Back to the nuts and bolts of HR

Carol Frost is sitting in her home office in the English countryside when I dial in to meet her.  She is chirpy, energetic, and passionate about her work at  Metro Bank. Wearing a bright red jumper - a staff-wide trend of wearing red on Fridays. (Her press officer, Mona, I notice is also wearing red, as she introduces the meeting). Frost loves her work and her people, and hands the chat back over to Mona so she could adequately explain the networks that her company uses to promote diversity & inclusion.

She says she gets her energy from things she enjoys and has always been fascinated by people. Having studied interdisciplinary human studies, she did her Master’s Degree in industrial relations, a perfect marriage for a career in HR. Her first roll was a HR graduate at Thames Water, from which she was made HR manager within three years.

She is now chief people officer at Metro Bank, a position she has happily occupied since July 2020. When I call Frost, she is on a high after learning her company has won an award.

Metro Bank was the only UK bank to be named in the top ten of Newsweek’s first annual rankings for the UK’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces list in November.

Reward Strategy finds out what the  secret is behind Metro’s success…

VB: What drew you to a career in HR?

CF: I chose my A-levels with an eye on the things that I enjoyed and where I got my energy. Back when I was looking at my university, I did the same thing. I’m interested in what makes people tick so I did interdisciplinary human studies, studying people at different points in time and philosophy. I went on to do my Master’s Degree in industrial relations. Then I thought, how do I carry on my interest in people and do something that’s more vocationally oriented. My family are strong trade unionists, so it soon became quite clear that I should utilise that, and wound up choosing a career in HR.

VB: Why do you think Metro Bank was included in Newsweek’s top 10 list?

CF: I never use the word "staff". We tell people they’re colleagues, we’re all colleagues. It’s part of why I came to Metro Bank. Customers are at the heart of what Metro Bank is all about. It’s all about customer service. It’s all about winning fans, not just customers. And of course, if we want to do that, we need to have colleagues who feel exactly the same way about us. If we have happy, thriving colleagues, then they provide great customer service, so it’s a virtuous circle. The people mandate is absolutely the centre of Metro Bank’s strategy, which is about how do we think about our customers and do the best for them? How do we think about our people and do the best for them? We talk about hiring for attitude and training for skill. Now, that doesn’t mean if you come in as an HR professional, we just take anybody, it means you could have your HR professional skills but it’s the attitude that’s a differentiator. Our purpose is very clear about giving back to our communities. We want to be the UK’s number one community bank, and that community element plays strongly for us as well. So, we want to train and develop people not only so that they can give better service, but also so that they are happy working for us and can go on to have better careers. 

VB: How do you make sure that MetroBank is being inclusive?

CF: We’ve got really great diversity & inclusion stats because we genuinely work very hard to represent the communities that we serve. And that resonates well with colleagues. They care about what we do. They care about the community, they care about themselves, and their development and they care about Metro Bank and their sense of belonging. 

VB: Why do you wear red on Fridays?

CF: We call it magic Friday; we say Happy magic Friday to people, so we all wear translated well into the hybrid world because even though we’re not together, you get all these people on screen wearing red. It’s really cool. We all wear M pins even when working from home so when we put on that pin, we’re thinking about our customers and our colleagues and the people who are customer facing. We’re proud of our champions and we can recognise one another. There is a whole bunch of little nuances to that, like if your M pin is upside down, then we know that person might not be feeling great that day, which is an unwritten rule, but everyone seems to be aware of it. 

VB: How would you say Metro Bank stands out from other workplaces?

CF: It’s our culture. We know this because they tell us on Glassdoor. We’re a genuinely inclusive culture. We have strong engagement scores in respect of that. People can bring their authentic selves to work. We have a track record of developing people, internally and people respond well to that. I also think the fact that we’re small compared to other banks, so there’s a lot of opportunity to be able to make a difference and get involved in things that perhaps you’re not able to in a larger organisation and you can genuinely feel that you’re making a difference. The final thing I would say is the connection to the community. We do a lot of work in communities and days like Days to Amaze, which is a volunteer day we do. 

VB: What benefits does Metro Bank have?

CF: We’re not the best payers, but we pay competitively. We have a bunch of flexible  benefits and there’s an individual element to benefits, which is what suits different individuals. We have competitive policies, we encourage people to ‘bring themselves’ to work as well as being family friendly, we work hard to flex where we can as well. There are very few things were we’re rigid. 

VB: How do you make sure that diversity training isn’t just a box ticking exercise? 

