Our People

Interviews:
Craig – Collections Clerk
Katy – Collections Clerk
Kim – Collections Clerk
Sarah – Collections Clerk
Vince – Collections Clerk

Craig – Collections Clerk

If you had to sum up the qualities that you need to be successful at HSBC, in just five words, what would they be?
The five qualities I think you would need to be successful would be to be hardworking, resilient, determined, flexible and probably open minded as well.

What would you say to anyone who's considering a career at HSBC?
I would say jump aboard the bus, it's going to be a very interesting journey for you. HSBC now is a global entity, and there's lots of real good opportunities.

As a company, HSBC works closely with the community and charities. How are you able to become involved?
It's really easy to get involved with HSBC communities and charities. An example of that recently was where I helped a group of colleagues repaint a school. And there's lots of opportunities. If you do charitable events the bank will also match you pound for pound. At the end of the day, all you need to do is just volunteer yourselves.

What does your role involve on a day-today level?
My role, on a day to day basis, is very, very varied. This can range from doing one to one training to group training, and covering a range of courses, from negotiation skills to management skills. Each day is very different, and I also manage as well the intranet site, the debt recovery services which provide up to date procedures and details of any changes within the business.

Katy – Collections Clerk

If you had to sum up the qualities that you need to be successful at HSBC, in just five words, what would they be?
I think to work at HSBC it really helps if you're enthusiastic, easy-going, patient, friendly and sympathetic. I think it would really help.

What advice do you have for anyone who's just joined us?
Well, I would definitely recommend anyone, any of my friends to join HSBC. And the main reason I'd say was because I really enjoy working there, and when I wake up in the morning I'm not dreading going to work or anything, it's - it's okay. You know, I enjoy it. And also, within that, there's - there's so many prospects within HSBC, and you can see that people that I work with have climbed the ladder within HSBC, and it's just a really friendly environment to work in.

As a company, HSBC works closely with the community and charities. How are you able to become involved?
Well, I'm still in training at the moment, but I'm - I do lots of different things for different departments. This involves sending back original documents and general admin for mortgages, and I'm working on a Beta project at the moment, which involves collecting data for later analysis. But it's really varied, and I get to work with all the different departments and with all the different people, so that's - it's really fun.

Kim – Collections Clerk

Most big companies offer good training, what's so special about HSBC's?
The training across HSBC is delivered to a very high standard. When new recruits join Collections they will then go on a two week induction programme in the classroom. This is followed by Academy, where they will spend four weeks in the call centre with trainers looking after them while they first take their calls.

Then five months later that same group will get back together and they will go on their Collector Level 2 training. There's also the opportunity for people to develop themselves if they want to. We have a Learning Centre that can be used whenever they want to use it, outside of their working hours, even for things that aren't business related, so if you wanted to learn a language, maybe, you could do that.

If you had to sum up the qualities that you need to be successful at HSBC, in just five words, what would they be?
If I had to sum up the qualities you had to be successful in HSBC in five words, I would say you'd have to be committed, enthusiastic, determined, flexible and receptive.

What would you say to anyone who's considering a career at HSBC?
HSBC is able to offer you a great career. There's scope for advancements, the opportunity for travel in the UK and globally. If you're prepared to work hard there's the opportunity for you to go far. For example, I've had a very varied career. I've spent time working in India, I worked in the Contact Centre, Fraud Department, Training Department, and now I'm based in Collections.

Sarah – Collections Clerk

Most big companies offer good training, what's so special about HSBC's?
HSBC's training is very specific. If you work in a small - in the small community you'll have a trainer that trains you on - on your department, on your processing. But there's also opportunities outside of that if you want to do a diploma, or if you want to do a degree there's funding for that. I'm going to do a diploma and the bank's going to fund me for that, and I think that's just fantastic that I can - I have these opportunities to - to further within the bank.

If you had to sum up the qualities that you need to be successful at HSBC, in just five words, what would they be?
I think the five qualities you need to be successful at HSBC are ambition, patience, commitment, good communication and motivation.

What would you say to anyone who's considering a career at HSBC?
The advice that I'd give to someone considering a job within HSBC is don't be daunted by the size of it. When you get in to it, the place you'll work is such a small community and the friends you make there you'll have for a long time. Because I know that's the case for me.

Vince – Collections Clerk

What were you preconceptions before joining?
Well, I was obviously a little bit concerned about the amount that I had to obviously learn, it was a completely different career for me, I was previously, you know, sales orientated, well, in the travel industry, in actual fact, before this. So I was a little bit concerned about career change. But, to be perfectly honest, I found that the people I was working with are very friendly, the training was excellent, they did it bit by bit and, you know, I soon got in to my stride very quickly.

If you had to sum up the qualities that you need to be successful at HSBC, in just five words, what would they be?
In five words how to be successful, I would actually - I've actually got more than five words, but if I have to narrow it down I would choose reliable, focused, motivated, commonsense, commonsense is not common, and my favourite, positive mental attitude.

What does your role involve on a day-today level?
My role on a day to day basis, predominantly, means I'm contacting customers who are experiencing some form of financial difficulty. It may simply be the fact their bank account is overdrawn, or it might be that there has been direct debit or standing order returned which requires some form of immediate solution. Sometimes the situation may be a little bit more sensitive in, for instance, a mortgage repayment's been returned, which means we have to think maybe a little bit more outside of the box, show a bit more empathy, and find out the nature of their problem to try and find either a short term or a long term solution.