In the Loop February

lo p in the

February 2022

Oplo People Magazine

Welcoming our Tandem colleagues Page 6

Page 12

One year since Migration

Page 21

50 Miles in March for Red Nose Day

Contents When two become one..................... 03 Internal promotions............................. 04 New starters............................................ 05 Meet the team....................................... 06 TikTok sensation.................................... 11 One year since Migration................... 12 The big reveal.......................................... 14 Oplo Impact............................................. 15 ESG monthly stats................................. 16 Viscount court tour.............................. 17

Bulb planting at Leighton Hall.......... 18 Volunteering day.................................... 20 50 miles in March................................... 21 Green collaboration............................. 22 Health and wellbeing........................... 24 Energy crisis.............................................. 26 Announcements..................................... 28 Top performers....................................... 32 Your extra mile........................................ 35

When two become one As we embark on our new journey to becoming Tandem Bank, we wanted to introduce our magazine to all our people, across both Oplo and Tandem.

‘In the Loop’ has been keeping people up to date on all things Oplo for many years. Whilst keeping our people 'in the loop' the name is also an anagram of 'Oplo' and 'Pool' (a nod to our location in Blackpool).

Our mantra for this magazine has always been ‘for the people, by the people’ with many colleagues contributing each month. So if you know someone with a fascinating hidden talent or have some big news you’d love to share with everyone, then get in touch, we want to hear it.

We want YOU to contribute next month by entering our competition to rename the magazine!

Get your creative juices flowing to be in with a chance to win not only a prize from our lucky dip but to see your chosen name in 'lights'.

Send in your ideas for the new name to hr@myoplo.co.uk

Internal Promotions

Oplo and Tandem

We are excited to announce the internal promotions of Helen Travis and Ashley Churcher to Underwriting Team Leaders!

Helen joined us back in 2017 as an Underwriter and was promoted to Customer Services Team Leader just over 12 months ago. Helen has been instrumental in driving the development of the Customer Services and Admin team within the Consumer Division and now has the opportunity to maximise the development within the Underwriting team.

Ashley joined us back at 1st Stop in 2016 as an Underwriter and has cemented himself as one of the most experienced members of the team. Ashley has been involved in various projects and changes over the last 6 years, which I’m sure will help him develop both himself and his team moving forward.

Congratulations Helen & Ashley on your new roles.

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Matt Davis to HR Advisor!

Matt joined Oplo in 2018 as part of the Group Service Department and settled on a career in HR in 2020. Matt has supported the department as HR Assistant for the past 2 years whilst working towards his CIPD. He has proven himself to be a key part of the HR team, always going the extra mile to deliver excellent customer service to our employees and someone who I can personally rely on to help deliver our department goals. I am confident he will be successful in his new role, working with our managers to deliver practical HR advice.

Congratulations Matt!

New starters

Welcome!

Agata Wiecha Underwriter Personal Loans Lending Emily Wishart Underwriter Personal Loans Lending Zoey Beattie Underwriter Personal Loans Lending Alan Adams Secured Sales Advisor Mortgage Sales Rosie Whittle Secured Sales Advisor Mortgage Sales Ibrahiem Hussain Specialist Support Agent Specialist Support Team David Briggs Managing Director Car Finance Richard Angell Head of National Accounts Mortgage Lending

ing! r i h e r ’ We

like any d l u o If you w on the roles tion informa , please email e availabl itment@ recru o.co.uk myopl

Andy Salako Regulatory Reporting Accountant Finance Dan Norris Customer Operations Specialist Operations Mary Ann Huntington Executive Assistant to the CEO People & CEO Office

Could you be the next TikTok sensation?

Hopefully you’ve all seen the fantastic content we’ve been sharing across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. From ESG initiatives to amazing customer reviews and product promotions, you’ll find it on Oplo’s socials.

We’ve recently launched our new TikTok channel, @moneytoksbytandem.

This will be packed full of educational content ranging from sustainability ideas to tips on how to manage your finances, all with a few laughs included.

Always fancied yourself as a social media star?

Why not join our TikTok team!

We’ve already recruited a few helpers within Oplo to be some of the faces of the TikTok account, and be in the videos, but we could always use more.