CF: It’s not about training, it’s about the expectations we set. And again, it sits in the culture, representing the colour of the communities that we serve. It’s part of how we are and we expect people to be inclusive and not exclusive. There is some training, there’s a bunch of stuff that we do with our network groups, we have five different network groups, representing different communities. So, whether it’s LGBTQ plus, whether it’s ethnic diversity, Women on Work, called Embrace, an utterly fabulous network. The remit of Embrace is to educate, raise awareness and celebrate that thing that’s really key about Metro Bank culture. The celebrate aspect of that is very important. We want to celebrate our diversity as  well as educate our colleagues and raise awareness. We do a tonne of events. We had an amazing event for Black History Month at the end of last month. We have some performers doing entertainment, and it was just a fabulous, really uplifting event to celebrate the diversity and showcase our colleagues. We also have a programme called the opportunities programme, which is taking people from underrepresented groups, including socio- economic, and helping those people to develop their confidence and the skills that they need to move into more senior roles. 

VB: What can employers do to support women and mothers returning to work?

CF: This is one of the things that our Women on Work network are really tuned into. We’re at the forefront of the work on menopause. We’ve done a lot of work on helping women return to the workplace post-having a family. A lot of that is building confidence. We provide support 

VB: Why do you think Metro Bank was included in Newsweek’s top 10 list?

CF: I never use the word staff. We tell people they’re colleagues, we’re all colleagues. It’s part of why I came to Metro Bank. Customers are at the heart of what Metro Bank is all about. It’s all about customer service. It’s all about winning fans, not just customers. And of course, if we want to do that, we need to have colleagues who feel exactly the same way about us. If we have happy, thriving colleagues, then they provide great customer service, so it’s a virtuous circle. The people mandate is absolutely the centre of Metro Bank’s strategy, which is about how do we think about our customers and do the best for them? How do we think about our people and do the best for them? We talk about hiring for attitude and training for skill. Now, that doesn’t mean if you come 

in as an HR professional, we just take anybody, it means you could have your HR professional skills but it’s the attitude that’s a differentiator. Our purpose is very clear about giving back to our communities. We want to be the UK’s number one community bank, and that community element plays strongly for us as well. So, we want to train and develop people not only so that they can give better service, but also so that they are happy working for us and can go on to have better careers. 

VB: How do you make sure that MetroBank is being inclusive?

CF: We’ve got really great diversity & inclusion stats because we genuinely work very hard to represent the communities that we serve. And that resonates well with colleagues. They care about what we do. They care about the community, they care about themselves, and their development and they care about Metro Bank and their sense of belonging. 

VB: Why do you wear red on Fridays?

CF: We call it magic Friday; we say Happy magic Friday to people, so we all wear red. It’s a sense of belonging, and that’s translated well into the hybrid world because even though we’re not together, you get all these people on screen wearing red. It’s really cool. We all wear M pins even when working from home so when we put on that pin, we’re thinking about our customers and our colleagues and
the people who are customer facing. We’re proud of our champions and we can recognise one another. There is a whole bunch of little nuances to that, like if your M pin is upside down, then we know that person might not be feeling great that day, which is an unwritten rule, but everyone seems to be aware of it. 

VB: How would you say Metro Bank stands out from other workplaces?

CF: It’s our culture. We know this because they tell us on Glassdoor. We’re a genuinely inclusive culture. We have strong engagement scores in respect of that. People can bring their authentic selves to work. We have a track record of developing people, internally and people respond well to that. I also think the fact that we’re small compared to other banks, so there’s a lot of opportunity to be able  to make a difference and get involved in things that perhaps you’re not able to in a larger organisation and you can genuinely feel that you’re making a difference. The final thing I would say is the connection to the community. We do a lot of work in communities and days like Days to Amaze, which is a volunteer day we do. 

VB: What benefits does Metro Bank have?

CF: We’re not the best payers, but we pay competitively. We have a bunch of flexible benefits and there’s an individual element to benefits, which is what suits different individuals. We have competitive policies, we encourage people to ‘bring themselves’ to work as well as being family friendly, we work hard to flex where we can as well. There are very few things were we’re rigid. 

VB: How do you make sure that diversity training isn’t just a box ticking exercise?

