Lloyds Banking Group

Ally Rosam

Service Designer, London

Lloyds Banking Group looked past my lack of experience in the financial sector and seemed to really embrace the fact that I could bring something new and different to the team.

Ally Rosam, a former NHS physiotherapist launched a new career through one of our programmes which helps workforce returners develop skills and connections. 

Hi, I’m Ally. I was a physiotherapist working in the NHS and the private sector. After doing some service improvement projects (which I now know are service design projects) I ended up pursuing a two-year Masters in Service Design at the Royal College of Art.

At my graduate show, I happened to meet one of the designers from Lloyds Banking Group. He introduced me to the Returners Programme, which offered a great opportunity to go back to work, short-term at the group, after a career break of at least two years.

I found out that the Service Design team at the bank were doing really interesting things. So I applied and was accepted.

Coming back to the world of work two years out is quite scary, particularly when you’ve moved sideways and almost changed careers. LBG looked past my lack of experience in the financial sector and seemed to really embrace the fact that I could bring something new and different to the team.

The programme gave me a ready-made network of people, across the bank. And in my case, I was fortunate enough to be offered a permanent role in one of the other design labs. So it just goes to show that if you put yourself out there and make yourself visible, the opportunities are there.

Charlotte and Amy - Job Share

There’s always been a lot of support and flexibility here, but this was a really forward-thinking idea which showed just how much they cared and understood us.

Charlotte and Amy both wanted to reduce their hours for a better work-life balance. Together with their managers, they put together a plan to make it work.

We’ve been job-sharing for almost 5 years now. We’ve both had long, separate careers at Lloyds Banking Group, but we have very similar skills and situations at home. We both wanted to reduce our hours for a better work-life balance after having kids, but we didn’t want to give up our careers in tech either. Now, we share one role together in digital development and insight.

Neither of us had ever heard of job-sharing before. It was our managers who came up with the idea – they realised that the hours we each wanted to do made up a full-time role. We both already knew each other and we just thought, wow, that sounds perfect!

So far, it’s worked really well. We’re really similar in our working styles and we’ve worked the same kind of role before, so we can put our heads together on problems and share the load easily. It runs so smoothly.

We’re lucky to have so much support and flexibility. There’s always been a lot of that here, but this was a really forward-thinking idea which showed just how much they cared and understood us. We haven’t had to sacrifice our career, and we can still be working mum role models for our kids.

Cheryl

When I became a mum for the first time, managing the transition back into work after maternity leave was just made so much easier by how understanding everyone was.

Cheryl joined the Group straight after college, and enjoyed the work so much she deferred her university placement. She’s now been working for the bank for over twenty years.

I actually came to LBG straight from college. I started on a short-term contract over the summer while I was waiting to go to university. I enjoyed the work so much, I deferred my placement for university and just never looked back. I’ve worked here for twenty years now, and honestly, it’s been the best decision I ever made.

I think the focus on flexible working here is incredible. When I became a mum for the first time, managing the transition back into work after maternity leave was just made so much easier by how understanding everyone was. I was able to find a good work-life balance, so that I could be there for school runs or the little moments with my baby. My manager is always checking in on me to make sure I’m happy with how things are going and my workload isn’t getting on top of me.

My career has been so flexible, too. I’ve moved between divisions easily, thanks to my managers. I was attracted to the challenges of tech, and even though I’d never worked in that sector before, they helped me make the leap. Now I work in a transformation tech role, working behind the scenes to help large LBG projects run smoothly.

Andrea Jerome - Requirements Manager

A number of Group offerings have really come together to make this possible – the flexible working, their approach to volunteering, and the openness of management to accommodate the flexibility.

Andrea was able to volunteer at her local hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to Lloyds Banking Group’s flexible working approach.

Having always had a culture of volunteering within the team and having already helped out in many areas of her local community, colleague Andrea Jerome started the process to become an NHS volunteer last year.

It couldn’t have been timelier as she is now, more than ever, able to generously donate her time to the A&E department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Andrea has been accompanying patients to the X-ray department and guiding them along the new routes through the hospital.

She’s also been asking people to observe social distancing in the queue outside A&E, outlining the new queuing system and the policy regarding friends and relatives, as well as explaining what happens once they’ve been checked in.

Her help frees up the medical staff to concentrate on patient checks and treatment.

