In the competitive SaaS landscape, people and culture aren't just buzzwords – they're the engine of innovation and success.
Join host Ollie as he explores this vital topic with Alex Miell, Chief People Officer, and Vicky Hester, Head of People.
They'll share:
Discover why a strong, purposeful culture is our secret sauce for both business success and making a real difference in the world.
Oliver Telfor: Hi. Welcome to SmartSessions, a podcast by SmartSearch on all things AML, talking regulations, technology. And today we're talking about people and culture. But before we get into today's podcast, Alex and Vicki, just want to introduce yourself, then we can go. Yeah.
Alex Miell: Hi, I'm Alex Miell. I'm our Chief People Officer here.
Vicki Hester: And I'm Vicki Hester, our Head of People.
Oliver Telfor: Great. So let's talk about SmartSearch. Obviously that's why we're here. So, at the start of the year, we relaunched our brand and sort of did a new injection into it, and we introduced something called behaviors. Alex, can you just talk us through what that looks like and what it means for us? Yeah.
Alex Miell: So as you know, behaviors are bold, collaboration, and focused execution. As a quickly growing organization, not dissimilar to other SaaS organizations, we felt we needed to have some behaviors that really anchored everything that we did. And I would say, actually it's one of the few companies I've worked for where that is, that is generally really the case. So what we've done is we've tried to allow people to have the confidence in our behaviors to make decisions, to, to, to work selflessly with and for one another, and also really focus on what we need to do because there are many priorities that we have. We've embedded them in all of our processes, whether that's people related processes like recruitment or performance, or our product roadmap. And also, as I say, helping us to prioritize what we need to do. We also feel that they act as a, a guide for decision making at all levels. Yeah. So we were really keen to make sure that when all the decisions were made at the executive level or the, or the most senior level, so we could empower our teams to have that, the, to be bold, to make the decisions at the right levels. And as I say, if you're collaborating effectively, then you don't want to wait for someone to make that, that decision for you. And then what we've also done, and we'll, we'll talk about this a bit later on as well, when we talk about performance, but it helps us sort of drive accountability. Yeah. Again, whether that's accountability at any level, whether that's at our senior level or not, the the behaviors really help us focus on what we need to do, why we need to do it, and how we can make it beneficial for SmartSearch.
Oliver Telfor: Perfect. I mean, that was a succinct overview, so thanks. So Vicki, just building on the behaviors. So how, how are we actively invested in our people to make sure that those behaviors actually mean something, that they, they, as Alex says, drive performance?
Vicki Hester: Yeah. We've invested significantly since launching the behaviors. We've delivered three key programs this year. So we delivered one for our people managers around building high performing teams. So they were really set to have good performance discussions, set meaningful objectives that were in line with our business strategy. So that's really supported that. And we've also had agile training for all our, our technical teams. So product, technical and delivery. So they, all of them are working then collaborating effectively across those teams. Yeah. To make sure we're delivering in the best way and to support our future growth. So that's been really positive as well. And we've also invested in our revenue teams, so making sure there's sales training across all the functions, sales, customer success, and that we're using the same methodologies. So ultimately, again, it's a seamless, seamless process for our customers and that will support as, as, as the business grows and develops.
Oliver Telfor: So we spoke about sort of investing in people and investing in sort of the change of behaviors. But what, what platforms do we offer people to develop on and what can we bring here at SmartSearch?
Vicki Hester: Yeah. A key thing is regular performance discussions that we understand where people are about what ambitions they have and what they want to achieve, and how we can help them achieve those things. So that's really key to have those regular discussions. We actually have career progression frameworks across the business as well, across all teams. So people can see what they need to do to be able to either move up within their own team or a sideways move to another team if they want to change sort of path. And what we want to do, the key thing is we want to keep our top talent. We, we don't want them to leave. We want to be able to give them, the career they want. So succession planning is a key thing for us as well, to be able to identify that future talent, the future leaders of SmartSearch. So that's a key project for us. And one of the things we've introduced, it's been running for a couple of years now, is the mentoring scheme. And we've had great success with that. So it gives people the opportunity to put forward how they want to develop, what personal skills they want to develop, and we can match them with a, with a mentor that, that, that will work with. And we've had some great results from that. A number of people who've been through that program have then been promoted within the business as well. So that's been really successful. And we also have a recognition scheme, a Quarterly Behavior Champions award. And all these things are just that people can, across teams, recognize each other for the work they're doing, the demonstration of the behaviors, so that really get, they feel that they are getting recognized for that hard work.
