Monzo
I joined Monzo before the banking licence application had been submitted, when just a couple of hundred prepaid cards were in the wild (with misconfigured chips and a bunch of weird bugs). We were eight seasoned banking executives writing policy documentation, and twelve startup types building and operating a mobile app for a prepaid card.
I’m proud of the culture I crafted and scaled at Monzo, during a time of extreme growth. Over my two years, we grew headcount by 1500%, achieved full authorisation as a UK bank, opened half a million current accounts, had exceptional retention and engagement both across users and employees, developed our own core banking infrastructure, and changed so many users’ lives for the better.
Head of People:
Grew company from 20 to 320 people, and People function to a team of 12 (including recruiting, office management and EAs).
Led the design, creation and implementation of all employer brand initiatives (awarded Best in London by Hired.com).
Designed and built hiring processes from scratch, and established and grew the Recruitment function.
Introduced metrics-led iteration of People products and services.
Employee experience and engagement initiatives: eNPS >85; 1% voluntary attrition; Glassdoor: 4.9*.
Training design and delivery:
defined a comprehensive onboarding process (from signing contract to end of probation),
designed and led “soft skills” training,
rolled out a first-time manager training and toolkit,
developed guidance and interactive training on how to manage underperformers,
built out required policy training and attestation, for regulatory compliance, for every area of the business.
Implemented proactive, transparent fair pay and career progression frameworks.
Developed salary and equity benchmarking and calibration processes.
Other contributions of note:
Championed diversity and inclusion in the organisation, from signing the Women in Finance Charter and becoming a Living Wage Employer, through to supporting strong employee community groups around parenting, LGBTQIA+ identity, neurodiversity and more. Doubled the proportion of women and non-binary people in the company, tripled the proportion of minoritised ethnicities, and became known as a workplace leading on both mental health and trans inclusion in business.
Led the Company Operations functions (finance, admin, legal, people, talent) including setting and tracking strategy and goals, and chairing monthly meetings.
Led two office searches and moves inc budgeting, project management, first-review of legals, and negotiating terms.
Passed internal audits on culture and conduct.
Certified Person (under FCA’s material risk takers regime).
Represented the business in industry, taking speaking engagements at events on gender pay gaps, fintech startups, diversity and inclusion, building teams, and scaling culture.
Coauthored Can you have your cake and eat it? Building a high performance business model that coexists with a culture of integrity in Transforming Culture in Financial Services, FCA Discussion Paper DP18/2 (March 2018)