Together inTandem People Magazine
July 2022
the future is bright
green
this month
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We talk brand and marketing with George Whalley
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PAGE 34
A big thanks to those that went the extra mile!
Contents Introducing our Values................... 03 New starters................................... 04 Internal promotions....................... 06 Gary Hope...................................... 07 An interview with............................ 08 Integration..................................... 10 Pride 2022..................................... 12 Workday Peakon........................... 14 ESG impact.................................... 16 ESG monthly stats.......................... 17 Love my beach campaign.............. 18 Boathouse youth........................... 20 4Louis craft day............................. 21 4Louis colour run............................ 23 4Louis great north run.................... 25 Health and wellbeing..................... 28 Announcements............................ 30 Top performers.............................. 32 Shines............................................. 34
Introducing our Values Brave We encourage you to push the boundaries, challenge and share your opinion.
Simple We make things easy by being straight forward and practical, and arming you with the tools you need to succeed.
Enterprising We're entrepreneurial, creative and authentic. Always looking to add value through our actions.
Together We believe in one shared vision and that we're all vital cogs in the wheel. When we rise together, everyone succeeds.
New starters
Welcome! Faye Porter QA Analyst Joshua Hilton Underwriter James Hornby Completions Assistant Aimee Loughlin Underwriter Nicola Kendall Secured Sales Advisor William Lawton-Jones Underwriter Stefan Steiner Data Analyst Vinca Tang Change Project Manager Tim Bush Account Manager Glenn Marsh Customer Operations Specialist
Saifur Rahman Customer Operations Specialist Karen Wells Head of Lending Hannah Morgan Customer Operations Specialist Abdi Buwe Business Analyst Shaye Gould People Operations Administrator Jon Avery Prudential Risk Manager
We’re h
iri
ng! If you w ould lik more in e on the formation roles av ailable please email recruitm e myoplo nt@ .co.uk
Internal Promotions 20th June
Chelsea Haslam
Home Loans Approvals - Team Leader
Chelsea joined us in May 2019 as an Administrator, quickly progressing to packager and approver. She is an invaluable member of the team, consistently achieving whilst taking on additional tasks and helping to support the new members of the team. - Joe Mortimer
June
Birthdays! Rebecca Savage
Danielle Culley
Kathryn Firth
Nathaniel Gardner
Ben Phillips
Rachael Hanby
Craig Macfarlane
Emma Winstanley
Alexander Kirkup
David Briggs
Edward Dowling
Kathryn Harris
Sam Njekwa
Kanchana Thatmee
Hannah McGarrigle
Jay Purohit
Jessica Seddon
Jessica Elliott
Emma Pettet
Meghali Gaikwad
Rebecca Wallen
Darren Griffiths
James Dodd
Carnan Dawson
Tia Walsh
Ceri Hodgson
Gary Hope IT Service Desk Engineer On the 21st May 2022 we sadly lost our friend and colleague Gary Hope. Gary joined the service desk team in May 2019 and was a one of our unsung heroes within Tech & Change. He will be greatly missed by all at Oplo and Tandem. Many of our colleagues were grateful to have the opportunity to say goodbye to Gary at his funeral and to show their support to Gary's family. In Gary's memory we have donated to the British Liver Trust and he will always be with us at our Head Office in Blackpool with a memorial plaque under one of our blossom trees outside our IT department.
An interview with
George Whalley,
our Chief Impact and Marketing Officer How have your first few weeks been in your new role at Tandem and what are your main responsibilities?
Now the brand has launched internally, and on the website, what are your next roll out plans?
I’m still relatively new to the company although it feels like I’ve been here much longer! It is a real joy to work in such a vibrant, progressive, and talented environment. There’s a real “can do” attitude and certainly no time to get bored.
Now we’ve rebranded internally, our next step is to re-brand all our products across the full portfolio and move Oplo and Allium under the Tandem brand. One Tandem app that houses all our products and more – that’s the goal.