So, how do you sign up?

If this sounds like something you’d like to be involved in, please speak to your line manager and drop us an email at marketing@myoplo.co.uk to find out more.

@moneytoksbytandem

Mfit the new Tandem

Senior Leadership Team!

Each month we'll be introducing four members of our senior leadership team so you can find out a bit more about them and their business area.

This month we're introducing...

Alex Mollart

Steve Peacock

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Business Risk & Control

Anthony Murphy

Julian Nutley

Chief Financial Officer

Director of Home Improvements

An interview with

Alex Mollart DCEO (Deputy Chief Executive Officer)

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

I’m 46 years old, I’ve been married for 22 years and have 2 daughters aged 15 and 16.

After a 12 year corporate career in Financial Services I took the plunge in 2004 and started my own business, 1st Stop Finance Ltd. Since then 1st Stop grew and became Oplo which has now become Tandem. I’m a ridiculously focussed person in everything I do, I have a habit of saying yes to “everything” and then working out how the hell we do it afterwards, which is always with a lot of help from everyone around me.

Highlight of working for Oplo…

There’s so many highlights both individually and professionally over the last 18 years, however achieving “success” for myself, my family, and the people that work tirelessly and loyally around me gives me the greatest amount of happiness. Success means many different things to each of us but ultimately, if people are successful in their goals and ambitions and I’ve helped in anyway this gives me a huge amount of satisfaction.

Favourite thing to do in your spare time…

I enjoy many things outside of work with both my family and a wide circle of friends.

I enjoy the countryside (especially fishing),

holidays with my family (Las Vegas and Centre Parcs being the favourites) and spending time on Lake Windermere, where I have a holiday home. I also enjoy a few drinks on a Friday night!

Describe what your business area does and anything you want the rest of the business to know…

As DCEO I’m now responsible for all the Loan Origination Divisions of the Bank and the Servicing of all the customers post origination through the various Divisional MD’s that report to me. It’s no small task but it’s what I love doing. 2022 is going to be a huge challenge for us all as we take on our 2022 goal of funding £1,000,000,000.

An interview with

Steve Peacock Business Risk & Control

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

I’ve worked in financial services for 30 years.

I initially started working after leaving school for RBS at the Bury branch on the counter and then transferring to the main regional office where I did a variety of roles ranging from opening accounts to working on corporate lending up to £5m for some big North West based firms. For much of my career however, I’ve worked in the ‘rock’n’roll’ world of risk, compliance and internal audit and held a number of senior roles in the firms I’ve worked for. While I jokingly say ‘rock’n’roll’, the roles I’ve held have given me tremendous variety, insight and experience and have let me see and be involved in activities such as: starting a bank from scratch, seeing a bank fail and being involved in the work for preparing for a ‘run’ on the bank, and working with start ups and scaling businesses. On a personal level, I’m married (24 years) - we got married in Las Vegas, but sadly Jennie (my wife) drew the line at an Elvis impersonator, and I have an 18-year-old daughter, Emma, who is just completing her ‘A’ Levels.

Highlight of working for Oplo…

I joined Oplo in June 2021 so I’m relatively a newcomer. However, I’d say the biggest highlight so far has been the people who work here. The culture and just general approach to everything is really impressive there’s plenty of businesses who’d love to have this attitude and approach!

Favourite thing to do in your spare time…

Outside of work it tends to be family stuff, including long walks with our dog Benji. My other passion, and my wife and daughter would say main passion, is I’m a Manchester City fan and season ticket holder for over 35 years.

Describe what your business area does and anything you want the rest of the business to know…

As part of Tandem Bank I’m responsible for Business Risk and Controls. This covers a number of areas including Complaints, QA, Financial Crime, Credit Risk, and Control Effectiveness and Resilience which looks at the appropriateness and effectiveness of controls across the bank and how our processes deliver the desired and right outcomes.

