In The Loop May 2022

lo p in the

May 2022

People Magazine

The Christie Charity Dragon Boat Race Page 16

Page 12

Page 20

Our ESG Ambassadors

Health and Wellbeing Menopause at Work

Contents Pride 2022.................................................. 03 Internal promotions............................. 04 New starters............................................ 05 Integration................................................ 07 Hidden talents......................................... 09 ESG impact............................................... 10 ESG monthly stats................................. 11 Our ESG ambassadors.......................... 12

A million minutes................................... 15 Dragon boat race................................... 16 ESG what’s on next............................... 18 Health and wellbeing........................... 20 Announcements..................................... 21 Top performers....................................... 24 Your extra mile........................................ 27

Pride

2022!

Saturday 2nd July

Tandem have been selected to march in this year’s London Pride Parade on Saturday 2nd July.

We’d love to see as many of you there as possible so if you would like to attend on the day, please complete this form: Click here We only have 50 wristbands available, so if we exceed 50 we will run a ballot to randomly assign spaces.

If you’re not selected, you'll still be able to watch the parade and attend the event we are organising for after!

More details on travel expensing will be shared closer to the time.

e d i r P n o d Lon Parade!

Internal Promotions

Oplo and Tandem

Please join us in Congratulating Leah and Kelsey in their new roles!

We are excited to announce the internal promotion of Leah Leeming to Home Loans Team Leader.

Leah joined us in December 2020 as a Completions Assistant. Since joining, Leah has been an invaluable member of the team, consistently achieving whilst taking on additional tasks and helping support the new members of the team. Leah has excellent knowledge of the department and is now ready for a new challenge leading her own team, sharing her knowledge and best practises.

We are excited to announce the internal promotion of Kelsey Fryett to Underwriter!

Kelsey has been a member of the Customer Service Team within the consumer division since early July last year. She joined us as a Customer Service Advisor and has been instrumental in driving the team ever since. Kelsey has excellent knowledge of the department and is now ready for a new challenge.

New starters

Welcome!

Haotian Zhang Senior Developer David Anderson Director of Sales - Car Finance Aishah Rashid Completions Assistant Olivia Fivian Completions Assistant Will Weston Customer Service Advisor Gareth Fairhurst First Mortgages Underwriter Holly Dutton Underwriter Oliver Greenwood Customer Service Advisor Michael Holmes Customer Relationship Manager Jonathan Saxelby Customer Relationship Manager

Julie Allen Collections Administrator Ryan Lambert Customer Service Specialist Cameron Eskdale-Gilmour Customer Service Advisor Iain Felstead Head of Operational Risk Raghavan Rajamanickam Rajendran Regulatory Reporting Accountant Georgina Whalley Chief Impact and Marketing Officer

We’re h

iring!

If you w informa ould like any tion on the role availabl s e, pleas e email recruit me myoplo nt@ .co.uk

In the Loop -

Integration On Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th May the senior leadership team met at Leighton Hall, in the Lake District. There was a packed agenda and topics for discussion, with a key focus on the ‘One Bank’ vision, including how to build a unified organisation with shared culture, values, priorities, and strategies.

We spoke to Steve McNicholas, our Chief People Officer, and this is what Steve had to say…

So, what was the ‘senior leadership’ session earlier this month all about?

After an intense few months, integrating the two businesses and achieving an awful lot on reflection, we felt it was a good time to reflect on our vision, strategies and priority areas for the rest of 2022 and beyond. Every member of our senior leadership team was able to attend, and we met at the beautiful Leighton Hall estate in the Lake District.

Did you talk about other topics besides strategy and vision?

Yes! We managed to debate and agree actions on several other ‘hot topics’ such as our culture, the values we hold as a business, our brand, how we communicate across the bank and how we can leverage successful tools such as TGT, Culture Club, Oplo Impact and more, right across our business. We also agreed that we should be just as focused on delivering our Q2 priorities as well as thinking about what we want to achieve in the future!

How will all colleagues be kept aware of decisions and actions from the event?

Well, we felt the structure of the meeting went so well, we invited the next level of senior leaders to attend a similar event later in the month! 50 - 60 of our senior leaders spent 2 days to build on the work referenced above with a focus on how we can bring this to life as well as inform and engage the 400 or so other colleagues across the bank.

