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Fintech & Blink growth
We wanted to do something a little different from the usual way of recruiting into our fintech business. We aimed to do something that was fun, memorable and collaborative – A Blink open day.
Why?
Recruiting the right people into any business is crucial. People make a business.
Right now, the fintech sector is one of the fastest growing and most exciting industries globally. As the industry grows, the need for talent increases.
- 88% of financial institutions believe that part of their business will be lost to standalone fintech companies in the next five years
- 75% of financial services organisations are creating jobs related to fintech
- 94% of financial services companies are confident that fintech will drive growth over the upcoming years.
According to, ‘the global city,’ they highlight that, ‘the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic have demanded fast responses from the world’s most innovative industries. The UK’s world leading fintech industry is empowering resilience at a time of worldwide uncertainty with innovative solutions and partnerships.’ They continue to mention that ‘the UK’s proposition for fintech is unique… a forward-thinking approach to regulation, access to capital, and proximity to an innovative financial services sector. This ideal environment has put the UK at the cutting-edge of fintech innovation – from peer-to-peer lending to
challenger banks, cyber, insurtech, regtech, AI, paytech, tech for good, and blockchain.’
Our innovative and forward thinking, ‘Everything Payments Platform,’ provides merchants with one intelligent portal for all their payment needs. This has proved popular across different sectors including retail, hospitality and in the professional service sectors such as legal and insurance. Due to the success of the Blink payment platform, as a business we are growing and are recruiting for more talent.
We understand, however, that there are quite a few challenges regarding recruitment. To find the best talent for Blink, we needed to approach how we recruit a bit differently.
Challenges in Fintech recruitment
The competition
How do you attract the right talent when there are so many fintechs in the UK?
Deloitte states that London particularly, ‘has been a key driver in the UK’s fintech success story. As the second highest ranking FinTech ecosystem globally, it has the world’s highest concentration of financial and professional services firms.’
We found out from CR magazine that 92% of people would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent employer brand.
Attracting the right candidates
In a report by Glassdoor, they highlighted that 76% of hiring managers admit that trying to attract right candidates is one of their biggest challenges.
Lack of collaboration at interview stages
We think the best way to hire, is to have an effective collaboration between the team and the candidates.
Typically, interviews are formal, with just the hiring manager and maybe some of the team.
Do informal interviews with the team and candidates have a far better result? Are they much more effective? Is this the future of interviewing?
We think so.
If we enable candidates to collaborate with us, it gives us the opportunity to tell people about our company in a format that’s enjoyable rather than nerve racking. Collaborating is beneficial for candidates as they get to see what the teams, job roles and products are all about and whether it is a good fit for them. As an employer, open collaboration can give us a good feel of how people interact with us as a team.
Providing a good and memorable job seeker experience
In a CareerArc’s report they mentioned that if a prospective job candidate has had a poor experience during any of the recruitment process then;
- 72% of these candidates will tell others about it
- 64% of these candidates stop purchasing goods and services from that employer
Yes, really.
Making sure your recruit fairly and making sure the recruitment process is efficient is also a recruitment challenge.
We are enjoying exceptional growth across our target markets, be that hospitality, property, retail and beyond and we have built a reputation for quality in all that we do. It’s a challenge to recruit the right people where it’s an ideal match on both sides.
To solve some of these challenges and to meet driven and talented individuals looking to start their fintech careers, Our CEO Shaya Weisfeld came up with the idea of a fun hiring event, and the Blink team made it happen. We opened 25 new positions across 6 departments and made job offers to our open day attendees.
Hiring event – Blink recruitment drive
What we did
On September 13th we opened our doors to our first in-person hiring event in London, near Kings cross station to start our recruit drive. We ran the 2nd event at our Manchester office on the 14th September. We managed 2 events across 2 locations as we are recruiting across both of our offices. Both the London and Manchester office work closely together remotely via Microsoft Teams and we also have meet ups in person.
The events, also known as open days, were ideal for prospective candidates as it enabled them to get straight in front of our teams. This included all the departments, the hiring decision makers, and other c-levels. Candidates were able to see us in our environment and they get to see where they may be working. The team at Blink were open to answer any questions from candidates. It was informal, yet informative.
In addition to the collaborative approach, prospective candidates at our hiring events were able to get tips to enhance their CV. This was ideal for those just starting their careers in fintech. We wanted to provide some value to candidates, as we understand that the job market can be challenging and daunting especially to those just starting in their working career.
Our hiring events consisted of a trade show, where the prospective candidates interacted with each team and department. We offered networking sessions and engaging fintech and product training sessions. Interview support was also available, and interviews also take place.
The hiring events, also known as our Blink open days, were complimented with plenty of food, drinks, and raffles - so prizes were won!
We believe that it’s an exciting time to join Blink as we begin to look towards scaling and expanding each department. We are still growing our sales, onboarding, support, product & innovation, partnerships and marketing teams with over 20 entry level roles available.
The feedback
We had a prospective candidate at out hiring event who said that, “this is so nice
usually when I go to a usual face to face type of interview, I’m terrified and can’t be myself, so I think this a great way to recruit!”
The future
Roles we are looking to recruit for include;
Client Onboarding: As part of a busy customer team, this responsible and proactive role engages with a portfolio of merchants and involves updating this information into Blink’s CRM.
Customer Support: Full-time customer support role exists for a strong self-starter with exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, along with a willingness to be innovative and think outside the box. Some payment experience would be preferred but not required.
Marketing Associate: A creative, cross channel role exists for a for a full-time Marketing Associate primarily based in Manchester, with the option to work at the London office. They will be involved in design and branding and need to have had some exposure to website development.
Sales Associates: With exceptional training and the leadership of Blink experts, we will give Associates the tool kit they need to provide unparalleled payment solutions and excel in the world of sales.
Senior Salesforce Administrator: We have an exciting full time Sales Administration role available in Manchester.
We have now announced the next dates for our future hiring events;
London Office Unit 2, 1 Tapper Walk, London, N1C 4AQ
7th October 4.30pm – 7pm
Book your place for the London hiring event here
Manchester Office 85 High Street, Manchester, M4 1BD
14th October 4.30pm – 7pm
Book your place for the Manchester hiring event here