An interview with

Anthony Murphy CFO (Chief Financial Officer)

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

Where to start - 42 years old born and bred in London with the surname giving away my Irish heritage. From a career perspective, I spent 15 years with Lloyds Banking Group where I completed my accountancy qualification. My last role was as CFO of their Middle East Business based in Dubai where I ultimately oversaw its sale to HSBC. I joined a regional bank thereafter and stayed in Dubai for nearly 10 years (so always happy to provide advice on hotels etc.). Having worked in a multi-national bank I have thoroughly enjoyed the second part of my career working in smaller organisations where you’re able to make a difference.

Highlight of working for Tandem…

To be honest this will be the Oplo transaction. In the three years at Tandem (I joined in January 2019) the business has been on a journey which encompassed defining core/non-core components of the business, materially reducing costs and navigating through the replatforming programme.

During this period Tandem raised GBP60m of additional capital that supported the acquisition of Allium (completed in August 2020) which further supported the Bank’s journey towards a sustainable/profitable business. By combining with Oplo the enlarged Group has a very exciting future ahead of it as we bring together the complimentary components of Tandem/Allium/Oplo to create a truly exciting challenger.

Favourite thing to do in your spare time…

Spending time with my family, including my 3 year old son (Cillian) who definitely keeps me on my toes. I also try to convince myself that I’m not too old to continue playing football myself (albeit with every passing game that is more of a struggle). I also have a season ticket at Spurs which depending on the result is either a favourite or painful experience.

Describe what your business area does and anything you want the rest of the business to know…

The Finance function spans Financial Reporting & Control, Financial, Planning & Analysis, Regulatory Reporting, Treasury and Procurement. We are more than ‘just the numbers’ and strive to be a function that supports all aspects of the business in whatever way we can.

An interview with

Julian Nutley Director of Home Improvements

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

Hi I’m Julian, although lots of people call me Jules. I’m 54 years old and have spent almost all my 35 plus years career in specialist lending. I was a Director of GE Money in the early 2000’s before setting up in 2007, and then selling my own Home Improvement Lending Business m2i in 2012. I was part of the team that founded Shawbrook Bank 10 years ago. I retired in 2017 but somehow was persuaded back to help set up Allium Money!

I am married to Lee and I’m the ‘Bank of Dad’ for Gabby 23 and Charlie 14. We live in Buckinghamshire with 2 rather elderly cats.

Gabby is training to be a mental health nurse, while Charlie spends most of his time playing football in Luton Town’s youth system.

Highlight of working for Tandem…

Thinking of the name Allium, designing the logo, and buying the domain name all while watching Charlie in a rather boring swimming gala! But seriously, the highlight for me is the recent transaction that sets us on a path with an opportunity to build something amazing for our customers, shareholders and everyone involved in Tandem Bank.

Favourite thing to do in your spare time…

Playing the Drums, being a Director of my local football club Dunstable Town FC, watching most sports, and doing my best to sustain our local village pub, plus family holidays.

Describe what your business area does and anything you want the rest of the business to know…

The HIL HOL business is at the forefront of the Bank’s greener story, we have several retailer partnerships with home improvement businesses such as Anglian Windows, British Gas, Project Better Energy and Boxt boilers. Through these businesses we’re providing finance facilities that enable consumers to improve their properties and take a step on the greener journey. These consumers use our loans to install energy efficient boilers, insulate their properties better with energy efficient double glazing and generate their own electricity through Solar. We also finance other home improvements and holiday ownership products.

One Year since

! n o i t a r g i M

What is Migration?

This month we marked the one-year anniversary of our most ambitious tech initiative yet. With the help of the entire business, we successfully migrated all Tandem customers onto a brand-new customer platform that was built from scratch.

Throughout 2020, Tandem teams built a completely new platform for its Savings and Mortgages business. The platform follows best in class architectural practices and uses some of the best technology providers available on the market. Once the new platform was built, we migrated over 65,000 customers and 890,000 transactions.

Early on into the project, it was coined “Fexit,” as you can probably guess it was inspired by the very topical Brexit and is a combination of Fiserv and Exit – Fiserv was the name of our ‘bank in a box’ system that we wanted to move away from. The reason for this being, Fiserv offered a very restrictive service. It was difficult for us to make any changes to our configuration and if there was ever an incident or issue with their service, it could take weeks to get a response to a ticket.

This moment was of huge importance to the Tandem story, as it significantly reduced our operating expenditure and now allows our “inhouse” technology to better serve our customers by controlling the customer journey and providing better performance.

