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Triodos is Europe’s leading ethical bank and employs 70 people in a range of roles. Trina Wallace talks to three people working for the bank’s UK head office in Bristol to find out what it’s like to work there. Triodos is an ethical bank established in 1980 in the Netherlands which came to the UK 15 years later. The UK head office is based in Bristol but Triodos doesn’t have branches. It employs 70 staff members and only lends money to charities, social enterprise and more than profit businesses pursuing positive social, environmental and cultural goals. In the UK, Triodos has over 22,000 customers and finances more than 600 organisations. The head of HR - Jacqui Brophy It’s useful for applicants to have an interest in ethical issues; it puts applications at the top. Sometimes when you talk to applicants it’s like a spark ignites, they’re so inspired. But we aren’t inundated with applications. I’d advise those considering applying for a job at Triodos to spend a bit of time on their covering letter. We always take time to read it because it gives you such a flavour of the person. Often people talk about what they like about Triodos or about their voluntary work. We advertise all the roles at on our website and some specialist positions, like relationship managers or sector specific jobs, in trade press like Third Sector. We’ve got a lot of flexible workers and we have a good record of accommodating changes to a person’s hours when they come back from maternity leave. It’s a lovely place to work. We’re small enough to get to know everyone. Every Monday we have a meeting at 8.45am where all teams get together to talk about what they’ve been doing. It’s a nice way to start the week. We’re all very connected to what the bank tries to achieve in the world, that creates an interesting dynamic in terms of making decisions because they’re not profit-driven. It’s different to where I have worked before. I gradated with a degree in law from University College Dublin and trained to be a barrister. I went on to work in financial services in the insurance industry for 12 years ending up at Zurich where I went into HR. Then I spotted the role at Triodos which appealed because I was interested in what the bank did and because it was a senior part-time role, three days a week. I wanted to maintain a work-life balance because I have two young sons. I see so many talented parents when I pick up my kids from school who want to work but can’t because employers aren’t flexible enough about parents needing to work part-time. My job’s not one for the faint hearted, it’s a demanding role. I can help people through difficult personal issues or problems in the workplace. You need to be good with people, understand business and what needs to be achieved through human capital. Getting the right people for jobs at the bank is a challenge. We need staff with the right balance of professionalism and values. We’ve just done an opinion survey on what workers here like about the bank what they’d like to see changed. I’m working on the action plan to deal with these suggestions. I also deal with employment law issues. You’ve got to be tenacious but the job gives me lots of intellectual stimulation.
I saw an administrative role working in customer services in the business banking accounts team, applied and got it. It wasn’t my ideal position but I wanted to work for the bank. I was dealing with business applications, loan enquires, setting up additional services for business customers, including credit cards. I stayed in that job for about 18 months before applying internally to do my current role. In September I became a business development co-worker and deal with personal banking enquires. If anyone contacts us it's my responsibility to send back the right paperwork and if people contact us online, I make sure the relevant details go out to them. It’s a varied role, from promoting the bank at events across the country, to working on new products and market research. I start at 8.30am and finish at 5.00pm and work some overtime but not very often. It’s a brilliant place to work, people are very friendly and I feel part of a community. To do my job you need the confidence to communicate well because you’re talking on the phone, often to prospective customers. You need to know about the bank’s products and services and have an understanding of what other teams are doing. It’s challenging to get the name of the bank out there. I’m still learning about the banking and finance sector, what other banks are doing and our position in all that but there’s always someone to ask if you need support. When I’m having a bad day I just think about what I’m doing here and what we’re trying to achieve.
The relationship development manager – Louise Davey Often people start off in customer services and progress through the bank, it’s a good way to get an overview of what we do as an organisation – but you have to be determined to do it this way. I became a coordinator in the business banking customer service team two years after I joined and after that, a relationship manager. I was in that role for two years before having my son. When I came back from maternity leave, six months ago, the bank worked with me to create this new role because as a relationship manager you travel all over the country meeting potential business clients who want to set up accounts with us. My old role was much more reactive. It’s our policy to meet in person everyone we loan to and so responding to an enquiry could invovle travelling to the other side of the country at short notice. Now I work two and a half days a week and although I’m out of the office about one day a week, I’m able to plan my travel in advance. I’m in the office the rest of the time. As a relationship manager you put together credit assessments of organisations who want to loan from us and present them to the bank’s credit committee. You also have to monitor existing loans, deposit and current accounts My new role, working in a team of 20, is much more about getting new business for the bank, developing and managing relationships with key partners and reaching out to new organisations that we would like to work with. I’ve met people doing really positive things but it can be challenging to develop long-term relationships because you have to be patient. We do loan to profit-making companies but we have to meet the people behind them to see that their motivations fit in with our values. In this job you have to be confident, not afraid to meet new people, be open to different ways of doing things and a creative thinker. It’s a great place to work – I’ve got friends here and have stayed in touch with people who’ve left. There’s a really good sense of community and openness.
Triodos Word Aids Day World Vision Third Sector Zurich
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