In the Loop

lo p in the

May 2021

Oplo People Magazine

Oplo lights up the town Page 6

Page 8

Oplo Impact: What we’ve achieved so far!

Page 5

An interview with Jade Skyes

Internal Promotions

! s n o i t a l u t a r Cong

Amber Langley Senior Team Leader Congratulations to Amber Langley on her new role as Senior Team Leader across Consumer Collections!

New starters

Welcome!

to the new starters who have joined in May!

Anthony Smith Quality Assurance & Conduct Analyst Cavanna Quinn Completions Assistant Jade Sykes Customer Relationship Manager Jordan Howard Customer Service Advisor Billy Wharton Underwriter Katie Standaloft Administrator

Please join us in congratulating them in their new roles and providing them with any support they may need.

Darren Griffiths Underwriter Sarah Chapman Customer Service Advisor Beth Crumpton Receptionist Roxanne Hodkin Administrator Paris Roberts Alysha Fletcher Customer Service Advisor

We’re hiring!

If you would like any information on the roles available please email recruitment@myoplo.co.uk

Marketing We’ve create a video to explain how Oplo’s brand identity was created and developed.

It explains our purpose and how it feels to be part of Oplo.

Over the coming weeks, Marketing will be popping into your weekly team meetings to share this with you and give you the opportunity to ask questions.

If you can't wait that long, click here for a sneaky peak...

Rem

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if mark you hav ques eting or b e any tions , our rand rela ted do o mark pen, em or is alw ail ays eting @my us at oplo .co.u k

5 years at Oplo

Sarah Allen DevOps Engineer

What's kept you at Oplo for all these years?

The people within Oplo and the IT team, especially the Service Desk team that I'm part of. You won’t meet a nicer team that are dedicated to getting the work done with a smile and a good laugh Everyone at Oplo has always been friendly and welcoming and ready to help if they can and the opportunities within departments are growing with the expansion of the business.

What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy the challenging technical work within my role. I love creating servers and networks for new and exciting products to be built upon, its nice knowing that I have a hand in the company journey.

I also enjoy knowledge sharing and training up Nathan to help support the dev ops function. This helps him expand his knowledge and career within the business and teach him another side to IT. What advice would you give to recent new starters?

Always be willing to ask for help and contribute your ideas and opinions, as you never know where it may take you. I started at Oplo as a systems analyst, supporting anchor and the business; now I help create new environments and technology used to help Oplo enhance. This all happened by putting myself out there for new opportunities.

A

Jade Sykes Mortgage Customer Relationship Manager

Tell us a little bit about your background and where you have come from?

I’ve come from Aldermore Banking who are based in Manchester where I dealt with secured mortgage collections. Before that I worked for Lloyds dealing with unsecured collections, so I’m very eager and excited to learn more about secured loans and second charges!

Three words to best describe you?

Without blowing my own trumpet, I would say that I’m friendly, driven and funny.

If you could travel to one destination right now, where would it be?

If I could travel to one destination right now it would have to be Bali!

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

When I was growing up I always wanted to work as a vet or something along those lines. Then I started GCSE science and my dreams of being a vet were shattered.

If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?

Hmm… I can’t single out one superpower but I would defo be a

Lights, Camera,

! n o i t Ac

On 8th of May we lit up Blackpool Tower in our Oplo colours to celebrate the launch of our Customer Account Management Area. We asked you all to head down and take some snaps of the tower to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

The winning photo was taken by Rory Baker, capturing a fantastic shot of the Oplo Tower.

Congratulations Rory, we hope you enjoy your prize!

We want to say a big thank you! to everyone who entered, and we hope you all enjoyed seeing the Oplo Tower.

! r e n Win

If you missed it

you can see some of our favourite entries featured below.

! u o y k n a h T

Something awesome for your birthday Don’t forget to claim your free birthday box Claim for two weeks either side of your birthday

We’ll send a reminder when your birthday box is ready

Delivered to your

Seven boxes to choose from!

The bubbles box

The chocolate box

The tea taster box

The beauty and grooming box

Search ‘birthday box’ on Perkbox to order yours!

www.perkbox.com

Impact

What you’ve helped us to achieve so far...