What are the benefits of Migration?

Now we can make changes that suit us, and any technical issues are raised within our own tech teams or go straight to our internal Service Desk.

One change that stands out to us now, is that the restrictions of Fiserv prevented us from personalising our originations journey to remove gender. As a good bank, this is something we’re very passionate about, we don’t want to ask customers for data that isn’t relevant to their product. As soon as we moved off Fiserv, we removed any reference to gender during onboarding, including asking customers for their title.

Sometimes a really small change can go a long way.

Another benefit of migration was seen on migration night itself. Previously (although we were thankful that Martin Lewis would recognise our great product offering) a shoutout on Martin Lewis’ TV show caused a complete outage at Tandem HQ! Our website crashed and all new potential customers couldn’t sign up for a Tandem product until we’d resolved the issue. However, over migration weekend we received another shoutout from Martin Lewis, and it went completely under the radar. We had no idea that lots of new customers had joined us until we came into work on Monday morning, this was a real testament to how far we had come.

How did you celebrate?

To celebrate being one year Fiserv free, we had a cake and balloons in the London office and even did a Migration themed quiz during our weekly product demo. If you’d like to see all the exciting things we’re building on the new platform, come along to our weekly demo at 5:00pm on a Thursday!

Once again, we'd li ke to say a massive thank you to everyone that contributed to Fexit, as well as everyone that’s helped us push the business forwa rd ever since!

Spot the Difference

! l a e v e r g The bi

Last month we celebrated National Puzzle Day with our very own Oplo People ‘Spot the Difference’.

Here are the answers you’ve all been waiting for!

Well do ne t spotted o everyone wh o all thos e sneak differen y ces!

And co ng Weildin ratulations to S g fo am our win r being picked ner, we a hope yo s enjoy y u our priz e.

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

ESG Monthly Stats Tree Planting

15089 trees purchased ready for planting and 15 of our people are giving a monthly donation to Trees for Life

Pawprint

240 people signed up with average score of 12.53 tonnes co2

EV Scheme

10 electric cars on the roads

Bike2Work Scheme

3 people signed up

The Green Deal

32 members, 42 eligible rewards for redeeming

Swap Shop

37 items donated, weighing 9.4kg

GiveAll

9 people signed up, total monthly donation £137

ESG Impact Flipbook

Viscount Court Tour Our Head Office in Blackpool has undergone significant changes in the last 12 months to become more environmentally friendly.

Oplo's Head Office has been designed with our people in mind at every stage. Walkways flow to unite our teams helping to encourage ideas and innovation. Sliding walls of bi-folding doors bring the outside in. And the thoughtful use of sustainable materials align with our Oplo Impact principles.

The wellbeing of our people has been carefully considered and we believe that this translates to customer care and to a sustainable commercial proposition.

Watch our Head Office video here

Bulb Planting at Leighton Hall

- an update!

Part 1 - Preparing for Pollinators

Back in October 2021, 27 of our Oplo people headed up to Leighton Hall in Carnforth to prepare the woodland for planting bulbs. Our first team of volunteers cleared a huge area of woodland and preparing the ground.

Our second team headed up the following week and planted 7,500 bulbs ready for Spring.

Part 2 Planting for Pollinators Here is a great video showcasing all of their effort

Take a look

Part 3 - Snowdrops arriving Earlier in February, our ESG team went up to Leighton Hall to see the progress of our bulbs. Now you can see the impact of our efforts with the delightful edition of pretty pockets of snowdrops and hopefully once we are there in Spring, the beautiful yellow daffodils will be a vision to see.

Check out the clip below to see our snowdrops in all their glory.

Take a look

Good things come in Trees

! y a D g n i r fi t n Volu Are you ready to help plant 30,000 trees in our very own Tandem Wood? We’re planning our third volunteering event up at Leighton Hall, and our first planned volunteering event of 2022!

We’ll be venturing up to Leighton Hall on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th to plant all the trees we’ve donated.

Backup dates for this will be Thursday 24th or Friday 25th March 2022 just in case the weather gods are not with us!

