Global Banking & Finance Review interview with June Ahi, Cashflows

By June Ahi, Chief People Officer, Cashflows

1. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us June. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your responsibilities as the Chief People Officer at Cashflows?

At my core, I’m a people person. I’ve built my career around getting the best out of people in every aspect of business and firmly believe that great outcomes are rooted in investing in people and cultivating a positive organisational culture. ‘Payments perfected by people’ is a term we live by at Cashflows, so not only do you need the great payments solutions, but the critical need is great people. I think by having someone head this up it shows how as a business we’re ahead of the curve.

Having joined Cashflows in 2022, my focus has been on championing employee well-being, attracting top-tier talent, driving engagement, creating learning environments for growth, and building on the business’ DE&I commitments. In the last few years, I’m pleased to have completed unconscious bias training with the leadership team, leading to 40% of hires in 2023 being female, while increasing our engagement score to 80%. I’ve also over seen a reduction in carbon emission due to our ESG initiatives, with Cashflows on target to achieve net zero by 2040.

2. How has HR evolved in recent years, especially in fintech and payments?

As will have been the case for the majority of businesses across the world, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns completely changed the working landscape, as well as the top priorities and initiatives for HR professionals. Naturally, adapting remote and hybrid working policies that work for employees, while still ensuring that engagement levels with the company are high, is important for anyone working in the HR space. Looking after people’s wellbeing, particularly when there may not be an opportunity to see them face-to-face on a weekly or daily basis, has also become hugely important.

When it comes to how HR has evolved for fintech and payments companies, I have noticed a shift in the industry towards a more contemporary approach to their people in the past couple of years. People who work in fintech are often innovative and disruptive, and I think this funnels through to all aspects of the business. Rather than worrying about policing policies rigorously, here at Cashflows we have adopted an agile approach to the business across all different areas, including HR. We try to be as flexible as possible with our people – which is important when working in a sector that is as fast-paced and ever-changing as fintech is.

3. At Cashflows, you’re a champion of DE&I initiatives. Could you share some of the most impactful DE&I policies you’ve implemented, or hope to?

Firstly, we led a recruitment drive to bring more women into STEM roles at Cashflows and, as a result, several branches within Cashflows’ tech operations (including risk, settlement, compliance, and QA testing) now consist of 50% or more women within respective teams, compared to the industry average of 18%.

I fundamentally believe that companies need to ensure they are consistently committed to DEI, and having regular sessions can help with this. We launched an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy which perpetuates Cashflows’ open and welcoming culture and helps us to challenge hidden bias and ensure true equality. As per the new policy, all new team members now attend DEI training on at least an annual basis.

Companies should prioritise ways of making sure all employees feel a sense of belonging and recognition – celebrating differences and inviting employees to take part – it can increase performance by 56%.

4. It’s an incredibly worthy goal, but what benefits could such policies have for businesses and their bottom lines?

For any business, people are the biggest asset. A diverse and inclusive organisation gives itself a greater chance of gaining access to a larger talent pool and ensures it can hire employees with the skills, experience, and knowledge needed to build high-performance teams. Employee performance in diverse organisations is 12% higher than in companies with no inclusivity efforts.

5. What other HR initiatives are you passionate to explore?

Neurodiversity is a particular area that I’m very passionate about. Between 15-20% of the UK population are neurodivergent, but only 22% of autistic people are employed. Research shows that conditions such as autism and dyslexia can bestow special skills in pattern recognition, memory, or mathematics. These are key skills for our industry – looking at things in a different way is an asset to any business.

As part of Neurodiversity Week, we hosted a Lunch & Learn and had the pleasure of hosting Elisabeth Goodman from River Rhee Consulting, who provided an introduction and discussed the importance of raising awareness to support those who are neurodivergent. What was so empowering was people opening up about their own experiences being neurodivergent and those with family members who are. It was truly inspiring to see how comfortable people felt about sharing their stories.

6. Sustainability is another area where you’ve made an impact since joining Cashflows. Can you take us through your activity as well as why the world of fintech and payments should be implementing ESG initiatives?

As a business, Cashflows is committed to reducing the environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance. This is as an integral part of our business strategy and standard operating processes.

Over the last two years, we launched our plan for Net Zero, working with Go Green Experts. We were able to reduce our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, measured as CO2e, in the first financial year, and our scope 1+2 emissions have also reduced. We are also pleased that our key carbon intensity metric has reduced in the period, from 15.3 tCO2e per £M Turnover in 2022 to 11.33 tCO2e per £M Turnover. This highlights that, as we’ve grown as a business, we continue to drive down our carbon footprint, in absolute terms, through the lens of the key intensity metric.

As with many in our industry, we’ve continued to embrace home working and adapt our office spaces, to help lower commuting emissions while also providing a base that is low carbon. We’ve also introduced paperless systems, promoted emissions reduction to our suppliers and introduced cycle to work schemes. Combined, it means we’re on target to achieve net zero by 2040: an achievement even many of the largest fintech companies have yet to obtain. So, these are just some examples that others in the industry, especially SMEs, could implement.

7. Finally, as a HR leader in the world of fintech, what’s the most important lesson you’ve learned since working at Cashflows?

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt in my time here is how important it is to have buy in from the whole company, from employees right up to the Board. Without this, it’s hard to make significant impact and positive changes.

We’re very lucky here at Cashflows, as we’ve managed to really embed a lot of our initiatives into the culture of the business. There are some very passionate individuals who are taking time out of their own lives to spear head projects. For example, an organic group has been set up by our employees who work on lots of topical projects around diversity and inclusion.

This buy in and going the extra mile fuels real change and embodies the company culture.

June Ahi

About the author

June joined Cashflows in 2022, with extensive experience of leading and executing HR strategy and business transformation. Commercially focused and operating at senior level for many years, she most recently held the position of Head of People at rapid-growth global fintech company Bango, in mobile carrier billing. June has a strong generalist background, which has helped her in building a high-performance culture in scaling businesses delivered through a contemporary approach to HR; by ensuring there is a vibrant, innovative environment for talented individuals to thrive.