Paula Millard, Collections and Litigations Officer
I joined the Bank in November 2020, in the middle of lockdown. The Collections and Litigations Officer was a new role for the Bank and required me to develop and implement a litigation strategy and process.
Although I had experience helping banks to manage lending risks to remain profitable, I’m pleased to say that, within the four years I have been here, the streamlined and efficient process I developed is now embedded as a business-as-usual activity. I have now become a subject matter expert, responsible for training and developing staff and importantly, we have been able to better serve our customers who may have found themselves experiencing financial difficulty.
My role is busy and challenging but as I’m a person who enjoys having lots to do, it works perfectly for me. My role is customer-facing and I work with colleagues from across the Bank. But variety is just one of the reasons I love my role. I also appreciate working for an employer that sees my potential, values the contribution I make and invests in my professional development.
Another thing I love about working here is my colleagues. Operations is a strong department that I have felt part of since day 1 – even though COVID dictated that we worked remotely when I first started; I didn’t meet my whole team for almost a year! Yet we formed fantastic working relationships, and we wouldn’t hesitate to jump in and help each other.
Over my time here there has been a real positive change in culture, which has continued at pace. I believe this has been driven by the dedicated focus of our Executive leadership team who have provided a clear vision. Changes have included a commitment to recognise and value colleagues, and for us to develop a collective set of values to work by – a strategy that is working.
I believe the next big change for the Bank will be driven by improvements in IT, which will allow us to automate processes and make data-driven decisions. This will not only enable us to do more for our customers but also free our people up to do more. This will provide more opportunity to innovate and develop new ways of doing things.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how this will help shape our future.
