F
FRONT OF HOUSE
Role-modelling by senior leaders
is clearly integral to achieving this.
“You can’t talk about culture, you
have to be culture,” says Harmer. “It’s
the small things, like courtesy… you
can’t say ‘we’re polite, warm and
friendly’ and be something different.
You have to be thoughtful about the
impact you’re having as a leader.”
Voted “most people-focused
CEO” last year by HR magazine,
Metro Bank’s chief executive Craig
Donaldson embodies this behaviour.
Harmer praises his listening skills
and avoidance of blame culture.
“I’m never worried about defending
a situation, just about continually
making it better,” she says.“All the
irritating phrases like ‘tone from the
top’ are bang on. You feel Craig’s
presence and behaviour in the bank.”
Throughout the organisation,
staff feel empowered to take the
initiative to “surprise and delight”,
sharing positive stories via Yammer.
Each branch is run by a local bank
manager, able to make lending
decisions on an individual basis.
Meanwhile, to gauge the real
experiences of her staff, Harmer
monitors feedback website
Glassdoor, replying to reviews
personally and taking on board
all comments. “If someone’s not
happy, usually there’s some truth in
it,” she admits. “You have to take a
deep breath, suck it up and say ‘what
is there here for us to learn?’”
She stresses that feedback is
plentiful and ongoing for all at Metro
Bank. “I say to people joining ‘you
have to be very happy to get a lot of
feedback, take it and do things with
it. Nobody’s pointing the finger’.”
M
aintaining culture
during growth
With culture being Metro
Bank’s “most precious
thing”, the challenge is not to
maintain it but to strengthen it,
admits Harmer. “To get Craig to be
that for nearly 4,000 people is too
much. We need everybody to be
the culture.”
Part of her team’s role lies in
“systemising” culture to ensure it is
widely understood and permeates
28 //
Future Talent
the organisation. Onboarding for
staff should be as frictionless as it is
for customers to open an account.
“Joiners often say ‘it’s amazing,
I’ve got my contract on my phone
and returned paperwork digitally; I
got my ticket for visions and sweets
in the post; the day after I attended
visions I got my laptop – everything
worked. All the stuff that makes life
hard when you join an organisation,
the teams have pulled out, because
they’ve listened and looked at data
to find out what causes problems.”
Data is a key HR tool, Harmer
adds, enabling the function to be
proactive and strategic: “What’s the
data telling us, where are the issues,
what should we be focusing on?
“Culture is just
behaviour; it’s
made up of
a million
little things”
We look at Glassdoor, attrition and
sickness data, exit surveys, the length
of service in particular stores.
“Are people leaving because there
isn’t a career path? Fine, engage with
the university. That’s how we’ve
ended up with our professional
banking qualifications for entry-
level advisory roles; we’ve also got
an MSc in retail and digital banking
with Cranfield.”
However, she is confident that
most people “love what we’re doing,
and being part of the community
within Metro Bank”, taking a personal
pride in schemes such as the Money
Zone in-store education programme
for kids, and the opportunity to take
a day each year to volunteer.
To boost inclusion there are three
network employer resource groups:
Mpride (for the LGBT+ community);
Mbrace (minority ethnic) and WOW
(Women on Work). “They face
internally and externally to varying
degrees,” says Harmer, with speakers
invited in to talk on related subjects.
“Our staff are incredibly curious
and love storytelling; they come in
droves. If you want people to be
happy, you have to create a safe
environment where they understand
that we care about them. And yes,
we are a business. But why can’t you
be a business and care about your
people?” she concludes. FT