Olivia Lambert

In my role as a Resourcing and Inclusion Specialist, I am responsible for attracting, sourcing, and hiring talent to meet the organisation’s staffing needs. I ensure that every candidate has a positive experience throughout the hiring process, while also ensuring that hiring managers maintain a key focussed on DE&I throughout the process.

Responsibilities Include:

• Building strong relationships with hiring managers to align recruitment strategies with team needs.
• Designing and managing end-to-end recruitment campaigns across multiple platforms, enhancing reach and efficiency.
• Building and maintaining strong partnerships with key agencies on the Preferred Supplier List (PSL), enhancing candidate pipelines, reducing time-to-hire, and providing valuable market insights.
• Fostering positive candidate experiences and maintaining consistent communication, strengthening the employer brand.
• Reviewing job descriptions to ensure clarity and alignment with role expectations.
• Partnering with HR for seamless onboarding and ensured recruitment practices complied with current HR legislation.

Achievements:

• Designed and implemented two new Net Promoter Score (NPS) questionnaires to gather feedback from both candidates and hiring managers, improving recruitment insights and service quality.
• Developed a new process for managing and responding to Glassdoor and Indeed reviews, including a proactive strategy to encourage positive reviews. This contributed to achieving a 4.2 Glassdoor rating and being named one of the Top 30 Places to Work in the UK (2025).
• Currently leading the Proactive Recruitment Project, aimed at forecasting future hiring needs and reducing reliance on agencies. As of June 2025, agency usage has significantly decreased compared to 2024, resulting in a cost saving.
• Led the redesign and implementation of the branch recruitment process, including facilitating working groups and delivering training sessions to all Branch Managers across the retail network. This resulted in the time to hire reducing by 12 days after 1 year.

In this role, I provided essential support to our retail network across multiple channels, assisting with a wide range of operational needs including procedures, uniform management, staffing, and customer service. A key focus of my responsibilities was overseeing our agency due diligence process. This involved conducting comprehensive pre-employment checks for new colleagues and proprietors, as well as performing full business assessments prior to approving new partnerships.

Responsibilities Included:

• Offering support to front line colleagues in the branches and agencies.
• Completing Pre-employment and Due diligence checks for new agency candidates/new proprietors.
• Maintinence of staffing for over 100 agencies and their colleagues.
• Writing and delivering key communications to our retail network highlighting changes to procedures/policies or that highlights important information.
• Providing discretion decisions to agencies on situations that fall outside procedures to ensure the right outcome for the customer, whilst looking sand managing the risk.
• Building and maintaining a number of key relationships with stakeholders at all levels across the business and external 3rd parties
• Offering operational SME support on business projects
• Checking daily discretion and system reports to mitigate risks to customers.

Achievements:

• Contributed to Project Cygnet (FLIPS) by collaborating closely with the projects team to ensure timely delivery of each branch-to-agency transition. This included attending regular meetings and consistently completing assigned due dilligence tasks within set deadlines.
• Played a key role in the recent uniform rollout across the retail network, which involved organising and facilitating focus groups, as well as coordinating with third-party stakeholders to ensure a smooth implementation.
• Proudly achieved my CMI Level 3 in Leadership and Management, a significant personal milestone. During the 188 months, I dedicated substantial time to the apprenticeship, effectively balancing my studies with my professional responsibilities to maintain high performance and stay motivated throughout the journey.

In this position, I served as the first point of contact for customers visiting the branch, delivering exceptional service through both transactional support and in-depth savings consultations. During my tenure, I successfully completed the Level 3 Senior Financial Services Customer Advisor qualification and earned the Certificate in Retail Banking Conduct of Business.

Key Responsibilities:

• Led engaging “Closed for Training” sessions and morning huddles to motivate and align the team.
• Actively promoted key branch campaigns, including Bright Ideas, Mortgages, and Savings initiatives.
• Mentored and supported new team members to ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
• Maint iined strict adherence to regulatory procedures, safeguarding both customers and the business.
• Conducted customer meetings focused on savings products and funeral plans, tailoring solutions to individual needs.

Achievements:

• Appointed as the branch’s Mortgage and Digital Champion, where I regularly analysed performance data to identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Represented the branch at regional meetings, contributing insights and sharing best practices.
• Represented YBS at the National Apprenticeship Week where I delivered a presentation to the government’s State of Department for Education