CF: It’s not about training, it’s about the expectations we set. And again, it sits in the culture, representing the colour of the communities that we serve. It’s part of how we are and we expect people to be inclusive and not exclusive. There is some training, there’s a bunch of stuff that we do with our network groups, we have five different network groups, representing different communities. So, whether it’s LGBTQ plus, whether it’s ethnic diversity, Women on Work, called Embrace, an utterly fabulous network. The remit of Embrace is to educate, raise awareness and celebrate that thing that’s really key about Metro Bank culture. The celebrate aspect of that is very important. We want to celebrate our diversity as  well as educate our colleagues and raise awareness. We do a tonne of events. We had an amazing event for Black History Month at the end of last month. We have some performers doing entertainment, and it was just a fabulous, really uplifting event to celebrate the diversity and showcase our colleagues. We also have a programme called the opportunities programme, which is taking people from underrepresented groups, including socio- economic, and helping those people to develop their confidence and the skills that they need to move into more senior roles. 

VB: What can employers do to support women and mothers returning to work? 

CF: This is one of the things that our Women on Work network are really tuned into. We’re at the forefront of the work on menopause. We’ve done a lot of work on helping women return to the workplace post-having a family. A lot of that is building confidence. We provide support  for that because we want them to come back. I think the work that we’re doing just through diversity and getting people to keep an open mind is helpful just in terms of sometimes cutting people slack and thinking harder about ‘what’s going on for that individual’ and ‘how can I help them?’ Rather than thinking about all the things that are not quite where they would want them to be. As a woman of a particular age, there are lots of women who seem to self-select. I’ve got a family, I’m responsible for three elderly parents in their 80’s along with my husband. All those things have challenges so it’s incumbent upon me to help people understand that. I’m not superhuman, I am fallible, and all these things apply to me, and I feel a strong sense of responsibility for that. 

VB: What challenges do you anticipate in your role as chief people officer in 2023?

CF: There’s continuing trends, attrition and the war for talent is going to continue so we’re really focused on how we help people better understand what Metro Bank are thinking about ‘what makes it attractive?’ Retention is key as well as continuing to focus on D&I. Everybody has more work to do. You can never declare victory, right? So how do we keep the focus on that and link to our culture, and then for me, from an HR professional, in a more technical sense we have Q3 results we have for profit, our goal has been to get to sustainable profit and then you know, back to growth et cetera. 

VB: Elon Musk has told his staff at Twitter that they need to return to the office. What’s your thoughts on that?

CF: It’s interesting. Businesses need to think about what’s right for them in their own context. There is no one size fits  all. On our side, we must have customer facing people and you have to accept that reality. There are roles for people, our head office roles. Of course, you can do your job remotely, but do we need to come together? At Metro Bank, we do come together for cultural events and training. But for me, fundamentally, that’s about  belonging. I don’t want to force anybody to come to work all the time. There’s a bit of a balance and I think we will work through what’s right for individual teams and what’s right for my team might be what’s different from the finance team’s needs, for example. 

VB: Staff burnout is on the rise. How do companies tackle this problem?

CF: There’s no doubt about that. And we see indications of that. I mean, in lots of different places, and whether that’s due to work, or things happening at home. We have a really strong focus on wellbeing. We’ve got a lot of support in place for wellbeing, we have wellbeing Wednesdays, we’ve got a lot of training available and we have Mental Health First Aiders. Part of our learning for managers, particularly as we’ve gone into hybrid working, is noticing what’s been going on with their colleagues, it’s easy to be very transactional when you’re working in a hybrid way. It’s about noticing if colleagues are sending emails late, for example, and asking questions about why they’re doing that. We’re mindful about the cost-of- living now. That’s likely to be a contributing factor as well, and thinking very hard about how we support our colleagues through what are undoubtedly extremely difficult times. 

VB: Do you offer any sort of financial work workshops?

CF: I mean, we’re a bank, so of course that’s available to colleagues. And then we also have some internal stuff that we do, some of our benefits are set up  round financial wellbeing. If people are in difficulty, they’ll be able to have a conversation with their line manager and get the right help and support. 

VB: How have roles in HR evolved since the pandemic?

CF: When I joined Metro Bank during the pandemic, they were clear about their purpose and values. They said ’we’ve got some great things that are part of our culture’. My brief was to take those things and to help evolve them to the next evolution, whatever that looks like. But don’t break it. Keep all the staff that’s special and evolve it to the next level. And that’s interesting as an HR brief. What’s happened through the pandemic is people tuned into the value of HR and the HR team in a different way, not that they weren’t valued before, but I think people have recognised that we’ve been working in difficult circumstances. We’ve kept our values on doing the right thing for our people at the heart and we’ve taken that as our guiding set of principles, and my team were instrumental in stewarding the business through those trying times.