I’m responsible for everything you would expect from a marketing perspective including all above and below the line activity like PR, social and digital communications but also impact...There is a massive opportunity for us to accelerate and amplify our mission to be the UK’s fairer, greener bank, it’s a key focus for me and I will help hold the bank to account.
What does the new brand mean for me as a Tandem employee?
We are continuing to develop our fairer and greener agenda in line with our product and proposition roadmap to ensure a collaborative approach across the business to drive real impact. My role also includes leading our ESG activity and ensuring we make a real impact on our customer, communities and society at large. My job is to ensure that this impact lands at all our touchpoints.
The new brand is a key milestone in our journey to become a purpose led business. For employees it is about sharing in our mission, vision and purpose and understanding the part you play in delivering our promise to our customers and the planet. Our BEST employee values are key, we hope these will become a natural part of how we work and engage with each other. We want our people to be proud to be team Tandem. What does the new brand mean for customers? We are moving from a transactional based business to a consumer brand, which is an exciting evolution. There are new products and green features in development, plus we’re putting the foundations in place to
elevate our marketing, including implementing a customer engagement tool, building our social and digital marketing strategies and much more. We want customers to think Tandem first! What brand swag can we expect to see coming our way? Well, this is the fun part of the job and we want to see our brand out there as much as possible! It’s crucial that whatever we create does not negatively impact the environment so we’re currently exploring options but if you have any ideas or suggestions drop us an email at marketing@myoplo.co.uk If you’ve not already been into the office to pick up a Tandem t-shirt, make sure you grab one next time you visit.
How will we know if / when the new brand is making a difference? How are you measuring this? There are lots of metrics we will look at like share of voice for press, social follower and engagement growth as well as growth in marketing opt ins and customer satisfaction. These are good indicators but ultimately what we need is to measure overall brand health, share of voice and nps. From an internal perspective we will look at employee engagement measures too. What’s the next big project in your inbox? Ooh it is hard to pick just one but building our ESG strategy and measurement framework is a biggie. As well as developing the Tandem market place…
Integration a look back at the last 6 months The last 6 months has been an exciting period for the combined organisation with many key integration milestones delivered as we begin to adopt a consolidated approach to become ‘One Bank’. The Fundamentals Since the deal closed in January, the integration priority has been to consolidate Tandem’s Finance and Risk Management capabilities. The work completed has ensured the Bank can operate as a combined business and fulfil its statutory and regulatory obligations whilst operating within risk appetite. Work is almost complete and on track to conclude this part of the programme in line with the target date in September.
Legal Entity Rationalisation Work to remove dormant entities and streamline the corporate structure continues to make progress. As a result, group overheads will be reduced and this helps drive an optimal entity structure in terms of VAT and Tax considerations. Analysis of future options for further rationalisation in the medium term will be considered following completion of rebranding work.
Colleague & Culture Progress continues to deliver an aligned organisation for all our colleagues. A key step in this process has been the start of the TUPE process, where we will all be aligned in our employing entity and a number of positive enhancements to staff terms delivered as a result. Our One Bank values and behaviours – ‘BEST’ are being rolled out across Tandem and will link in with the performance review process, with the first quarterly review taking place in early July. The One Bank L&D schedule continues to offer training to all colleagues across all of our sites, a really important area as we focus on developing our talent. The first engagement survey will help us to understand areas where we can do more and build on the great start we have already made.
Integration Half Year Achievements
Tandem Brand Our brand workstream has delivered its biggest milestone yet… the new corporate brand has been launched! The new Tandem branding showcases the vision and future of the fairer and greener bank. Work is progressing on the various customer rebrands to align all Allium & Oplo products and service offerings under the new Tandem branding by the end of 2022.
