Matt Wilkins, chief people officer at the fintech Thought Machine, used to play soccer — or football, if you will, since his company is based in London. Now his own son is playing the sport, and the way his son approaches practicing encapsulates much of the management philosophy that Wilkins and the other executives at Thought Machine try to apply every day.
"When I did football training, you would be told to run up the hill and you just did it," Wilkins said. "Now, if my son is asked to run up the hill, he will ask, 'Why am I running up the hill? How many times do I have to do it? What do I get out of it?'
"I apply answering these types of questions to real-life situations," Wilkins added. "It shouldn't be that different."
This year, Thought Machine, a core banking platform, was named as the Best Place to Work in Fintech by American Banker and Best Companies Group. Wilkins attributes that success, at least in part, to focusing on collaboration, giving every colleague a voice and encouraging healthy debate.
Those are attributes that any company should consider emphasizing, especially in this competitive environment for hiring talent, experts said. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.7% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's near record lows.
"I'm doing an economic write-up for a credit union in Colorado Springs where the unemployment rate is 2.8%," said Steve Reider, president of the consulting firm Bancography. "The employees can name their terms effectively. They have a lot of leverage. Employers need to consider nonfinancial drivers to retain employees."
A big one for Thought Machine, and some of the
Being mission driven doesn't necessarily mean that the company must focus on something that staff members might consider philanthropic, said Sam Kilmer, managing director in charge of the fintech advisory practice at the consulting firm Cornerstone Advisors. Instead, employees can find fulfillment from building the proverbial better mousetrap as long as they have an understanding of what they are doing and why and there is trust in the company's management.
This desire to understand where an employer was headed is reflected in the data for this year's Best Places to Work in Fintech. According to surveys completed by the fintechs that applied, 95% of employees at companies that made the list said that they understood their fintech's long-term strategy. For the companies that applied and did not make the ranking, that number was 89%.
"The takeaway here is that increasingly people are looking for what problem or challenge they can help solve," Kilmer added. "There are certainly problems that require charity but there are also just a lot of pain points for customers that need solving."
To reach its goals, Thought Machine encourages "healthy debate," Wilkins said. That involves getting key stakeholders into a room to hash out the issue at hand. Leaders are specifically asked to ensure "everyone gets a voice" during this process, Wilkins added. But once a decision is made, employees are asked to accept it and move forward, even if their idea wasn't the one selected. This prevents the decision from being revisited and ensures continuous progress.
"We prioritize getting things done," Wilkins said. "We don't go back to the decision. Employees see action and movement, and they don't see us getting bogged down.
"This has a massive effect on culture," he added.
Wilkins touted the benefits of working in person to help achieve this, even though this goes against current workplace trends. There has been an uptick in the number of employees who work remotely since COVID-19 shuttered nonessential businesses more than three years ago. According to the data for 2023's Best Places to Work in Fintech, on average companies reported that 78% of their employees still telecommute. That's up from 36% prior to the pandemic, the research found.
Wilkins noted that Thought Machine had employees return to the office three days a week as soon as restrictions were lifted, though it will make accommodations for employees needing more flexibility. Management believes this is the best way for employees to work together given the highly complex nature of creating products for a highly regulated industry, he added.
However, Wilkins noted that management has been clear on the reasoning behind this decision and is upfront about the requirement while recruiting new staff members. So far, Thought Machine hasn't run into much pushback from workers and the vast majority of its staff members work from the office four days a week.
Wilkins predicted that there would eventually be a re-emphasize by employers of having workers come back to an office.
"You have to be honest about who you are as an organization," he added.
Any employer looking to implement a policy, such as having staff members mainly work from an office, needs to have a specific rationale backed by evidence for the change, said Kilmer, who added that he has found that many employees prefer a hybrid schedule — working from home just one or two days a week — rather than an entirely remote job.
"There are tradeoffs with these different attributes," Kilmer said. "One thing is people like flexibility so if you are upfront about having to work in an office then you are creating a self selection where people who don't mind that will apply. Or you will get applicants who are willing to sacrifice flexibility because they might desire something else that you can offer in return."
For all of the emphasis on remote work, Reider noted that there is still a desire for in-person interactions. It can be hard to replicate the experience of an employee being able to turn to the veteran seated next to them to ask a question, for instance. Where a company might get themselves into trouble is making "dogmatic statements" and being entirely rigid on the issue, he said.
"How you build that company knowledge becomes challenging," Reider added. "I've been to trade shows where vendors tell me they only want to work remotely. I ask, Why did you pay thousands of dollars to come to this conference and for this booth so you can connect with customers in person? Because I do think there is a significant benefit of seeing people in person. But there is also a benefit in rewarding employees with flexibility."
