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Payday loans company staff swap their jobs for fully-fledged careers

Workers at a Bromley-based finance company are benefiting from top-flight training and development designed to equip them for long-term careers in this growing sector.

Payday Express, a British provider of short-term finance solutions, is seeing positive results from its focus on staff development, with a motivated and effective team of employees.  

Staff at the company based in Bromley, Kent enjoy a full, ongoing training and development programme within their different teams, and are given encouragement by their team leaders and managers to identify and pursue opportunities for external training in specific job-related disciplines which will help them develop their careers.

Ann Shepperly, for example, started work at Payday Express as a collections agent. However, a secondment within the company to carry out User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on its new Loan Management System showed her that she had an affinity for and valuable skills to offer as a software tester.

She has now taken on a role within the company’s IT department as a QA test analyst, and is undertaking further training, with full company support, to help her to learn the extra skills her new role demands.

Another Payday Express staff member whose ambition has led to her gaining a new role, is Ann’s former collections department colleague, Militza Smith. Now working in the company’s fraud protection and liaison department, studying on a financial crime awareness course was the key to her gaining the confidence needed for her new role.

"Completing the course while still relatively new to the job was a great experience" she said. "I was experiencing some of the situations I was learning about, and I tried to incorporate the solutions into my daily work. "The course was a fantastic start on a career path that I had not even previously considered. It has broadened my horizons and taught me to think outside the box" Militza added.

Emma Furlong, group trainer for Payday Express, believes that the company’s commitment to its workforce’s continual development keeps staff motivated and productive, and benefits not only them, but also the company and its customers. "We aim to offer a variety of internal training courses, and arrange external courses for specific skills, so that our staff challenge themselves, broaden their skill sets, and grow within their chosen careers" she said.

It's Time to Do Away with the Payday Loan Industry | News

Review of Editorials

Imagine how the Golden State would shine if it had lawmakers with the moral character of Holly Petraeus, wife of CIA Director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus. Holly has become an impassioned advocate for returning military veterans. In that capacity, she has taken on for-profit colleges and payday lending outfits who are trying to shake dollars loose from men and women who have served their country.

On the other side

We have the Calderon brothers. Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, and Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, are the Assembly and Senate’s largest recipients of campaign cash from the payday loan industry. At most payday shops, a borrower can get a loan in exchange for a postdated check, which he or she agrees to pay off in two weeks or a month. Lenders usually charge a 15 percent fee, or $45 on a maximum $300 loan. But borrowers often have to take another loan to pay off the previous one.

Predatory

The Department of Defense has described payday lenders as “predatory” and a threat to troop morale and national security. Congress passed a law capping interest rates at 36 percent on payday loans made to U.S. military service members. That drove the industry to civilian clients and places such as California, where Charles Calderon had passed a bill that legalized payday lending, capping each loan at $300. Now he wants the cap to be $500. Calderon, his brother and other lawmakers have raked in campaign contributions from the payday loan industry. The two Calderons received more than $81,000 from the industry between 2003 and 2011.

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