Brilliant Basics Great progress is being made to identify and deliver opportunities to make our business more efficient and scalable to help position us ready for our growth ambitions. Successful in-housing of our savings customer service function to our team in Durham has been a great achievement evidencing the value and opportunities combining our businesses has enabled. Additionally, work has taken place to review third party vendor spend and identify process optimisation and efficiency opportunities across our collections strategies and the end-to-end customer journey – all significant steps in creating simpler more efficient operations. Important work continues to enhance our cyber defences and ensure the bank is as resilient as it can be in this area.
As always, if you have any queries, questions, suggestions or feedback please do send these to integrationteam@tandem.co.uk
Pride 2022 Invest in love
Workday Peakon Employee Voice A whole new way to listen to Employee feedback... We have recently invested in an engagement platform called Peakon Employee Voice, which is a continuous listening platform that captures real time employee feedback and provides prescriptive recommendations for actions. Gone are the days of annual engagement surveys, we understand that so much can happen in a year that may impact your professional and personal life, once Peakon is embedded into Tandem, you will be able to give us continuous feedback which will provide a deeper understanding of the working culture, engagement and priorities which will help us to make the best decisions for our People. As Tandem integrates and grows, our People are key to our success so keep your eyes peeled for the first survey to have your say and be part of improving how we work.
Workday Peakon Employee Voice
Ready to make an Impact? Everything you need to know about our environmental initiatives
ESG Monthly Stats Tree Planting
22,596 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. 13 of our people have a monthly Direct Debit to Trees for Life and an extra 4 people donated a one-off purchase.
Pawprint
221 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
Renewed from April 2022, 17 members in May with 13 redeemable rewards.
Swap Shop
0 items.
GiveAll
10 people total monthly donation £147 .
ESG - Volunteering
Love My Beach Campaign with Keep Britain Tidy A BIG thank you to Ellie Turrell, Shavaun Morrissey, Ebony Scotland, Lee Collier, Emily Wishart, Carnan Dawson and Emily Wood for volunteering their time to help clean our local beach in St Annes. They collected a whopping 20 kilos of rubbish in 2 hours, which is a scary and upsetting amount considering this beach is cleaned every week by local volunteers. I will be reaching out to Keep Britain Tidy to schedule this event once or twice a month. This will help to maintain our beach especially in the summer months where we know people can be thoughtless in leaving their rubbish behind, which can greatly impact and harm our coastal ecosystems.
Thursday 16th June
ESG - Volunteering
Boathouse Youth, Blackpool Seeking volunteers for 1 day a week at their youth centres: A message from CEO of The Boathouse Youth, Blackpool -
Laurance Hancock “The support we require is to help run our evening Youth Club sessions that take place at our Bloomfield and Grange Park Youth Centres. For our young people it’s really important they have an opportunity to develop positive relationships with adult role-models, therefore we require our volunteers to commit to the same “shift” each week. The absolute dream is a volunteer who is able to work from 4:30pm - 9:30pm. However, we understand that for those working full-time jobs this is often impractical and 5:30pm - 9:30pm often works better. The role is fun and challenging in equal measure. There will be opportunities to work with children and young people of all ages and abilities, depending on preference. We’re looking for charismatic, vibrant and exciting staff who love banter, can relate with young people and have loads of energy. Many of our young people have suffered some pretty adverse traumas in their life and it is likely this might get shared - so resilience is another essential ingredients. This is an amazing opportunity to change children’s lives and the right people will not be disappointed.”
For more information follow The Boat House Youth
Please reach out to ESG@myoplo.co.uk if you would be interested in this amazing opportunity for our local community in Blackpool!
ESG - Volunteering
4Louis Craft Day A huge well done to our fantastic volunteers this month at 4Louis, They have managed to build around 430 boxes! Shaun Wood, Ian Stuart, Louise Elms, Vanessa Stell, Alix Nunn and Ceri Hodgson and Gavin Langley Brilliant work guys, well done!!
Amber Langley Want to get involved? The next volunteering days are 14th July and 23rd August if you’d like to join please reach out to Amber, Gavin or the ESG Team.
