Why Revolut Makes its Employees Strive for Greatness

Revolut has firm expectations when it comes to employee expectations and organisational culture. The company says its working environment is for those who "strive for excellence" and "always push through". 

This high performance culture has helped the fintech grow significantly over the past 11 years – from a niche banking startup to a global business with 52.5 million customers and a value of US$75bn. 

To maintain this environment amid rapid growth, Revolut has prioritised developing a thorough talent acquisition strategy and data-driven performance management system. This helps ensure it develops and maintains the highest standards for talent. 

The company explains this approach to workplace culture on its website, saying: "we’re not concerned with appearing nice, we’re concerned with achieving our goals".

Hiring and developing top talent 

Revolut’s hiring process is extensive, designed to ensure it attracts high performing talent capable of working and succeeding in its unique workplace environment.

The process often lasts between four and six rounds, with interviews, case-studies and assessments. These stages are designed to assess candidates for their attitude and capacity to learn, rather than their experience. 

Candidates are assessed on whether they are “10x” people – the company’s term for talent that can drive tenfold growth rather than making small improvements. 

Revolut says this process is designed to be highly competitive, helping the company maintain its fast-paced culture. It explains on its website: “We always choose to be a smaller team of brilliant people rather than a larger team with some average players in it.”

For the company, brilliant people are those who align closely with its core values – employees who can meet high standards and achieve independently. 

Discussing the company’s approach to talent in a 2025 company podcast Andrei Oprisor, Head of Revolut People says “You don't want to end up with an organisation of mercenaries. You want visionary employees – people who truly care about the problems you are solving and get a sense of purpose from what they are doing.”

Data-driven performance management

To ensure employees continue to meet high standards after being hired, Revolut has taken a data-driven approach to its performance management strategy through its Revolut People platform. 

The platform manages the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment and onboarding to performance management and benefits. 

Through this platform, Revolut says it gives employees “all the support and opportunities they need to achieve greatness”. 

This includes establishing proficiency levels for each of an employee's necessary skills to develop clear objectives, and closely tracking progress to provide actionable feedback. 

A key part of this is providing “radically truthful” feedback, with the company saying on its website: “The bar is very high, and we evaluate people accurately, not softly.” 

Employees are tracked closely based on their specific goals, with managers acting as “tough coaches”. This strategy means the company refuses to “tolerate mediocrity”, saying that “if someone cannot meet the bar, we part ways – fast.”

Risk and compliance performance is also a particularly important priority for the business, so it has developed its ‘Karma’ system to accurately track those behaviours. 

In its annual report, the company explains that it uses the system to track how well employees follow the company’s risk and compliance rules. Employees can gain and lose points as a result of this system, which the company says can ultimately affect bonuses.