a lot of politics - Avis employé Compliance Advisor GoCardless

Hi I’m Ahmed, the Chief Legal and Risk Officer at GoCardless. I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts and data that might be useful if you’re considering joining GoCardless and that looks to address some of the concerns raised. *Growth* The Risk organisation continues to grow rapidly; in 2021, we expect to see a 69% increase in the number of people we have working in Risk. This growth necessitates some changes to team structure, including building out the teams that sit within compliance operations. As we add new team members, we always look to ensure that we’re being clear on what we’re hiring for and why - including posting full job descriptions and exposing interviewees to multiple future team members to provide what we hope is an accurate picture of the reality of all roles. That being said, we’re moving fast and roles will always shift slightly to accommodate that movement. *Development* We look to provide every member of our teams with the opportunity to develop themselves and their career at GC. There are also a number of company wide development resources, such as a learning budget, new manager training and sessions focused on development plans. In addition, there are role-specific practices. For example, for our Compliance Advisors, each team member is provided with a learning plan when they join GoCardless. This plan aims to develop the core skills required to complete the role effectively. We use a competency framework to evaluate progression against these skills, as well as assessing their performance in the Compliance Advisor role. *Promotion and progression* GoCardless runs a 6-monthly review cycle, at which point every GeeCee is considered for promotion. Managers are expected to take a number of areas into consideration when assessing promotion candidates, including: (a) Their performance in the past six months against the competency framework, including which of the criteria in the competency level above they meet or have the potential to meet (b) Their performance scores in previous review cycles (c) Their alignment with the GoCardless values Performance score calibration meetings take place, ensuring that ratings are applied consistently and fairly across teams. All promotion recommendations are put through a panel (which includes department heads) to ensure that the process is fair and consistent. There is a promotion policy in place and it applies to all employees who qualify for promotion. Over the past two years, 13 employees in the Compliance Operations team have received promotions. GoCardless provides all employees access to an internal jobs board. This ensures that all employees have access to all roles across the company and can apply to positions they're interested in. *Communication* At GoCardless, we believe that it is essential that team managers and employees have open communication. At the company level, we run a yearly engagement survey to collect feedback from the entire organisation. At a team level, we try to ensure that all employees catch up regularly with their manager and have the opportunity to provide any feedback. In the past few months, we've also launched an upward feedback cycle, where all employees can give feedback on their line manager. The feedback you have provided has been discussed with every member of the Compliance Operations team, and where there is a consensus, GoCardless will put changes in place.