1,419 trees purchased ready for planting with our partners 6 of our Oplo people have converted to electric motoring (3 more in the pipeline)

6 electric home car charging stations installed and paid for by Oplo 165 of your Pawprints gathered We’re now a Platinum Patron with The Boat House Youth contributing £25,000 per year We’ve kick started our carbon assessment with Inspired Energy

243

based on April's figures.

In the market for an electric vehicle?

Electric cars are rising in popularity and there are many benefits to making the switch.

As part of Oplo’s goal to become a carbon neutral business, help solve the climate change and the pollution crisis, we’re introducing our new partnership to you, Octopus Electric Vehicles.

Why Octopus? completely impartial advice about your switch to electric driving through our trained EV experts. You can find out more by visiting their website here: https://www.octopusev.com/cars If you’d like to apply for an electric car, click the link below and you can book an appointment with your own personal advisor at Octopus. Your contract will be with them directly and Oplo have no involvement in this. https://calendly.com/octopuselectricvehicles/oplo-personal-contract -hire-consultation?month=2021-04

How are Oplo involved?

By getting an electric car through Octopus, Oplo will fund the cost of your home charger!

If you require any further information prior to contacting Octopus, you can email esg@myoplo.co.uk

Our Charity Impact

This year we are supporting the following charities:

Mind The Boat House The Christie NHS Sunderland And a reminder that our target is

£50,000!

Details on how to book and log your volunteer day in our HR Access system are on their way to you via email keep an eye out for them!

How you can get involved From 1st June, Oplo will give everyone charitable cause of their choice.

When our Oplo People kindly donate their own time, we’ll capture the hours sacrificed and make an Oplo contribution. volunteer equates to £400 per person towards our target.

If all our Oplo People volunteer for 1 working day, this would equate to approximately

£96,000!

Introducing Leighton Hall As part of our ambition to become carbon neutral by the end of 2021, we’ve joined forces with a second tree planting partner, Leighton Hall Estate, Carnforth, set within Lancashire’s Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Our partnership with Leighton Hall aims to re-establish woodland with the planting of up to 30,000 trees.

But there are other exciting benefits to this local relationship.

Oplo people will have the opportunity to make their own Oplo Impact as we begin to plan an exciting schedule of volunteering projects. More details will be revealed in the coming weeks as to how you can get involved.

Here are just some of the highlights to our partnership...

Tree planting Wellbeing Events Family days Charity volunteering days

Competition Think you have the most dashing doggo, purrfect cat or beautiful bunny – then send your pictures in to holly.wadeson@myoplo.co.uk with the reason why your pet should win!

These will be collated, and anonymous entries submitted to the ESG Committee, so they can choose purely on how fabulous the pet is and not the owner.

1st prize

Trees planted to make you carbon neutral for the whole year plus an eco pet hamper filled with wonderful natural snacks and toys!

2nd prize

6 trees plus eco pet prize

3rd prize

3 trees plus eco pet prize

k out o o l o t What Impact: o l p O for from each

ed b Organis days g cleanin on! so coming

UK Clothing Poverty Awareness Day 2021

9th June

In the UK, thousands of people have very little or nothing to wear, yet clothing poverty goes undocumented and unreported. All the while, a devastating impact is felt by children and adults, alike.

Beyond the detrimental mental health implications that clothing poverty

The solution, however, could be simple. In the UK, 300,000 tonnes of clothes go into landfills each year; that is equivalent to £140 million worth of clothes. If these clothes were redirected for good use, not only would this be better for the environment but clothing poverty could be alleviated at very little or almost no cost.

At Oplo we wanted to do our part in not just combatting tonnes of unnecessary waste going into landfills but also combatting clothing poverty.

This is why we will soon be launching the Oplo ‘Swap Shop’; a clothes swapping campaign to encourage our teams across all sites to declutter their wardrobes. This will not only benefit our own people but our charity partners will have access too!

Watch out for more updates on Swap Shop in the coming months.