Supporting the NHS

Andrea said: It is great to feel useful, and, living alone there is the unexpected benefit of being legitimately out of the house and talking to people. Sobering too, as I’m mostly stationed near the ambulance bays.

A number of Group offerings have really come together to make this possible – the flexible working, their approach to volunteering, and the openness of management to accommodate the flexibility.

Madeleine McDougall and Andrew Hulme - Senior Job Share

Meet Madeleine McDougall and Andrew Hulme, Managing Directors, Global Head of Real Estate & Housing. They’re responsible for the real estate and housing business for the Group. Together they form a rare executive-level job share within banking, and have been recognised in the Timewise Power 50, the UK’s only celebration of people and places who excel at flexible working.

We caught up with them to learn more.

Could you take us back – what it was that made you consider a job share?

M: From being very ambitious professionally throughout university and starting my career, to having three young children, I’ve continued to champion gender diversity. Historically the view has been that you tend to leave the workforce post children and return at a later date, so I woke up one morning and thought – why can’t we work in a different way in the modern age? As I was pondering this, Andy and I went for a coffee, compared what was happening in our lives and I expressed how I was feeling, which was that I really love my job and I really love my kids, but how could I get this to work better, as my resilience and wellbeing were suffering. It dawned on us both that we could have a period of time in our careers where we do things a little bit differently.

A: My situation was not dissimilar – not the same reasons, but the same drivers. My husband and I had just adopted a little boy, James, and work was pretty intense. Like Maddie, I’ve worked very hard since the beginning of my career and it was time for a change of role, to pause and reflect. I needed to take stock, to find a bit of capacity to make sure that I was present at work and at home to have that space for myself to recharge.

What has been the most challenging aspect of job sharing that you’ve experienced?

A: I struggled a bit with the shift in mindset. I worked full time from university, never had an extended break, so no longer working five days a week has been a big adjustment. Particularly in the initial period, I found myself constantly checking emails rather than saying ‘this is my day off’.

M: That point around stepping away, because I think it’s human nature in all of us where we think, if I had the conversation then it’s easier for me to reply, but for Andy he’s thinking it’s his day. It comes from a well-meaning place but we quickly realised it was muddying the waters. We were very open with the team about being patient with us, and having very defined boundaries was crucial. We learned very quickly that while we know communication is important, we have to over-communicate to both our team and each other. We have something called the emergency call or text, where there’s something we can just quickly pick up with each other on one of our non-working days to keep us aligned.

What would you have done if you couldn’t have had a job share?

M: Do you know what? I had total faith in the Group that we would find a solution. This is one of the reasons we like working here, because whether they were going to agree to this job share or not, I knew they’d listen which is so important. I also knew they’d be forward thinking enough to at least investigate the options out there. As we knew it was something we wanted to do, we worked out all the potential issues, so that when we presented this idea we could make those reassurances. The job share was our answer; there will be different solutions for someone else.

A: In my end of year review I’d mentioned that I was thinking about my work life balance, due to the amount of change I’d had in my life that year. I was keen to make changes but I wasn’t sure what they were. At that point, it was important for me to start that conversation with my line manager, so I could get his support. So when this opportunity came about he was incredibly supportive, and came up with a list of questions so we could work through the solutions together. We spend our working days finding solutions for our customers, so why not find solutions for yourself?

Finally, how do you see it transforming the way you work?

A: I think it becomes a virtual circle, because we’ve become more focused and able to do our jobs better. We have more energy with our families and we’re happier in our own minds, and when it comes to our general wellbeing it’s a really positive story. I didn’t necessarily expect this but it’s gone down really well with our team, and it’s changed the dialogue so people are able to have more open and honest conversations about what’s important to them at that moment in time and how we can support them in achieving that.

The most positive reaction has been from our clients who work for large businesses in the UK. We were mindful about how they would react, and they’ve actually really embraced it. They’re on their own inclusion, diversity and agility journey to reflect modern day society. Most of them are jealous!

M: Our productivity has improved as well. This doesn’t make us any less ambitious and it’s not forever – we’re not taking a back seat. As a role we’ve got more cognitive diversity as there’s two people making the decisions, but we’re just as ambitious as a team as we are individually. Whether that means we stay together for this period in our careers or whether we go back to different ways of working, we don’t know that ourselves yet, but that’s exciting.