By Aisling Finn on Monday 30 March 2020
Working from home is now a reality for most of us, but what does it mean for those trying to get a job in fintech?
The coronavirus pandemic has caused widespread disruption across the world.
As more and more countries were put on lockdown, employers were forced to either push for remote working where possible or shut up shop.
It will come as no surprise that fintech’s nimbleness and propensity for cloud-based solutions has meant that the transition has been somewhat seamless. However, what does the new work from home regime mean for the hiring process?
AltFi caught up with some of the UK’s fintechs that are still on a drive for new hires.
Starling was recently voted Best British Bank at the British Bank awards earlier this month and it appears that the challenger bank is still on a recruitment drive despite the ongoing pandemic.
A spokesperson for the bank told AltFi that: “We often conduct the first round of job interviews via video, so we don’t see this having a huge impact on the recruitment process.”
Despite this, the spokesperson did confirm that because of the need to interview, and subsequently work remotely, the bank had reduced the number of offers they can make as some roles are not as easy as others to convert to working from home, especially for new hires.
TransferWise, the online money transfer service, could potentially be one of those to see a benefit from the ongoing health crisis as more borders close the need for remote transfers grows.
A spokesperson for the platform told AltFi: “Remote working has always been part of our culture and set-up, so whilst our team and people applying for roles need to be at home and we’re all adjusting to this challenging time, we’re fully operational.”
The spokesperson added that all interviews have been taking place over Zoom, a platform familiar to many at this point.
Tide could also be one of those to potentially see an increase in customers during the ongoing pandemic as the SME lender could see a slice of the £330bn economic stimulus that Rishi Sunak promised.
Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide, said: "Our People team have not yet experienced a slow down in the number of applications they have been receiving. We have adapted to conducting interviews over video conference, which has its challenges, but we're finding it to be a very effective and efficient way of getting to know people.”
Prill added that while the process is currently successful for Tide, he expects this to be a challenge for all businesses who are still pushing for growth.
Chip recently gained FCA approval for its savings app and is on a recruitment drive as a result.
Sharon Miles, chief operating officer at Chip, said: “Our onboarding process also had to be adapted to suit remote working. It's extremely important to make new recruits feel part of the team quickly, which can be hard when we're all working from home.”
“So, we've been organising introductory meetings via video calls, so that people can still put a face to the name and get to know their new colleagues. This is in addition to our video lunches, Friday stands-ups and various team activities like digital pub quizzes.”
Miles added that they have been sending laptops and welcome packs to all new employees and the company’s most recent hire starts on Monday.
Savings and investment app Moneybox is another fintech still on a hiring push amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
Jack Johnstone, HR and talent acquisition lead at Moneybox, told AltFi: “Due to the current situation, we’ve accelerated some vacancies that are more urgent than others. Rather than our usual face to face interviews, we are now doing everything via video calls.”
“It’s more challenging to build up a rapport when you’re not meeting in person, but so far this new format is working very well for us - we’ve already successfully made several hires and started to onboard new starters remotely,” he added.
Financial API provider TrueLayer has also said that the current lockdown has had little impact on its hiring process, other than interviews being conducted remotely.
Vaso Parisinou, Head of People at TrueLayer, said: "At the outset of the crisis we realised that a lockdown was going to be pretty likely in the UK so our talent team moved quickly to adapt by proactively creating new recruitment procedures.”
Parisinou added that she and her team have been “very pleasantly surprised” by how smoothly the process has been and that TrueLayer still has a number of positions to fill.
Revolut declined to comment specifically on the current situation but a spokesperson reassured AltFi that there had been no discernable impact on its hiring process.
The spokesperson also added that, like Starling Bank, video interviews had always been a part of Revolut’s hiring process and these were now supplemented by voice calls.
The digital banking service currently has 350 open positions across the globe including CEO positions in the UK, Japan and Canada—let’s hope the global travel bans are lifted soon then.
How has your hiring process been affected by coronavirus? Let us know editorial@altfi.com
21 March 2023
Daniel Lanyon