air image of London

Company Culture Office Tour at Metro Bank

After a hosted tour of the Metro Bank HQ in London, we share some takeaways about what can be learned about company culture from this revolutionary brand.

Culturevist organised for Metro Bank to host an afternoon at their London HQ. For those who don’t know Metro Bank, they are reinventing the rules of retail banking, making every day effort to remove all stupid bank rules from day to day services. Metro bank started with 4 stores in 2010, currently have 40, and aim to have 110 stores by 2020. So one of our Learning Directors – Aussie Ed, skipped on down to see what sort of culture enables Metro Bank to keep up with this rapid growth during times of relentless change. He was able to talk with the Chief People Officer, the Head of Metro Bank University, and the Head of Recruitment. And was kind enough to jot down some of what he found out – cheers Ed, ya ripper!

Here are a few key learns Ed took away:

What we like about their approach

  • Design a people strategy that is simple and transparent
  • Align the employee experience as close as possible to the customer experience
  • Train your managers to deliver this strategy with faith and trust
  • Celebrate the vital 70% (yellow) – the consistent performers; these people are the engine of the business

Unique Metro Bank Ideas

  • Customer complaints changed to ‘expressions of dissatisfaction (EOD)’ to not only capture big complaints, but each small grumble or comment
  • A license to hire: each team member responsible for hiring must have a ‘license’ and decisions are made collectively
  • Every monthly board meeting, the members discuss Customer analytics (including EOD) and they address immediately any actions required
  • An internal leadership development program that is aligned with The Chartered Banking Institute
  • Every 365 days team members re-connect with the company mission and values via an internal training day
  • Clear, step by step guides to career advancement are created for every single role

When it comes to aligning the employee experience with the customer experience, we couldn’t agree more. In order for your employees to deliver the service that is promised by your brand, your employees need to live and breath that brand. We call it Brand