What was the main reflection you took from the meeting?

That whilst we still have much to do now, and through the next few months and we must not lose sight of that, that we have an amazing opportunity as Tandem Bank to really help support and assist millions of our customers on their own unique journeys to ‘fairer and greener’. I am so excited at what we want to achieve over the next few years and cannot wait for all our colleagues to understand this and participate in it themselves.

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As always, If you have any Integration queries, questions, suggestions or feedback please send these to integrationteam@tandem.co.uk

Tandem's Hidden Talent

Jacob Siriwardena Junior Business and Change Consultant

Where did your interest for music begin?

Growing up, my dad was a classical musician, so my sisters and I were lucky enough to be in an environment where we could try out loads of different instruments. Quite early on, my dad realised that the things I enjoyed/was least hopeless at were guitar and singing. So, at the age of 6 I started taking singing and classical guitar lessons. I carried on taking lessons until I went to university aged 18, during that time I completed my music grades up to grade 8 and participated in a number of competitions. The music was largely classical, including the odd operatic piece so I absolutely won't sing any of it if you ask me. While at university, my interest in

music became harder to manage. It wasn't until I was in Sweden in my third year as part of a Erasmus programme that started singing again.

Here, I rediscovered my passion for singing whilst also realising how much fun it could be to perform with others.

How does music play a part in your life now?

After graduating, I moved back home to Essex, where I reconnected with a childhood friend. We decided to clear out and restore an old shed in his garden and turned it into a very low budget music studio.

From there, we started creating and writing our own music. I learned how cathartic the process of making music could be and how satisfying it is seeing an idea come to fruition. We did this for a few months until we had got enough demos to compile into an EP (still about on SoundCloud if anyone is curious).

While lock down put a lot of things on the back burner, I still love writing and creating my own music, but I'm happy keeping it as a hobby, without putting any pressure on pursuing the idea more seriously.

How often to do perform?

Nowadays, you can catch me enjoying some karaoke, or performing at the odd TGT, with the incredibly talented Matt Reynolds, who everyone should pester, so that he can share the music he's making at the moment.

Ready to make an Impact Everything you need to know about our environmental initiative

ESG Monthly Stats Tree Planting

20,683 trees purchased since February 2021 from Trees for Life and Leighton Hall.

We have planted 30,000 of our overall 3-year agreement with Leighton Hall ahead of schedule in March 2022 as part of our volunteering event.

15 of our people have a monthly Direct Debit to Trees for Life and an extra 4 people donated a one-off purchase

Pawprint

226 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

34 members, 49 eligible rewards for redeeming

Swap Shop

10 items donated, weighing 3.1kg

GiveAll

10 people total monthly donation £147

ESG

We have our ESG Ambassadors Blackpool • Holly Wadeson

Cardiff • Gwilym Williams • Danielle Holmes • Andrew Rios-Hall

Durham • John Brown • Gavin Langley

Manchester • Samantha Howarth • Suzanne Carr

London • • • • • •

Dan Bravery Megan Rayner Alex Paul Alex Kirkup Josh Coxall Georgia Brooks

Calling all Head Office (Blackpool) People ESG Ambassador Do you a passion for the environment and sustainability?

Perhaps you’re all about raising money for charity and getting involved in volunteering activities?

So what do I have to do?

Our aim of the ESG Ambassador is to assist the ESG Team in raising the profile of our Impact Initiaitives. Whether that be encouraging our people to sign up to PawPrint, giving them a heads up for the Swap Shop or simply influencing the team in any fundraising and volunteering activities

WE WANT YOU! We want your voice to ensure our motto of a greener, fairer bank is upheld and at the core of what we do day in day out.

Why should I live more sustainably?

First of all, what is sustainability?

Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

So why is it so important?

We cannot maintain our Earth’s ecosystems or continue to function as we do if more sustainable choices are not made.

If harmful processes are maintained with no change, it is likely that we will run out of fossil fuels, huge numbers of animal species will become extinct, and the atmosphere will be irreparably damaged.

The Future Companies will be held accountable for all aspects of industry, and any environmental damage or harmful emissions should be limited or removed from productive processes.