Oliver Telfor: And how is, 'cause we're in a SaaS environment, how does that kind of change from other, other industries? Is, is there a different impact it makes or is there a different focus? What, what does that look like?
Alex Miell: I think we move more quickly than other industries. Some other industries obviously can't, can't speak for all, but we do move more quickly. So if you, if you put in the training and you put in the, development in for people, you are helping people understand how we work, why we want to work, and what the reason for it is. Yeah. Then as we're moving quickly, people aren't, concerned about what they need to do and how they need to do it. So that I, there are some industries where things do move a bit more slowly and there's possibly a bit more time to, to help embed stuff, but we, we move a bit more quickly in the SaaS world.
Oliver Telfor: Okay. So, Alex, you talked about a lot of different industries there. Obviously it wasn't, it wasn't our client base. So we work with a wide range from, you know, from legal property to sort of banking stuff. But how do we make sure that what our teams focus on is not just we just another tech company, it's actually the, the human effect and the, and the financial fighting crime effect as well. Yeah.
Alex Miell: So the broader purpose of SmartSearch, much like our behaviors, is a, is a core reason for, for working here. It certainly was the, one of the reasons for me wanting to, to join and, and for joining SmartSearch. We are on the, we always say we're on the side of good, so we have a clear, compelling reason that resonates hopefully with our, our people that work for us and also our customers. And I know that later, Vicki's going to go into a bit more detail around the, the, the immense impact that financial crime has on society. The purpose of our products is really to go somewhere to tackle the, immense impact the financial crime has on society. And as we talked about our clients and our customers being in different industries, we have obviously very different roles within the organization, but everyone in their role understands their purpose in, in, how they can help us, solve the impact on, on financial crime by what they do, whether they're in direct revenue roles, technology roles, or people roles such as ourselves. One of the ways that we do that is we, we regularly connect our communication to our pro, to our purpose. So whether that's in one-to-ones our staff, all hands, or team meetings, it's really important for us to reiterate what we're doing and why we're doing it so that people continue to feel that that is the driving sort of heartbeat behind what, what we do here at SmartSearch.
Oliver Telfor: Okay. That makes complete sense. And think just across other industries, but going back to SaaS industries, what other sort of trends are you seeing and our sort of, are we trying to implement here at SmartSearch that,
Vicki Hester: Yeah. Remote and hybrid working is still a, a key focus for people. The important thing there is that, your collaboration tools, communication tools are effective. So that we're not, we're not missing anything. We're still working collaboratively across the business. Employee experience, is key as well to make sure that people have input that we're listening to their voice, they feel listened to. So it's really important that people can be open and honest. We recognize the things that we're doing well, but also where we need to look and improve on the things we're doing. So we are committed to having regular pulse surveys, engagement surveys, so people can really put into the culture of SmartSearch and feel a part of it. Employee wellbeing is also real priority. We've got a number of benefits in the business that people can tap into. We have an onsite gym, private medical benefit, other benefits, so everything that people might need to access from mental health support, through to health and fitness programs, that's all available for them. And another key thing is as well, we're looking at sort of a new HR people system so that we can really, make data driven decisions into our culture.
Oliver Telfor: So there's a lot of, a lot of change naturally within our industry and with, as you know, SmartSearch in general, we, we mention ourselves, we only just introduced these behaviors at the start of the year. How do we balance that between, there's a lot of change happening, but make sure that we're still driving that growth and we're still driving that performance within our teams.
Alex Miell: Well, what I've found, I mean, I've, as you know, I've not, not been here that long myself, pretty much as the behaviors we introduced. What I've found is that everyone has a high expectation of one another. So that's quite a community spirited thing. Everyone's got a high expectation of one another, but we do it in a very supportive environment. As you say, we're going through constant growth and constant transformation, but as Vicki said earlier, with the surveys and just in conversation with people, we want to understand what's going well, but we also need to know what could be even better. And by guessing that data and acting on that data, that can, that can certainly help improve there. But we also have got in place some sustainable growth strategies. So we are looking at automating as much as we can do to be able to allow people to flourish in their careers so that they're, they're not, doing the repetitive tasks. They're able to work with the automation. I feel we've got very transparent leadership, communication and behaviors. The ELT, as we call them, our senior teams and our managers are always open and available for people to have conversations with them. We, we, we have our regular all hands, and we are, we are working hard to make sure that that employee experience is positive at all times. We are not naive enough to know that it's always going to be positive, but it, but by getting the data and using the data and understanding where it could be better for people, we're we're, we, we certainly take that as, as a priority. But data itself is just data. If you don't link it back to the purpose or the behaviors as we were talking about earlier, our behaviors and our purpose are incredibly important for us. So if we don't take the data and say, how can we make it better for people to be collaborative or be bolder or have more focused execution on what we need to deliver, then, then, then it is, it's just a say data on, on a spreadsheet. So we, we're, we're making sure that we, when we get our information, we're putting it in practice, we're checking that it's working for people, and then so on and so on.