There will be a 20-person limit on attendees per day across all businesses (Oplo and Tandem) to keep it fair and travel will be covered.

challenging to work for the professional tree planters due to the limestone topography and the fact it is muddy, so reasonable fitness levels will be required.

Leighton Hall will provide the equipment required i.e., work gloves, spades, the saplings and a wheelbarrow, but you’ll need to wear appropriate outdoor clothing such as waterproofs, trousers and country wellies or walking boots.

Please do not wear trainers as it’s too slippy.

Tickets for volunteering will be accessible through Leighton Hall’s website here, but please do email ESG@myoplo.co.uk if you have any queries about the day.

The itinerary will be as follows: • 9.30am introductions in the Studio, finally meeting each other and have a quick chat over a brew.

• 10.00am - An overview of the day, a reminder of the purpose of the project, our Impact goals that are driving our incentives beyond reducing carbon i.e. wider habitats and supporting pollinators.

• 11.00am - Walk and talk to site, with a practitioner giving pointers about the living landscape.

• 12.00pm - Lunch at the planting site all attendees will need to bring a packed lunch and a drink.

• 1.00pm - Start planting trees. A professional will lead the activity and show our People how to do the job successfully, where the trees are to be planted and answer questions on the site and what has been achieved and why.

• 3.00pm - Hot Chocolate and marshmallows.

• 4.00pm - Summary of the day and goodbyes.

We can add £400.00 per attendee to our charity total so get booking on and let’s make an even bigger impact in 2022 to ensure we are the greener, fairer bank!

50 Miles in March for Red Nose Day You may remember the Tower to Tower running challenge our Oplo people completed last year, this was a huge success in promoting wellbeing and increasing employee engagement during lockdown. This year we’re asking you to join The Big Red Nose Day Run, where they’ve challenged the nation to run 50 miles in March in return for donations (and hot, sweaty high fives).

The Big Red Nose Day Run Together is your chance to make your miles matter.

Simply sign up, get your free challenge t-shirt and ask your friends and family for sponsorship.

How to sign up Registration

Click here

Fundraising

Click here

Collecting donations

Click here

We’ll be adding our own Company twist to this by sharing our runs in our Oplo Running Group on Strava. If you’re not already a part of this group then you can easily sign up by downloading the Strava app, searching ‘Oplo Virtual Running Club’ and requesting to join! We’ll be asking you to share tips and tricks on the group, such as your top motivational playlists, great trainers for running and how to stop those pesky stiches as well as sharing your progress on your 50 miles in March.

Green Collaboration On Tuesday 8th February, we had the pleasure of inviting Fluent Money to our Head Office in Blackpool. Laura, Debbie and Holly gave the Fluent team a tour of our beautiful office, explaining how we've made a conscious effort to make it more sustainable and talked them through all the fantastic initiatives in our Oplo Impact Brochure.

They also went up to one of our partners, Leighton Hall Estate, to discuss our previous volunteering activities, bounce back resilience workshops and future collaborations.

They then went to take a look at the snowdrops that Oplo Volunteers planted back in October, and they looked fantastic!

“It was a wonderful day sharing our knowledge to one of our top brokers in the hope they can adopt some initiatives at Fluent Money and continue to make the world a better place, not just for the environment but for their people too.”

Holly, ESG manager.

Have a sneak peek into the day with this little video snippet.

Take a look

Health and Wellbeing Bounce Back Resilience Workshop We have scheduled another workshop with Andrea, who is a psychologist of 22 years (BSc Psychology, P.G.C.E, MSc Educational Psychology).

What is resilience Resilience is typically defined as the capacity to recover from difficult life events.

“It’s your ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns,” The aim of the workshop: • to help, develop and sustain resilience • to help people going through a tough time • and to give you the tools to bounce back from adversity despite challenging times.

Here is some feedback from the survey we send out after each session: “Andrea was extremely knowledgeable and professional. She made me feel at ease straight away and I was able to have a really open conversation with her. The location of the training was also fabulous. I also really enjoyed meeting new people in the business.”

“I enjoyed learning about how to retreat to a calm state and to be more mindful.”

“How to deal with thoughts and how to focus on what's important.”

“Leighton Hall is such a good setting for this!

