In a large-scale research, the US magazine Wired dealt with the corporate culture of the London FinTech Unicorn Revolut. The result: The motto of the company – “get shit done!” – is at the expense of the employees.
147 LinkedIn profiles of former employees of the London-based FinTech Unicorn Revolut has analyzed the US magazine Wired. This first number alone has a certain significance for a company that was founded in 2014 and currently has around 750 employees. More than half of the 147 people in the analysis had already left the company in less than half a year. Only about 20 percent were there for more than a year.
Regular “bullying” from the supervisor
Not all of them have gone away by themselves, as the research by Wired shows. “When I started in 2017 there were seven country managers and only one was left a year later. Two of them were fired within seven weeks of launch, “says a former Revolut Country Manager, who does not want to be named. A promised budget for hiring a local team proved to be non-existent. Instead, there has been regular “bullying” from the supervisor in London.
“Get shit done!” – otherwise termination
Behind the allegations is the motto “get shit done!”, Written by founder Nicolay Storonsky, which is expressed in very high KPI goals. The pressure to fulfill this is enormous, as some former employees tell Wired. The magazine also has a message from Storonsky to employees, announcing that they will terminate “non-negotiating” employees who clearly fail the KPIs. Employees who barely meet the KPIs should therefore land on a watchlist. All this also applies according to Storonsky’s mail as they work through the weekends. For the founder expects that anyway.
Hiring “test”: Recruit 200 customers in one week
The Wired article also deals with a hiring practice, which according to Revolut has since been discontinued. An ex-candidate for the Business Developer post in Spain reports that after a first 30-minute online job interview, she was immediately told that she was “going to the next round”. And that was titled as a “test”. The task: To recruit at least 200 new customers within a week, who deposit at least 10 euros in the app. There were still “tips” by e-mail.
Ex-Revolution Manager: “Not the best candidates, but many registrations”
Of course, this performance should not be paid. Even former candidates for very different positions at Revolut report the same practice. The “test” was thus independent of whether it was in the desired job actually for customer acquisition. “The thought was that this may not bring us the best candidate for the job, but at least a lot of free registrations,” says a former revolute manager who does not want to be named, Wired. Incidentally, Revolut is currently building local teams in several European countries, including Austria.