For people in our other offices, once our very own Tandem bus is up and running we will be able to offer this as a mode of transport to drive you there and back, so you can participate, whilst also reducing our carbon emissions on the roads as the bus can seat 16 people!
ESG - Charity Fundraising
4Louis Colour Run Three of us from the Durham office (plus some close family friends) took part in the Colour Obstacle Rush for 4Louis, completing a 5k run alongside 20 obstacles. We had an amazing time and such a good laugh whilst raising £520 for an amazing cause!
Amber Langley
ESG - Charity Fundraising
4Louis Great North Run 57,000 determined and dedicated runners make the Great North Run the World’s biggest and best half marathon – famous for its warm North East welcome, unbeatable atmosphere and the millions raised for good causes. And so our team is chosen! Adrian Watkin Ajay Mitha Gavin Langley Amber Langley Dawn Pallin Daniel Pallin Tamsin Kentfield Vanessa Stell Chloe Smail Elliot Pearson Read why our support to 4Louis is so important and please donate if you can: 4louis: Tandem Great North Run (enthuse.com)
11th Septemb er 2022
Why we're running Adrian Watkin - “One of the main reasons I want to join the Great North Run is because of my father's passing. I joined Oplo in August 2021 and unfortunately didn’t get the pleasure of meeting Travis. I met Amber and Gav a few months after I joined the business and felt inspired by their determination to raise funds for a charity that gave them some comfort in a time which I can’t imagine. I have come to know Amber better since she has come to work and she has become a friend and someone who offers me support, especially when she can tell I need it. Through these interactions I have become at times overwhelmed with how passionate and committed she is to ensure as much money as possible is raised for 4Louis to support other people that unfortunately will share a similar story for her. So really my reasons are two-fold, support a friend who has inspired me and support a charity that delivers comfort in what I can only imagine is ones most difficult time.”
Ajay Mitha - “I am running for 4Louis as this is a Charity that has provided a great deal of support to members of our team, who at a very difficult time in the last year needed their help. If I can do something for them in return to show my appreciation and also raise money for a very worthwhile cause then I’m all for it! Please donate generously as 4Louis do a great deal to support those affected by child bereavement, they need our funds to continue their great work.”
Tamsin Kentfield – “I want to complete the Great North Run for 4Louis to help raise as much money as I can for a charity that it so close to the hearts of Amber & Gavin.”
Elliot Pearson - “I'm running for 4 Louis as it's a brilliant charity that helps people get through unimaginably tough times.”
Why we're running Vanessa Stell - “I am running the Great North Run this year for 4Louis in memory of Travis Langley. Travis was an amazing young boy who had a massive impact on so many lives, including mine from the first day I met him when he was only weeks old. Travis was tragically taken far too soon and 4Louis have been there every step of the way to support Amber and Gav through their grief. After volunteering at 4Louis and seeing the amazing work they do to support so many families, I have decided to do the Great North Run to support them so they can continue to help as many families as possible.”
Chloe Smail - “I am participating in the Great North Run this year for 4Louis in memory of Travis Langley. Travis was a wonderful little boy with so much character, each time Amber or Gav brought him into the office he brightened up the place – bouncing between the floor tiles and covering me in purple icing from a cupcake. 4Louis have been an invaluable support to Amber and Gav and running the GNR will allow them to continue to support people going through such a traumatic time.”
Dawn and Daniel Pallin – “I am doing this for my Mam/ Nanna, who lost a baby many years ago, she never got the support she needed back in the 1960’s. By doing this I know the money can help families to get the support they need.”