Beautiful setting (especially in the snow) with fantastic lunch provided and friendly staff.”

“The mindfulness meditation - this is something I have since started at home, I find it really helpful.”

“Andrea was approachable, chatty and made the group feel comfortable. Her sessions were engaging and insightful.”

“It was a really valuable session and lots of techniques. I learned to take care of my mental health.”

If this seems like something you would want to attend, pop your name down to register your interest for our April date (TBC) at Leighton Hall, Carnforth, LA5 9ST. Lunch will be provided.

Sign Up Here!

Energy Crisis Here is an update from one of our partners, Kevin Jackson at Inspired Energy:

The domestic price cap is going to go up in April by about 56%.

The reason for the large increase is an unprecedented increase in the wholesale element of the price (500% for some periods) driven by rising oil prices, recovery from COVID, failure of over 20 UK energy suppliers, lack of UK storage after losing Rough Storage, Russia playing with gas supply and Asian demand for LNG. There is likely to be another increase in the domestic price cap in October of 20% 40% so cost will go up again.

On typical use, it's set to increase from £1,277/year to £1,971/year – adding a massive £693/year to the average household bill.

Watch this video Click here You can use the Energy Calculator to work out what your new monthly amount might be.

Click here

Top Tips For Saving Energy At Home Here's some hints and tips from our Property and Facilities Assistant - Faye Reynolds The cost of living has increased immensely recently and with gas and electric bills set to rocket over the next few weeks, we have listed some ways in which you can try and keep your utility costs to a minimum.

• Switching your TV off standby and turning sockets off when not in use can save you around £50 per year. You can buy remote controlled sockets for approx. £8 which can turn off at the click of a button. You can even get ones you can control via your phone.

• Draught proofing in your windows/doors can save you around £40 per year. Also, ensure your walls and roof are insulated as you can lose up to 25% of heat through these.

• Turning off lights when the room is not in use can save you up to £20 per year. Also, switching all lights to LED can also help you save more on your bills.

• Washing at 30 degrees can reduce your bills by around £28. Try and wear clothes 2 or 3 times (provided they are still clean) before putting them into the wash to reduce your wash loads.

Reducing the amount of times you use your washing machine per week will bring costs down more.

• Avoid the tumble dryer. This can save you around £55 per year. Try to dry your clothes on maidens inside your home, or outside on the line on a nice day.

• Don’t overfill the kettle. Just boiling enough water for what you need can save you £33 per year.

• Most homes will have day and night time rates. Your night time rate per unit will be much less than your day time rate. If you need to charge your car/phone/appliances, do this overnight.

• Turning down the thermostat by 1 degree can reduce costs by up to £80. Turning off radiators in rooms you do not use will also reduce costs.

• Cooking your food in a slow cooker will use the same amount of electricity as an energy saving bulb. Preparing your meals in the morning will not only free up your time on an evening but this will also save you money.

• Install a smart meter so you can monitor your habits to reduce your bills.

EDUCATE

your household. Our parents didn’t shout ‘it’s like Blackpool illuminations in here’ for no reason!

s t n e m e c n u o Ann The future Mr & Mrs Delaney Congratulations to Holly Wadeson who got engaged to Callam Delaney in Edinburgh.

A huge congratulations to the future Mr and Mrs Delaney!

The new Mr & Mrs Chisnell We want to give a massive congratulations to Amy who became Mrs Chisnell on Saturday 5th February and is currently enjoying her honeymoon in Disneyland Paris.

6 year Anniversary Josh Coxall

What’s kept you at Tandem all these years?

Throughout my time at Tandem it’s been a fast paced, ever shifting and highly demanding place to work. I’ve had to wear multiple hats and have taken on new opportunities outside the scope of my job description, learning new skills and more about other areas of the business. I don’t think I’d have had the opportunity to do this in other large organisations.

These opportunities have allowed me to tweak my career path. I joined Tandem as a Business Consultant, then moved into Project Management and I’m currently a Product Manager. I’ve built some fantastic working relationships at Tandem and have colleagues I’d consider close friends.

These people make the challenges faced at work easier. Finally, after Covid I decided I wanted to commute on foot and the London office is a handy 45 minutes walk from home!

