What’s it like to work at a leading Fintech Start-up in London?
Tandem is an app-only challenger bank based in King’s Cross, London. Tandem are currently hiring. Earlier today, we spoke to a member of their People Team — who do the hiring, as well as lots of other things. Here’s what he had to say…
What is the The People Team?
The People Team is focused on a number of different areas. Recruitment and selection, employee enagement, learning and development, rewards and benefits, HR compliance, People analytics and payroll.
Whilst this is all very important our CPO would probably say our most important role is to create and nurture an environment and a culture where people can bring their whole and true self to work every day. Diversity — and not just the protected categories — but diversity of thought, of style, of background and diversity of sector experience.
We look to hire people who bring new and different perspectives. We look to hire both from banking backgrounds and non-banking backgrounds. We need this broader take on diversity to solve old problems in a new way, which is one of the things we have to do as a challenger bank.
On the social side we try to put together activities that are aligned with the culture and DNA of Tandem whilst supporting this celebration of diversity. On the surface these are just events and socials for people to enjoy. But they’re also meant to make people feel welcome, connected and valued — and ultimately that they have a kind of second family here at work and that they can see Tandem as a place that they would like to grow with over the coming years. I see some of these individuals more than I see my daughter, my wife!
So how do you go about building the Tandem team?
People often think that it’s just about attracting and hiring the right talent.
Whilst we spend a lot of time in our team developing our talent brand this is actually something that the whole company works hard on and everyone in Tandem plays a key role in attracting great candidates for various roles.
We’re the ones that see them through the interview process and make sure they’re a good fit for the company and also, that the company is a good fit for them. For example there’s no point hiring someone who is super smart and strategic but can’t or doesn’t want to roll their sleeves up and operate at the proverbial coal face.
You may think you’ve won on the day, but when you’re hiring you’ve got to be thinking about more than the short term goal of simply filling the position otherwise it costs everyone in the long run. And above all, when you are in an organisation that’s growing, you want to make sure people have the right motivations and drivers to grow with the company.
Potential is really hard to measure, but not impossible, and it’s key to finding the right people who will provide great value to the company and who the company can serve well in return. There are some key indicators of potential and we actively test for these in screening candidates — for example emotional intelligence, smarts, curiosity, problem solving, judgment, drive for results.
What is the Tandem Philosophy?
Tandem is all about creating win/win situations. We don’t want to be like some banks that do all the hidden charges, kick you when you’re down thing. We’re trying to create a range of services and products that help people to take the stress out of money, to feel better about their financial life. We believe in making our profit from the moments when we do that.
The traditional way of banking is a bit like some foreign healthcare systems. You pay a doctor to give you a load of pills when you’re ill. But the doctor doesn’t really have an incentive to keep you healthy. Healthy enough not to die, sure, but as long as you’re still paying for the pills. There’s another way, which is to incentivise a doctor to keep you healthy. How? Well you have to pay when you’re healthy. But you don’t pay when you’re ill. We’re not there yet, but that’s kind of the idea we have about the sort of role we want to play in our customers’ lives. We want to be incentivised to keep them financially healthy. That’s what banking in Tandem is.
Another thing that is key to Tandem, at least to my role here — and what I enjoy the most about it — is finding that sense of empowerment for individuals. We maintain a really flat organisational structure. So from an idea to the implementation, we want to allow that to be as quick as possible. That gives people a lot of excitement when they get up to come to work in the morning. But people can drift back to hierarchies if you’re not careful, so that’s definitely part of the more strategic part of my role.
We’re definitely a lean and agile organisation.
Not just in terms of the ‘Agile’ set up and method. But how we pair the people in the organisation with things that challenge them, things that are at the limit of what they can do today, but that they can learn to do tomorrow. We constantly try to optimise and refine how we’re set up — with respect to the work and the talent and finding a good pairing between the two.
There’s perspective and input from across the organisation in respect of the work we do and the kind of people we’re trying to attract. So during the interview process, it’s likely that people will meet people from the team that they’ll be working with, but also people from the wider business — to get a broader sense of who the person is.
This goes all the way to the top. Our CEO — Ricky Knox — meets with nearly everyone who interviews and not just the senior roles. This isn’t because he’s a control freak, and it’s not because he hasn’t got a whole load of other important stuff to do each day. It’s because we realise that as you scale, culture becomes more and more important to preserve and nurture and selecting the right talent is key. We’re lucky that our CEO understands and actively supports this.
Traditions.
You’ll have to come and work here to understand what these really mean, but keeping up traditions is an important part of building culture. Things that repeat over time give a sense of structure to the organisation. They create a link between two different moments in time, but also — hopefully — show you how far you’ve come. We have a few main ones that keep on going: Unsung Hero, Tandem Acts of Kindness and Tandem in Tandem. Great cultural artefacts that continue to celebrate our values and connect people from all corners of the business.
Best social event ever here?
We have the regular Thursday socials, which is a great time to come and hang out if you want to meet the team. But the Christmas parties are usually quite legendary. Our beach-themed Christmas party, now that was good… (at this point he smiles to himself and starts daydreaming for a few seconds).
And finally, you said we’re hiring?
Yes. We’re nearly always hiring at Tandem. Here’s the top three right now that we’d love to get some more action on.
1. Product Manager.
https://tandem.bamboohr.co.uk/jobs/view.php?id=86
Reporting to the Product and Marketing Director, the Product Manager will work with partners across many functional areas to deliver the product propositions across the customer life-cycle. The Product Manager will also design and deliver products for Tandem to help consumers with their financial lives. The Product Manager will need to understand consumers’ financial needs and challenges extremely well.
2. Solutions Architect (Data). https://tandem.bamboohr.co.uk/jobs/view.php?id=80
Reporting to the Chief Architect, the Solutions Architect will define innovative modern solutions that support delivery of a cutting-edge fin-tech experience. The ideal candidate should demonstrate a passion for modern architectural patterns, technologies and tools , have hands on experience of multiple technology stacks both open source and proprietary and a strong analytical mind.
3. Marketing Executive (CRM). https://tandem.bamboohr.co.uk/jobs/view.php?id=106
This is a brand-new role in our business, taking full ownership of CRM from lifecycle comms, through to re-engagement and growth. We’ve got the foundations in place but there’s an almost blank canvas in building out a network of multi-channel comms to help us acquire new customers and drive engagement and retention of our existing 250,000 registered users.
Check out the full list of available positions at tandem.co.uk/careers
