Case study

Cleo rebuilds their skills frameworks in just 3 weeks

Industry: finance | Stage: scale-up | Headquarters: UK

Replaced complex legacy systems with clear, accessible skills frameworks for every role in the organisation
Reduced the time required to complete a self-assessment from hours to less than 10 minutes

Challenge

Reducing ambiguity, increasing fairness

Launched in 2016, Cleo is an AI-powered fintech built for rapid growth. However, their performance management process was proving to be an obstacle.

The company was tracking performance with a complex 6-box grid, which referenced ambiguous skills, disconnected from employees' day-to-day reality.

The core problem was that performance reviews didn't feel fair. Employees didn't understand how evaluations worked, and voiced this loudly in engagement surveys.

Cleo needed to build a new model from the ground up — a shared, objective understanding of what excellence looked like for every single role.

Solution

A ready-to-use skills library

Revolut People was the key to rebuilding Cleo's entire performance review system, with our skills frameworks acting as the new foundation.

Instead of starting from scratch, Cleo’s Chief People Officer, Matthew Maher, could provide department heads with simple, customisable framework templates. These were all based on our library — a collection of competencies tested by Revolut and used in high-performing companies worldwide.

Cleo's approach empowered leadership to quickly define excellence for their teams, creating a single source of truth to embed into every stage of the new review cycle.

Results

Faster, fairer frameworks

With Revolut People's skills library and templates, Cleo defined and implemented new skills frameworks for their entire organisation in just 3 weeks.

The impact was immediate. As the new performance scorecards were built on precise, easily-understood frameworks, employees could complete a self-assessment in just 5 to 10 minutes, instead of hours.

More importantly, the new system significantly improved fairness. By providing a clear and objective foundation for performance reviews, Cleo gave its employees a transparent path for growth, and gave its leaders greater confidence in the review process.

“The competency frameworks embedded in Revolut People are one of the main ways it helps provide clarity. We were able to define every single role in the organisation, from top to bottom, in 3 weeks.”Matthew Maher, Chief People Officer • Cleo