What part of our role do you enjoy the most?

Currently I’m leading the Mortgage X-functional team sprint reviews which allows the team to demonstrate our achievements to the rest of the business.

Often something we’ve built or demoed will impact colleagues who attend the meeting, and seeing the happiness in their faces as they realise we’ve made an improvement to their work gives us a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Previously it was reading positive customer feedback relating to changes I had helped to put in. Also, the roles I’ve had that keep the office moving, including fire marshal and Chief Lunch Officer. It was a lot of pressure to make sure everyone was fed and on time, but the thankyous made it all worth it!

What advice would you give to new starters?

Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone. People at Tandem are extremely welcoming and happy to give a helping hand, say hello or point you in the right direction. We’ve got a culture that encourages asking questions and clarifying what you understand. Other advice would be to always take notes so you can be very clear on what was discussed, who took what action and what the next steps are. If someone new joins you can bring them up to speed quickly!

Highlight so far for working for Tandem?

I was lucky enough to accept an award on stage on behalf of Tandem. This was voted for by our customers and shows all the hard work we put in each day.

February

! s e i b a B f o - The month Congratulations to Rachel Horton who gave birth to the gorgeous Harriett Rose Horton on Saturday 5th February weighing 5lb 15oz. Both Mummy and baby are doing well.

Congratulations to Rachael Hanby who gave birth to the beautiful Isla Rose on Friday 11th February weighing 7lb 12oz.

Both Mum and baby are happy and well.

Congratulations to Michael Noonan and his wife Eve, who welcomed Oisín Freddie Noonan on Tuesday 1st February weighing 8lb 14oz. He and Eve are both happy and healthy and Dad is delighted!

Congratulations to Rob Tongue and his Fiancé Cat, who welcomed Teddy George Tongue on Thursday 3rd February weighing 8lb 1oz. Mum and baby are both well!

Congratulations to Liam Hartnett on the birth of his daughter Evie-Eliza weighing 9lb 4oz, you are outnumbered by girls now - enjoy every moment!

! s r e m r o f r e p p o T Home Loans Collections

Becky Heatley Reasons for nomination: Becky has been doing great work recently on the pre-litigation accounts. She has been managing the accounts well, completing all the relevant checks and providing updates to Senior Management.

Thank you for your hard work!

Home Loans Packaging

Katie Baron Reasons for nomination: Katie’s files are always fab, she does a really good job of explaining the file on the front sheet, highlighting any amendments and generally making our job easier!

Thank you Katie!

Personal Loans Collections

Sophie Baron-West Reasons for nomination: Sophie has a great can-do attitude and is always positive. She is committed each day and puts her all into her work. And she’s always ready to boost morale with her chicken dance on a Friday when she’s in the

Specialist Support Team

Phillip Eastham Reasons for nomination: Phil works hard each day to improve how we serve our most vulnerable customers.

Phil always looks for ways to get better and provides support on a daily basis to new members of the team, as well as the management team across SST and Personal Loans. Phil is always Jonny on the spot when anyone needs help with Excel

Personal Loans Collections

Nathan Stamp Reasons for nomination: He is an extremely hard worker and always tries his best. He’s got stuck into training and taken everything on board really well! He’s a credit to the team already and provides excellent customer service. He’s always polite and cheerful and it’s lovely to see him progressing so well early on his training period.

Unsung Hero is a Tandem tradition.

Our people nominate and recognise someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty each month.

Tandems January Unsung Hero

Ash Uddin The winner of Unsung Hero for January was Ash Uddin in our Commerical team.

He has taken on additional responsibilities with a recent departure leaving a gap in the department and has demonstrated a one team mindset.

Congratulations Ash!

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!

“I’d like to nominate Matt Davenport.

He really understands time saving issues we in sales have when we’re on a call - he always requests a settlement figure when he books in an appointment for you, this takes time out of his day, but it’s very much appreciated. He is also always willing to help, which is a godsend.”

Mark Robson Secured Sales Advisor

“Understanding” Darren Griffiths, Katie Allen and Shannon Kenny-Cooper - “They have all now completed their onboarding, during their training they took all feedback on board with such positive attitudes & have had some great results in their first few months as underwriters. Well done!!”

