StepChange Debt Charity

StepChange is a charity that provides free debt advice for people with debt problems. They are the UK’s most comprehensive debt advice service.

Since 1993, they have helped 7.5 million people with debt problems regain control of their finances and lives. They take the time to understand the clients situation and  can provide a wide range of advice, support and services. Last year, they helped 650,000 people take control of their debt!

Both of our directors, Danielle and Vicky, have worked for StepChange in the past, so when Sarah Cheetham, the Head of Subsidiaries, wanted to look at ways to improve the productivity of her department, she reached out to Danielle to see how Optimo could help.  

They wanted to improve their ways of working so they can help more people with the work that they’re doing. They noticed that the mortgage and Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) market has and continues to change and want to respond quickly so they can continue delivering valuable support to their clients. We helped them do this through the design of a new Target Operating Model that will optimise their operations so they’re more productive and provide a better experience to their clients.   

Specifically, we did a review of what they do now in the subsidiaries, where they provide IVA, mortgage advice and equity release services, looking at how they manage their people, processes, technology and information. Then we compiled a report of the strengths and challenges they face and what opportunities that might mean for efficiency gains. The second stage was turning that into a Target Operating Model.    

Stage one of our work started with a desk-based analysis, which was looking through their systems, materials and documentation about their current ways of working, and metrics about their efficiency and analysing it to find trends so we can highlight any challenges.  

In the second stage, we then conducted interviews with people across the charity, to understand their roles and how they use different systems and processes and how they used the information available to make decisions. This was a great point in our work with the Charity to hear their views on the challenges they face in their day to day roles. Throughout the stages, we reported back to senior management to get their input and integrate that into what we do.  

We used the findings from these stages to help build our recommendations, and once the report was completed, we used it to commence the design of a Target Operating Model, which is a blueprint for how an organisation can operate to achieve its goals. We ran a series of collaborative workshops focused on specific challenges that a TOM would resolve. These covered team arrangement, including opportunities to centralise some support functions, ArtificiaI Intelligence and technology, roles & responsibilities within the team, and risks and barriers to implementation.  

The last step of our work was presenting our findings back key stakeholders in the Charity, which received good feedback from all involved.