Health and Wellbeing Living a healthy and balanced lifestyle can impact your quality of life in many ways – from lifting your overall mood to adding to your life expectancy. There are many small ways that you can make an impact to your life on a daily basis. Eating a balanced diet is a key foundation for living healthily. Most of us do not eat enough fruit and vegetables, which are brilliant sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre. As the temperature gets warmer, it’s also important to stay hydrated throughout the day, particularly if you are spending time outdoors in the sun. Regular exercise is linked with a greater sense of wellbeing and lowers rates of depression and anxiety across all age groups. Doing as little as 10 minutes of activity can improve your mood and the physical activity doesn’t need to be intense to make a difference. In fact, walking more is a great way to get started if you’re not currently exercising regularly. While staying active and eating well is important, there is no way to completely prevent the risk of developing some conditions. Taking up offers from your GP for health checks or screenings can be invaluable in supporting your long-term good health.
s t n e m e c n Annou 5 years service -
Jennifer Hunt
Central Admin Administrator What's kept you at Oplo for all these years? Number one has to be my team, they are always supportive, in and out of work, and have really made my time here so enjoyable. Even when we started working remotely during lockdown we were always in touch and checking in on each other’s wellbeing. Along with my team, the benefits the company provide really excel, the amount of possible training, and room for personal and work growth is above and beyond and allowing each person to work to their advantages. The flexible working hours offered have really helped me in maximising my time, and allowing me to have a work life balance that works best for me. Overall, it’s a positive and personal place to work. Which part of your role do you enjoy the most? I think it must be the variety in what we do as a team, no two days are ever the same, there isn’t room to get restless as we are a fast-paced department. I love coming across new and head scratching queries, the problem-solving side of my role is my favourite. What advice would you give to new starters? Learn as much as you can from the people around you, the knowledge held in the team here is abundantly diverse.
5 years service -
Carla Guttridge
PA to Board of Directors - ESG Congratulations and a BIG well done on achieving 5 years’ service Carla. You’re such a STAR behind the scenes – you never complain, you’re super accommodating and you meet some really difficult challenges at times with that wonderful smile and giggle of yours. You truly are a Mrs Fix it. Keep up the amazing work you do - you are an asset to the business.
Debs Waterman Congratulations!
Katy Heaps & Steve Beard Congratulations to Katy Heaps & Steve Beard on the arrival of their new baby girl (finally!) Penny Linda Beard, born on Wednesday 15th June, weighing 8lbs 5oz.
Top Performers Peter Cunningham Home Loans - Collections
“Fantastic team player always willing to help his colleagues with any queries and always happy to work overtime to help achieve department targets. An asset to the HL collections team.” - Salma Ahmed
Tamsin Kentfield
Savings - Customer Service Team “Tamsin joined the business at a time of big change, starting just before the launch of the Durham Customer Service Team. Tamsin completed an intense week of training on her first week and has been invaluable since. The speed Tamsin has picked up the systems and processes is fantastic, and she has even dipped into some of the more complex work when required .” – Chloe Smail and Vanessa Stell
Lee Collier
Personal Loans - Collections “Lee is a new member of staff, fresh out of training. He has brought a bubbly, positive attitude to the team. He is doing a fantastic job serving our customers to a high standard, this was highlighted during a recent call observation where Lee showed empathy and understanding to provide a vulnerable customer with the right solution.” - Mark Hardman
Rosie Whittle Secured Sales Team
“Rosie Whittle for fully passing CeMAP within 8 weeks of joining us. She has picked up the role very quickly and is a great asset to the team.”
Ryan Molyneux
Home Loans - Admin Team “He always goes the extra mile. Nothing is too much trouble. Super team player!”
Mollie Walsh
Home Loans - Packaging Team “Mollie Walsh has been a great support helping with the new starters.”
Maariyah Safdar Home Loans - Approvers
“Maariyah Safdar always takes on feedback, helps with the team and is very positive.”
Ibrahiem Hussain Employee of the month!