Angela Hodgson Team Leader

“Challenging and busy times on Collections at the start of the year - The Home Loans Collections Team has dealt with this very well ensuring business objectives have been achieved. With half the department working from home everyone has come together to help achieve our targets. The whole team also passed their CAI test! Thank you and well done for all your hard work!”

Salma Ahmed Team Leader

“Enterprising” Personal Loans Team - “Last month was a massive push trying to achieve £1,091,800 within 3 days before month end. The team came together and managed to achieve over £5million last month. We had a record pay-out day on month end and funded 80 apps for £540k. Amazing teamwork. Well done everyone.”

Charise Lam Senior Completions Assistant “I just want to say a massive thank you to the whole Personal Loans team.

They all pulled together extremely well over January and managed to get us over the line on the last day.

Pleasure being part of such a great team. Well done all!”

Jake Quinn Lending Manager

Your Extra Mile

“Georgia Bryan, Amber Sloan, Katie Allen all went above and beyond to not only hit their targets but exceeded their targets last month. Well done girls.”

Charise Lam Senior Completions Assistant Fiona O’Brien - “Fi started her new role as T&C Assistant in March. Though it may take a few months for her to be competent in the role, she has hit the ground running picking up the record keeping requirements really quickly. She is super organised and has fast become a person in the role that I don’t know how I managed without.”

Debbie Fitzgerald T&C Supervisor “I’d like to put a word in for Peter Stasiak and Daniel Piccolo. The two new members of the UI/UX team.

They’ve hit the ground running and have brought a huge amount of experience into the team. There’s been a lot of collaboration across several projects, and they’ve really helped improve my confidence and abilities. The feedback from the development team and the wider business really speaks for itself.

Looking forward to seeing the team grow over the coming months.”

Matt Jones UI/UX Designer

Angela Hodgson and Helen Travis “We’ve had one of the busiest months to date in January. Even though we were short staffed, they both remained positive, focused and worked well in tandem to make sure they got through their workloads.

Thank you both for last month!”

“Enabling” Kelsey Fryett - “Our Customer Services team have been stretched massively during an extremely busy January. Kelsey took ownership of ensuring customer call backs were completed on time and helped drive the team to reach their targets. Great commitment, well done Kelsey.”

Jake Quinn Lending Manager

Jake Quinn Lending Manager

Hannah Bryce - “She has created our new T&C policy and has been a great support in helping me implement this within my team as it’s gone live, never complaining about my constant questions.”

Tanya Rowbotham - “Tanya is always motivating her team members throughout the month, with praise and through her daily update. She will always stop what she is doing to help her team members despite how busy she can be. Tanya will happily take on any additional tasks I set her and smashing through the sign off queue, making sure it is always up to date. A massive well done for signing off 58 files on month end.”

Angela Hodgson Team Leader “Kudos to Jessica Elliot for Enabling me to do my job faster - she made recruitment easier for me by attaching the CVs of candidates to the meeting invite. This helped a lot during the last recruitment campaign as I no longer dug through my emails looking for the CVs of candidates, minutes to the interview.”

Charise Lam Senior Completions Assistant “I would like to nominate Naieed Haque (Lead Test Analyst). Since joining the company back in September, Naieed has provided exceptional training/resources and has always been on hand to provide support when necessary. Naieed is a great asset to Tandem and is a pleasure to work with.”

Nnenna Stevenson Senior Business Analyst

Jordan Green Junior Test Analyst

Matt Davis and Jess Elliott - “For really pulling together as a team and supporting me whilst we are going through a busy period. Jess has really hit the ground running with recruitment and Matt has stepped up taking on more responsibilities whilst we recruit for an administrator. Thank you both!”

Andrew Burns - “For pulling an all nighter to get the DWH moved onto the near real time server.”

Sally Howcroft HR Business Partner

Your Extra Mile

Nathan Kenny Head of Data & MI

“Fair” “Sara Evans is always there to offer help and support and motivates the team on a daily basis. Sara gives you a boost when you need it and encourages you to be the best you can be. Thank you Sara for all you have done for me.”

Claire Wilkinson Home Loans Admin Assistant