Bees, recovery schemes and lessons from the pandemic

Even for a leader in Barclays’ fast-moving Technology team, the speed and organisation required to keep small businesses on their feet through the pandemic has required an upward gear change.

Reflecting on the previously unimaginable challenge of delivering Bounce Back Loans to businesses impacted by COVID-19, a few short weeks after the launch of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Barclays’ Amy Williams says: “We’ve never delivered anything like it.”

As a lifeline to struggling small business owners, the loans needed to be in customer accounts as quickly as possible – which meant building a whole new digital lending system in seven days. “You've got people that are about to lose their business, their home,” says Williams. 

As CIO for Barclays Business Banking, it was Williams who led the delivery of the scheme. “I’ve never felt so relevant,” she says.

“The pandemic has brought trauma and dreadfulness. People have lost their lives and haven’t been able to see their families. But the way in which we responded makes me feel incredibly proud.”

Facing trauma with tech and trust

For Williams, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme was an example of technology at its finest. “On our best day,” she says, “you can see the brilliance of our digital channels – the interactions, the experience we give our customers, the tools that we provide for our colleagues.”

When the pandemic sparked the government’s roll-out of small business loans, Williams knew Barclays’ Technology team would need to integrate a new digital lending solution into existing customer channels. “To have had a hand in that, and to have helped lead the team through that challenge from a technology perspective was nothing short of remarkable.”

The key to making it work was a ‘can do’ attitude from the bank, which she in turn passed on to her team. “Barclays as an organisation ultimately gave us permission and trust,” she says. “They basically said, ‘Be safe and careful and thoughtful – but be bold and brave, and go with your instinct about what you need to do’. The whole firm gave us support when we needed it to get the work done.

“Seeing what we can achieve when we take barriers away, make it simple to do business and work with each other is absolutely phenomenal.”

Lessons from lockdown – and a beehive     

Williams’ personal experience throughout the pandemic has taught her valuable lessons in leadership and collaboration.

“I'm very outcome-driven, action-driven and Post It note-driven – I've got lots of Post It notes,” she laughs. “As a leader, I’ve always tried to be very authentic and very human. I don't try to have a work-Amy persona and a home-Amy persona; I don't try to be senior-Amy or junior-Amy. I just try to be me.”

Williams, a self-proclaimed “nerd”, has recently taken up beekeeping and says her new hobby has helped her reflect on the value of collaboration. 

“There's quite a lot of science to beekeeping,” says Williams, “in terms of how you look after them, how they organise their jobs as part of the colony, how they build the honeycomb, how they rear their young – the lifecycle of it.

“When you look at a hive of bees, everyone's got their own job, everyone's trusted to get on with their job – and everyone knows what they’re doing for the greater good.

“There's quite a lot of direct correlation between that and how teams collaborate in the workplace. Everyone's got their relevant role to play. Watching people come together and being a driving force in that is massively rewarding.”

A worthwhile challenge

Delivering the BBL Scheme meant late nights after sending her team to bed – “I would never want to ask someone to do something that wouldn't be prepared to do myself” – but the loans’ impact made the hard work worthwhile. One family-owned hotel chain that has existed for generations said the loan’s speedy delivery allowed them to stay in business. “It doesn't really get more real than that.”

When another customer was hospitalised during the pandemic, his wife relied on the loan to pay creditors and keep the business running while standing in for her sick husband.

“The funding was in her account the day after her application,” says Williams. “And she wrote to thank us, because we made it possible for her to get some short-term cash flow into her husband's business. It was enough to get her through until he was healthy again.”

Looking forward to recovery

As UK businesses open, Williams has a new task: to deliver the Recovery Loan Scheme, a third government-backed scheme available to those who have already received support. The lessons learned from Barclays’ delivery of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme will be crucial to the success of its follow-up, says Williams.

“It’s perhaps a bit less amplified,” she says, “We're not under quite the level of criticality of time pressure – but we've had to develop this scheme in a pretty short space of time, too. The behaviours, the approach, the style, the trust – they’re all there again.

“As a firm, we've learned that we can get the work done. The assumption is that banks aren't always agile, that we're a bit stuck in our ways – when actually, culturally we've proven we can adapt and flex pretty phenomenally, and still deliver in a crisis.”