The spice of life

Variety is important to most people, especially in the workplace. No one really wants to be stuck doing one thing, like a cog in an analogue clock. And it’s the same in digital.

We talked to some of our colleagues in our tech team in Zurich, and found that variety isn’t just a nice addition to the work they do. It’s an essential. And it’s one of the reasons they decided to join us over other financial organisations in Switzerland.

The right place

‘Yeah, variety is very important to me,’ says Janine Prior, Head of Strategic Projects. ‘I like doing different things. And sometimes I like doing multiple things at the same time. And working here allows me to do that. So quite often, I have multiple projects that I'm doing simultaneously. And I get to set up something new, to see if it works out. And if it doesn't, I have other projects on the side that I'm working on, they’re always already.’

Janine came to NatWest after doing some consultancy work. One of the draws of being a consultant is the variety, including different locations. So what made her decide to give that up and join us?

‘I think that the variety of projects was definitely one of the reasons why I chose to internalise at NatWest. I knew it was going to be very varied. And I had already met the people, and they were all very friendly to work with. And having that variety of projects, it kind of brings together all the things that I look for in a job.’

Variety in scale

For some of our tech team, it’s not just working on a variety of different, smaller projects. It’s the opportunity to work on very big ones, too. Giovanni Bianchi, Associate Director Solutions Architect, told us more.

‘I feel that here at NatWest, there's a lot of opportunity for variety, which is very important to me. So far in my career here, I've been on at least three or four different projects. Now I've been working for over a year on the same one, but it's so big, and within it is variety. You have to develop integrations with different systems. And each of these sub projects is very different from the other. And let’s not forget about end-to-end projects. We take a project from the beginning and into production, to the end user, the customer. That’s the kind of variety that NatWest offers.’

Keeping it fresh

All of the team agree that variety is important. Caroline Harper, Applications Manager, not only agrees, but gets to the heart of why it is.

‘I get bored working on the same thing all the time,’ she tells me. ‘So yes, I like to have constant change. I think a lot of us are like that. And in Switzerland we have lots of different nationalities working here, so variety is really sort of engrained in the culture. And luckily for me and my team, NatWest gives me that choice.’

For Caroline and her team, there’s extra variety that comes with their specialism. ‘Because we're the robotics team, we're not working on quick-fix issues. We have a new process to automate every two or three months. So we're learning something new all the time. We have to investigate it and create it. So yeah, for me, being in this team, it's really perfect. There is something new every two or three months, and new things to learn.’

The ‘people’ dimension

For Software Engineer Fabrizio Graneiri, the appeal of variety at work means not just different projects, but the chance to collaborate with other teams.

‘I think it’s very important to have a variety of projects and topics to work on. Since I joined two years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to work in many projects, many business topics related to my field. And, also, I took part in projects that were cross team, so I’ve been able to collaborate with other teams to develop the completed project. Which is great, because you get to work with other colleagues, some with much more experience than you, so you can learn from.’

And, like Caroline, he sees variety not only as an important component in his workflow, but as an opportunity to learn and develop his life skills. ‘Learning and development is very important to me, and NatWest provides lots of different courses, technical and soft skills. Right now, I’m learning German.’