It is also expected that resources will be reused to suit the global increase in population in what is commonly referred to as a ‘circular economy’. This change would allow one person’s waste to be another’s resource, in a process that would greatly reduce waste and create a more efficient supply chain.

“How is it possible that the most intellectual being that ever walked the planet, is destroying its only home?”

- Jane Goodall

ESG What can I do?

Start with ten impactful actions Our lifestyles have a profound impact on our planet. Our choices matter. Around two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to private households. The energy, food, and transport sectors each contribute about 20 per cent of lifestyle emissions. From the electricity we use, to the food we eat and the way we travel, we can make a difference.

Take a look at the action guide and start with these ten actions to help tackle the climate crisis:

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

- Robert Swan

A Million Minutes Launching Soon…. a Million Minutes Our new group wide target for our people is to help within the community to reach a whopping '1 million minutes’ worth of volunteering time, not just through our charity partners of internal arranged activities but including any volunteering you do outside of work - all those minutes will add up to some exceptional prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and more importantly help us give back to the people and the planet.

Further details sent to the whole team in the coming weeks….

ESG

The Christie Charity Dragon Boat Race A HUGE thank you to everyone who took part in the Dragon Boat Race.

We raised £785.00!

The Team Catherine Dunbar (Captain) 1. Sarah Chieffo 2. Phillip Eastham 3. Carnan Dawson 4. Ellie Turrell 5. Sara Evans 6. Mark Evans (Sara’s Husband got roped in) 7. Michelle Newton 8. Cameron Schofield 9. Lewis Gristhenwaite 10. Michelle Mills 11. Joanne Coey 12. Christopher Whittaker 13. Andrew Hurst 14. Amber Fordham

Sunday 8 th May 2022

Here's what the boat team had to say about the day...

“Absolutely loved it, a great experience despite getting utterly soaked before we even reached the starting line! I would definitely take part in it again, especially when it is for a great cause such as The Christie.”

- Chris Whittaker

“Great day out, great effort by the team, team motto was harder, faster, deeper.... probably should have had something simpler that wouldn’t make us laugh.”

- Andrew Hurst

Oplo Boating Team fundraising for The Christie on JustGiving

ESG

What’s on next?

Sunday 10th July 2022 - Manchester to Blackpool Bike Ride for The Christie The cycling event of the summer is back again! Join #TeamChristie once again as we hop on our bikes and tackle the 60-mile route from Media City at Salford Quays to finish beneath the iconic Glitterball on Blackpool’s South Promenade.

Whether you’re an experienced cyclist, or are wobbly on two wheels, the extra special atmosphere and Team Christie encouragement will ensure you never forget crossing that finish line.

Volunteers on the Day There are two different volunteering opportunities for the bike ride.

These include; Cheer point volunteers

Get the whole family involved, the ride is fully supported with mechanical and medical support and plenty of refreshment stations.

Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in and I can inform our Corporate Officer at The Christie and provide you with further info on timings etc.

• This would ideally be a large group (minimum 6) of supporters

• You would help to set up a marquee, hand out

water and snacks to participants, cheer on riders, chat to people resting, take pictures and generally create a nice atmosphere to keep spirits up enroute to the finish

• The cheer point will most likely be in either Wigan, Chorley or Leyland

Finish line volunteers • You would be in Blackpool on the day, based at the finish line and at the Solaris centre post event space

• You would be handing out cheering items at

ESG@myoplo.co.uk

the finish line and bucket collecting throughout the day for the Christie

Thursday 23rd June 2022 - Beach Clean with LOVEmyBEACH LOVEmyBEACH is a campaign from Keep Britain Tidy, working with local authorities, schools, businesses and communities throughout the North West to improve beaches and bathing waters.

10 spaces available Email ESG@myoplo.co.uk to reserve your place now!

They work with local community groups, who take ownership of a stretch of coast and organise beach cleans to remove litter from the environment. There are 13 beach clean groups on the Fylde Coast and in the last four years, St Annes North Beach Care Group alone have removed over 5 tonnes of litter!

For more information, please visit: www.lovemybeach.org Below are the details of the beach clean: Location: St Annes North Beach Meeting point: By the Coastguard Station on St Annes North Beach car park, Clifton Drive North, St Annes, Lancashire, FY8 2TR. Date and time: Thursday 23rd June 2022, 10:00 - 12:00.

