping up for the year ahead.

There was all this talk last year about using a 3rd party to try and get an industry pay comparison. Did we manage to carry out the industry wide pay comparison research that was promised? Do we know what the results were from this research and the outcomes/Tandem's next steps and actions? Can you share the results from the pay comparison you've done? I've been at Tandem for many years now and its always the same story, we are now profitable and still the pay rises are so minimal.

Pay benchmarking data is a tool many companies use as part of an overall assessment on pay and reward. An exercise to benchmark roles and salaries for former Tandem colleagues was completed early in 2022. We intend to undertake a similar exercise for former Oplo colleagues over the next few months to provide us with a full understanding for all our roles and geographies. Benchmarking data is rarely shared widely in any organisation but rather it is used to help shape future reward planning. That is how we have used the data this year, and it is a key data feed into our bonus and benefits plans for 2022. We will continue to use such data, and lots of other insights, on market trends to provide more understanding on the whole organisation.

Is there consideration of setting up IT service desk support for Allium Cardiff? We currently have an IT consultant who is not Cardiff based. Hardware, and equipment have been managed and set up by colleagues within the Operations and Underwriting teams.

Our IT and broader Tech and Data teams, under Mark Akerman, are looking at how we prioritise our 2022 'tech' objectives as well as maintain our 'business as usual' services as e ectively as we can, such as Helpdesk facilities as per the question. We can share more plans on that over the weeks ahead as Mark and his teams finalise priorities and actions as well as continue to recruit for prioritised areas of expertise.

Is there official COVID guidance from Tandem and what about any plans to start returning to the offices a bit more? Should I now expect to be visiting the office more often after almost 2 years at home?

At the moment, we have lots of examples where two policies exist on the same theme regarding our various HR policies, including our approach to working arrangements during and post COVID. As part of our integration planning, we are looking to combine as many policies as we can into one version for all colleagues. With regards to COVID, we, of course, want all colleagues to remain safe and follow guidance if testing positive. We are also reviewing our approach to using our o ces more in the months ahead and we will share plans here as and when agreed.