“I would like to nominate Ibby for employee of the month. He has shown real Development over the last month and has helped support us while we have had a team member away from the business.” -Phillip Eastham
Shines “Since joining the Car Finance Collections Team in April, John Brown has been my ‘training buddy’ helping me daily on my journey to competency whilst carrying out his own work and helping others on the team. I can be a bit of a pain so his patience and knowledge of the job has been brilliant, and I think he deserves the recognition! He can also be funny at times but don’t tell him that.” - Ceri Hodgson
“My extra mile vote would go for Sarah for training the new starter and always helping me understand something when I don’t get it.” – Adam Thornborough
“Well done to the entire Personal Loans team this month, they broke another lending record last month and have now broken the record 3 months out of 5 so far this year.” – Richard Sharp
“Adam Bill has been working really hard in the background to create new reports for the Collections Teams. Adam has taken on board all our feedback and has been working closely with the team to deliver not only what is required but also what the team need from a day-to-day functionality. Thank you, Adam, Great Job!” - Amber Langley
“Ann Rutherford and Ceri Hodgson recently joined the Car Finance Collections Team and have hit the ground running, with all the recent changes going on within the Team they have stepped up to mark every day with a smile on their faces. Thank you to you both for being assets to the team!” – Amber Langley
“I recognise Shaun Wood, Chloe Smail, Vanessa Stell, Anthony Mould, Gavin Stewart, Laura Taylor, Ryan Lambert and Gavin Langley for being supportive of the recent QA visit to the Savings Servicing Team in Durham. This allowed QA to further develop our understanding of their processes and systems. The on-site calibration further embedded our knowledge ahead of the launch of the new customer journeys model covering the work stream. - Rick Keeble
“Well done to Danii Prodanov and Matt Jones for their extreme hard work on the new mobile app demo to present the new branding for SLT and investors. What they have nailed during a week is amazing. They worked in tandem together, producing quality designs and clickable prototype. I’m super happy to have them in my team.”
“Savings Customer Service Team, Anthony Mould and Gavin Stewart have been conducting AML reviews on the Savings customer base since we launched the team. Over this period, they have both become a lot more confident and knowledgeable around the processes and most of the calls they are completing are near faultless. A lot of effort from both has been put in to ensure that the customers are getting a good journey with us.”
- Peter Stasiak
- Chloe Smail and Vanessa Stell
HL Collections Team - “A very busy month on Home Loans Collections – a lot of challenges to deal with especially with dealing with low staffing levels. With a lot of hard work, dedication, overtime and working exceptionally well together it ensured we achieved department targets as well as meeting customer expectations. Thank you all for your continued hard work. Keep it up!”
Savings Customer Service Team, Ryan Lambert – “Ryan joined the business at the beginning of May, shortly after the launch of the Durham Customer Service Team. Ryan has taken everything in his stride and is learning the product knowledge quickly. Ryan has attended a lot of training sessions since he started, such as customer service and vulnerable and we have received fantastic feedback from those leading these sessions relating to his enthusiasm and commitment to learn.” - Chloe Smail and Vanessa Stell
- Salma Ahmed
Well done!
Rebecca Heatley - “Amazing work dealing with an extremely vulnerable customer. Customer thanked Becky for saving his life by being understanding, listening to him and giving him hope! Great work utilising the correct vulnerability models and achieving such a positive outcome for our customer. Well done!” - Salma Ahmed
“I joined the business on 28/3/2022 and Anita was assigned as my buddy. Her kind and friendly nature made me feel extremely welcome and comfortable. Throughout my training process she has explained things in way which is easy to understand, passing on all her knowledge and experience for which I am extremely grateful for. Thank you Anita!” - Ann Rutherford
Thank you!
Savings Customer Service Team, Gavin Langley – Throughout May, Gav worked full time hours whilst only being on a part time contract due to capacity. Gav volunteered to do this and worked tirelessly to ensure he had all the required knowledge to support whilst launching the new Savings Customer Service team.” - Chloe Smail and Vanessa Stell
Lee Collier - “Lee is a new member of staff fresh out of training. He has brought a bubbly, positive attitude to the team. He is doing a fantastic job serving our customers to a high standard, this was highlighted during a recent call observation where Lee showed empathy and understanding to provide a vulnerable customer with the right solution.”
Send your nominations to: Marketing@myoplo.co.uk