A new Radbroke

Radbroke is Barclays’ largest technology centre in the UK. Technology underpins everything our colleagues do, from apps to artificial intelligence and far beyond.  As Real Estate Site Lead, Julian Bucknall puts it: “Everything we do [at Radbroke] is about achieving consistently excellent banking outcomes for our customers and clients around the world.”

Many of the teams based at Radbroke are focused on supporting technology to enhance the customer experience. Service Recovery Manager, Emma Loughlin, told us:

“It’s not just looking at apps and the self-service technology we have within branches; it’s also looking at exciting new tools that can really improve how we work day to day, and how we can leverage technology to make things better for our customers in their busy lives.”

Radbroke is also home to our global Technology Command Centre. If issues occur which impact customers or colleagues, the Command Centre is where our technology specialists work to ensure service is restored as quickly as possible.

One highly noteworthy new venture at Radbroke is our Cyber Fraud Fusion Centre, which provides a dedicated space for the specialists in our Chief Security Office and Fraud team to come together and analyse data and intelligence with threats and issues with the potential to put our customers at risk.

As Amy Williams, Executive Site Lead at Radbroke puts it: “Banking is technology– and technology is very much at the heart of what we do at this campus. For me personally, having a role in technology is an absolutely fabulous crossover. To be a colleague who is super proud to work at Barclays, super proud to be a senior leader at the site, and then, as a colleague who works at Radbroke, actually being able to benefit from the transformation– it’s a wonderful thing.”

It's certainly worth mentioning that the investment in innovation doesn’t only benefit our customers, but our colleagues too. From hybrid working tools to our workplace, Radbroke is set up for collaboration, so that colleagues can share, access, and benefit from the diverse people and skillsets all around them.

The sheer amount of green Cheshire countryside we have at Radbroke it’s the perfect place to push boundaries in our workplace sustainability plans to support the generations to come. One of our employee resource groups (ERGs) called the ‘Green Team’ work hard to drive simple but effective initiatives feeding and protecting local wildlife, taking steps to increase local biodiversity, and organising litter picks.

Josh Hampson says:

“As an existing beekeeper in my own time I brought the idea to Radbroke and it’s been really well received.  Unexpectedly, it’s completely taken off as a team-building exercise–we’ve hosted something like 500 colleagues in the past two years at the apiary, providing new insights on the significance of bees to the ecosystem, and providing new skills to those colleagues who want to help me tend to the hives too.

Strategically, we’re progressing with a substantial solar photovoltaic installation over our campus car parks to provide a sustainable energy source directly in future. The installation will also provide 100 electric vehicle charging points for colleagues and visitors to use too."  

From our commitment to corporate social responsibility to the ERGs that champion people being able to bring their full selves to work, there are many threads that run throughout the culture of Barclays as a whole. Even so, Radbroke does have a unique sense of culture all of its own. This creates a strong emotional connection between our people and Radbroke, and many Radbroke colleagues recommend us as an employer to the next generation amongst their own family members.

The team have been very thoughtful in creating a world-class environment to support different work modes for our colleagues.

Whether collaborating in a more social space, or reflecting over a cup of coffee, we’re trying to anticipate what our Radbroke colleagues will benefit from both in the future, as well as today, and create a truly inclusive workspace that will continue to attract diverse talent. Amy says:

“Working at Radbroke is pretty different to being based in a city centre. It’s a self-contained campus: before you even start your working day, you can go to the Wellness Centre and do an hour in the gym, or have a game of squash with one of your colleagues. In the office, you might mix it up in terms of different work modes and spaces to help you achieve the best outcome of what you need to deliver on that day.”

There are around 40 social groups managed by colleagues for colleagues, that get together on site to share common interests -everything from tennis to boardgames or crafting. CTO Architecture Governance Lead, Chelsea Reid says:

“Radbroke has had a long history with sports and social groups, but what we've seen post-pandemic is the creation of more groups that might get together across a hybrid week. Cooking could be sharing recipe ideas on a call together rather than physically cooking together. Our strongest sports groups are also now representing Barclays at the annual Corporate Games too where our teams compete with people from other participating organisations.  Whilst primarily about recognising and celebrating the sport and the social networks that the groups enhance, it’s been great that our teams have come back from the Corporate Games with trophies too!"

On-site facilities are amazing, but it’s important that we also prioritise the elements of people’s working lives that matter to them most. When she finished school, Chelsea shares, "I wasn't sure whether I wanted to [attend] university or start apprenticeships." Radbroke presented a unique solution—a degree programme within the framework of an apprenticeship. This opens the door for those colleagues to access a structured educational path while gaining hands-on experience through an apprenticeship programme. 17 years later, Chelsea now helps architects, project teams, and designers navigate governance steps to bring designs to production.

Accessibility is another key element in attracting diverse talent. Julian Bucknall explains, "We've made some really important changes to the campus shuttle bus routes, providing free transportation for colleagues to get to the campus from Cheshire and Greater Manchester." The introduction of a bus booking system, allowing colleagues to book rides in advance via an app, has proven successful. It not only facilitates convenient transportation but also aligns with sustainability goals, providing an alternative for those who can't commute by car.

The leadership team at Radbroke emphasises breaking silos and fostering a sense of unity that spans diversity, equity, and inclusion, citizenship, leadership, talent management, and internal mobility.

Taking a holistic approach ensures that initiatives driven by leaders are really absorbed by teams who jump on opportunities to make a difference and an incredible place to work.