Wellbeing During the long months of the pandemic, many of us turned to nature. Mental Health Foundation’s research on the mental health impacts of the pandemic showed going for walks outside was one of our top coping strategies at 59%, and 42% of us reported being in green spaces has been vital for our mental health.

That's why we're encouraging you to find nature wherever you are!

Nature is all around us. Whether it be a garden, local park, beach, or open countryside, you can find a way to connect with nature.

If you're physically able to, exercising in nature is a great way to connect yourself. Running, walking and cycling outside could help reduce feelings of anger, tiredness, or sadness. Why not try getting active outside!

YourExtra Mile Last month we asked you to focus your Extra Miles on these four key brand values as we continue bringing our brand to life.

Here is a little reminder of these four key brand values

Understanding At Oplo we take time to get to know you and understand your situation. We look for the possibilities, not the problems. Want to thank someone for showing a unique level of understanding or compassion?

Fair We give hard working people the tools to help themselves. We’re always helpful and practical in our approach. Has a team member supported you in powering your potential, enabling you to achieve a goal?

Enabling We believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to better themselves. We’re always open minded and even handed with our customers and with one another. Has your colleague gone above and beyond to help you better yourself by being open minded and accepting?

Enterprising We’re entrepreneurial and authentic. We genuinely believe that when you fulfil your potential everyone succeeds. Why not congratulate one of your colleagues on showing great initiative within the team or towards a customer!

“Understanding” “Can I please nominate both Nicolette and Mon for welcoming me to the team. Both have been so understanding and guided me into my new role. Both Nicolette and Mon are always there for me when I need help or don’t understand anything.”

Kanchana Thatmee “I found Stephen Greens understanding and knowledge of requirements to be tested a huge help in enabling the testing team to move on with a number of scenarios re the recent 4.6 testing requirements.

It helped us build our test cases and move quickly through a number of scenarios.”

“The support and understanding that Ajay Mitha has provided me in helping me to be able to manage my mental health at a difficult time of year has been invaluable. It has shown that this level of support can be provided whilst also being able to get done what is required and me not feel bad about taking some time out if needed. Thank you Ajay.”

Jonathan Mylorie

Mel Wilson

“Fair” “Caroline Bradshaw has been incredibly helpful in our journey to getting the Collections Policy Manual into a good place, responding to my advice tickets and the creation of the Debt Respite learning and reference aids ahead of SLAs and with fair and robust feedback. Thank you for your support!”

Mel Wilson

Your Extra Mile

“I would like to thank Nigel Brookes.

He has been very understanding of my career aspirations, is always on had to provide me with guidance and assistance on any matter, regardless of what he has got going on. I feel he has given me (and continues to give me) the support I need to enable me to achieve what I want from my career. Thanks mate.”

“Enabling” “I would like to say a massive thank you to Shaun Wood Financial Cloud training videos, this has enabled an alternative way for collections agents to learn and also provided consistency throughout all 13 videos.

These videos total 3 hours and 30 mins in totality so you can only imagine how much time has been put into these to get to that point, thanks Shaun .”

Scott Lawson

Mel Wilson

“I’d like to recognise the new Oplo Investor in Customers Project Team for enabling the business to have a great chance of achieving a Gold Award at our next accreditation. It will take hard work from the wider business to gain the accreditation but having the right team in place will give us the best opportunity - thanks for putting yourselves forward Shaun Wood, Luke Holt, Sara Evans, Hannah Bryce, Sheila Sanderson and Charlotte Bristow.

“I want to recognise and thank Jake Colling in my team for ‘enabling’ the business to move forward with a number of forward flow discussions. Jake has picked up numerous very important pieces of analysis at very short notice, understood it, and turned it around accurately and on time, whilst also using his initiative to provided recommendations where appropriate.”

Ben Thackwray

Rick Keeble

“Enterprising” “Since Tiffiny Howarth has started the ORC role it has been a hard transition into a brand new role, this has meant understanding task requirements and in some cases defining the processes that sit for being you and the hard work you have already put into this role. Keep doing what you’re doing!”

Mel Wilson

Your Extra Mile