All the necessary equipment (litter pickers, bags, gloves and high visibility vests) will be provided.

Health and Wellbeing Menopause at Work - keeping the conversation going Julie Dennis our Menopause at Work professional who completed our February workshops is continuing to partner with clients like Health Education England, UK Security Health Agency and the Government Department for Levelling Up providing:

•

Menopause Training for Managers so that they can confidently and competently discuss menopause at work within legal guidelines.

•

Menopause Champion Training to ensure your menopause initiative remains lively, relevant and front of mind through 2022 and beyond.

In March 2021, Vodafone published research based on a survey of 5,000 people from five countries who’d experienced menopause while at work:

62%

said menopause impacted on them at work.

Colleagues Awareness Workshops to reduce the stigma, generate engagement and resolve immediate challenges so that all staff feel involved, valued and supported.

33%

hid symptoms at work with 50% feeling there’s a stigma around talking about the menopause.

It’s Menopause Awareness Day in October, and we will book Julie back in to continue the training on the above.

43%

If you would like to be one of our Menopause Champions please email ESG@myoplo.co.uk and we will get you booked on a group workshop with Julie to ensure our people always have someone they can talk to if they are struggling with perimenopausal, menopause or postmenopausal symptoms.

in the UK reported they’ve felt too embarrassed to ask for support in the workplace, rising to 63% aged 18-44.

64%

in the UK agree there should be more workplace support for women going through menopause.

•

s t n e m e c n u o Ann

Oplo Anniversary!

5 years service -

Bethany Jenkins

Administrator - Car Finance Bethany joined the business in May 2017 as an apprentice and has worked her way through to become an Administrator in Car Finance. Bethany brings a fun element to the team with her little anecdotes and quest for knowledge on a regular basis.

Bethany can always be relied upon to step up and support the team with any additional work loads.

Since joining the business, Bethany has become a mum to little Rueben and is due to return to work at the start of July.

Congratulations on your 5 years’ service Bethany, its been a pleasure working with you.

Louise Elms

Congratulations!

Well done to Alice Urwin who has passed her AAT level 4 examinations!

s t n e m e c n u o Ann

Oplo Anniversary!

5 years service -

Naieed Haque Senior Test Analyst

Naieed began his Oplo career 5 years ago, joining as a junior Systems Analyst and after completing probation, he took on the role of Test Analyst focusing on new builds and changes to the Sentinel platform. He excelled in this role, and helped to develop improved controls and regression scripts. In 2020, he was then promoted to Senior Test Analyst and took line management responsibility of the Test Team.

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

Everyone is friendly and it’s a great place to work because of the opportunities to develop and progress in my Oplo career.

Also, realising the potential to fulfil my goals here. I’ve always appreciated that I get valued here and I’m grateful for the continuous support that I receive and overall, I enjoy working with everyone.

Which part of your role do you enjoy the most?

I’m passionate about my role and enjoy getting the opportunity to share the knowledge and helping my team.

What advice would you give to new starters?

This is for juniors, enjoy the work and continue to ask questions. You will do great!

s t n e m e c n u o Ann

Tandem Anniversary!

6 years service Taz Mukhtar

Head of People Operations

What has kept you in Tandem for so long?

Definitely the people. We've managed to bring together an amazing set of individuals who care passionately about their craft and one another. There isn't a day that goes by where I'm not learning something from a colleague. Everybody is supportive, driven and purpose led which makes for a very fulfilling working environment. Lastly, we've managed to bring together people who have a range of perspectives, experience and backgrounds and we've created a space where people can be their authentic self and that's pretty special!

What part of your role have you enjoyed the most?

I'd definitely call out the variety, not one day is the same. My role has also evolved with the business. I've managed to follow an accelerated development path and have had exposure to a number of different things. Working closely with my team and the business to solve complex problems in an innovative way is very rewarding. I get to work with all areas of the business so interacting and getting to know everyone is a lot of fun.

What advice would you give to new joiners?

It's important to ask a lot of questions, be curious, make mistakes quickly and get stuck in. You'll have tonnes of people cheering you on as you navigate your way through your early months. It takes time to understand how everything works and how it all knits together, be patient, you'll get there. There will be bumps along the way, keep the faith and ask for help! Speak up, share your thoughts and ideas, everybody has a voice and we encourage you to use yours.

