Revolut creates team to address corporate culture

Financial superapp Revolut is putting together a behavioural team as it seeks to address an "aggressive" corporate culture.

  4 2 comments

Revolut creates team to address corporate culture

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

In a move first reported by the Guardian, the $33 billion company, which has around 6000 staff around the world, will unveil its new 'CultureLab' team on Friday.

Revolut has long had a reputation for a toxic workplace environment, with some former staff claiming they were set unachievable targets in the name of the startup’s growth, forced to do unpaid work and put under severe pressure to the point where they eventually quit their jobs. The culture section of its website currently boasts, among other things, that "the bar is very high, and we evaluate people accurately, not kindly".

However, it now plans on "upgrading" this culture and introducing new "values-based behaviours" with the CultureLab team, which will include an applied behavioural scientist and pyschologist.

Revolut insists that the move is not directly linked to its efforts to secure a UK banking license.

"I wouldn’t say this is a straight reaction from regulatory discussions...This is more linked to our growth and how we’re changing and the feedback we were getting from our people. We really needed to shift and change,” head of people experience, Hannah Francis, told the Guardian.

Adds Francis: “We did get some comments that potentially it seemed a little bit more aggressive, but in the fast-paced, hyper-growth that was Revolut however many years ago. We have really moved on since then."

Want to see more fintech opportunities? Visit the Finextra Job Board for hundreds more roles, and bookmark the link for regular check-ins.

Sponsored [Webinar] Trusted Transactions: The Future of Risk-Based Authentication

Comments: (2)

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

No company reaches $33 billion in such a relatively short timeframe as Revolut by keeping bankers' hours or banking culture. 

Helen Jamieson

Helen Jamieson MD at Jaluch

I was bewildered when I read this. 

More money than sense, more process than practicality?

Do you really need to call in psychologists and behavioural science experts to create a whole new division to address an aggressive corporate culture?

How about, using the disciplinary procedure you no doubt already have that refers to professional behaviour and/or bullying. You discipline one or two senior people who are regularly aggressive, then note how quickly others start to behave like the respectful adults they no doubt can be when the expectation is correctly set. 

All you need is need an HR Director who is given the responsibility and full shareholder and board backing, and who can then ensure people are managed in line with modern professional workplace policies. 

It really isn't rocket science.

I have no idea what has prompted these comments around an aggressive corporate culture, but the professional workplace is no place for shouting, bullying, public humiliation, undermining, rudeness, swearing or inappropriate jokes and comments. 

New Report – The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025Finextra PromotedNew Report – The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025