Oliver Telfor: Perfect. I mean, just going back to that, not just data on a spreadsheet. So in terms of what we do at our core mission and why we're all sat here and what we're trying to do and fighting against financial crime and sort of help those individuals that have been affected by it, but some who are also like, you know, enslaved within, within the system because of it. Can you sort of talk about that issue, Vicki, and sort of in terms of how SmartSearch can directly sort of help impact that and sort of help basically be a tool against financial crime? Yeah,
Vicki Hester: Yeah, absolutely. The, the problem is massive globally. The cost of bribery corruption, it's, $3.6 trillion annually. And the cost to humans is very, very high as well. Financial crime fuels human trafficking. Yeah. Exploitation, which affects 50 million people and 3 million of those children. So it really is a huge problem. But SmartSearch's technology aims to fight financial crime, disrupt the activity of these criminal networks, and ultimately try and make a better and safer future for these people that it impacts. So we're constantly developing our product, not just to support our customers being meeting regulatory requirements, but also to safeguard businesses and individuals and to help fight this crime.
Oliver Telfor: And so, just on the back of that, obviously the stats are shocking. We, we, we all, we all know, and we can all appreciate that, that we're lucky enough, ourselves not to be in those situations. But from a, from a cultural perspective and from a SaaS, you know, company perspective, how do we show that commitment that we're committed to the people that we work with, and make sure that the people that we work with and the influence that they have, they understand that culture and sort of bring that out internally. How do we make sure that the talent that we try and recruit here, the talent we try and keep it understands that bigger message and sort of has that drive within them to do better?
Alex Miell: Like you say, it starts with the attraction. So by having quite a clear mission driven purpose, you aim to recruit mission driven individuals. Yeah. You know, we, we are one of many, many SaaS companies, but it's obviously a great environment, great place to work, but by having that purpose as well, we want to attract people who are, who are interested in, in, in, in using their talents to, to make the world better in, in, in whatever way that we can do. So it starts with attraction and then it goes all the way through what we, what we refer to as employee lifecycle. So when we're talking about, working through performance, we're, helping people understand how that, from the behaviors, again, how they're behaving and performing to help us continue to improve our products, to improve the situation externally. And again, when, when you've got, a strong career path for someone who's mission driven, working for mission driven organization, we can retain them by, as long as there's opportunities for them and there's opportunities for their own personal growth, then having that strong hook for someone who has to say is bought into what we do. That, that, that certainly helps there. And then if, if it is of time for people to move on, people will move on. People move on to different roles in different organizations, we want to understand why. And if we feel that it's anything related to something that we haven't perhaps been able to support them with when it comes to what we're doing or, and help them understand why we're doing it, then that's something we build into the processes and yeah, put it all the way through again. So,
Oliver Telfor: I mean, it's, you know, you know, what, what you, what we touched on and what we sort of talked about, yeah. We're not just, you know, doing another SaaS company. I feel that we actually are trying to, to drive something different and like, you know, we, we have, we customers who trusted identities, and, and that to me resonates. And it's true for me, you know, talking to, to you guys today and to everyone that we're talking on this, it's clear that it's not just a business providing a solution to another business to do something else. It's actually, there's something more to it. And I think that's come across today. So thanks for your time today. And then if you want to hear more about our product and, and the solutions and the industries we work with, head to smartsearch.com. You can find all that there. And if you would actually like to join SmartSearch and potentially one day sit on the sofa, like, Alex and Vicki have today, then go to our careers page where you can find all of our opportunities. And look, we'd love to have you, we always want to have individuals who want to drive for better. Maybe that could be you. See you next time. Thank you. Thank you.