! s r e m r o f r e p Top Home Loans

Chelsea Haslam Reasons for nomination: Chelsea has been instrumental in helping the T&C team with the training of new starters and they have fed back advising that she is very helpful and approachable.

Within the approvals team she has been organising the team and making sure all necessary tasks are done by the end of the day and she has also been doing extra quality checks on her colleagues too alongside her normal day job.

She has gone above and beyond and gone the extra mile.

Newcomer Employee of the Month

Danielle Finnigan Reasons for nomination: Danielle started with us in February, she is full of positive energy. She is eager to learn and wants to succeed. She takes on board and learns from feedback given to her.

I have actively seen her going out of her way to help new starters too even though she is very new herself.

She has been a pleasure to train and has fit well into the Home Loans team. She is one to watch!

Admin

Ryan Molyneux Reasons for nomination: Ryan is a real team player, always happy to help. He has great banter and is hard working and is a real asset to the team.

Packaging Team

Kristen Fielding Reasons for nomination: Although she has had some extremely difficult and challenging cases, she has remained positive and focused throughout.

Internal Sales

Tyler Eckersley Reasons for nomination: Another outstanding performance achieving an overall record. Well done.

Personal Loans

Michelle Newton Reasons for nomination: Michelle has stepped up during this month supporting new starters, sharing her knowledge and welcoming them into the department with her infectious positivity that she brings on a daily basis. Michelle has continued to be a driver and supports morale across the team while also making great strides to improve her own performance.

Specialist Support Team

Phillip Eastham Reasons for nomination: Phillip Eastham has been seconded to the Team Leader role as part of the Specialist Support team. He has stepped up and supported the team while providing great support to his customers while he transitions in the role.

Tandem's Unsung Hero

Marlin Hobbs Reasons for nomination: Marlin Hobbs won Tandem's unsung hero for driving the customer service training in Durham. He has been invaluable to the office and Durham certainly wouldn't be in the position they are without him!

YourExtra Mile 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 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?

Enabling 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?

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” At the end of April, a couple of members of Oplo QA, Compliance and Complaints team visited the Cardiff office. We would just like to say a big thank you to everyone at the Allium Office for being very welcoming and looking after us whilst there. They put together sessions that were most informative to help us further understand the business. Not to mention, the Welsh cakes which were delicious, so we'll definitely be returning!

Also, a huge thank you to Paul T and Rick who really went the extra mile by organising our transport via a people carrier as this helped save on those individual C02 emissions if we had driven separately.

“Fair” “Aftab Aziz and Ibrahiem Hussain have both worked hard throughout Ramadan! Well Done!”

Phillip Eastham

“Hannah Winnard has been absolutely fab over the past couple of months and is smashing the 100% file passes. She is always a pleasure to speak to and the work she puts into her files is very much appreciated by the team.”

Home Loans Approvals Team

Your Extra Mile

“Enterprising” “Rosie Whittle for passing all 3 CeMAP exams in April first time... massive well done!”

Michelle

“I'd like to nominate Justin Marazita for his great work in delivering the first phase of the new Tandem Corporate website.

He consistently added value to the project and was a pleasure to work with.”

“I’d like to recognise several members of the Cardiff based team who supported our recent visit to further enhance our knowledge of all the processes the teams carry out. Thanks specifically to Michelle Beattie, Ceri Stacey, Steve Chamberlain, Simon Walters, Lisa Hudson, Rob Thorne, Evan Fletcher and Danielle Holmes. The time you spent with us was greatly appreciated and will enable us to - hopefully, you’ll be our judges - build a robust and fit for purpose bank-wide QA model. Thanks again and hopefully we will see you again soon.”

Rick Keeble

Alison Hart

“Enabling” “I would like to thank the whole of service desk for their quick responsiveness to any issues I have - it makes my job a lot easier!”

Sana Khalid

“To Georgia Brooks, Jessica Elliot, Megan Rayner and their colleagues in HR for the incredible work in recruitment over the past several weeks! Working many long days to help progress a considerable number of vacancies… as well as continue to provide HR services at the same time. Thank you for all you do to keep the recruitment pipe flowing!”

Steve McNicholas

Your Extra Mile