Bamboo Academy

Get to know every team at Bamboo.

A short module from each department covering who they are, what they own and how to work with them. Start wherever you like, and come back any time you need a quick answer. It all lives here.

Start with People & Operations See all modules
Modules

Pick a department

About twelve minutes each. Take them in any order, revisit them whenever.

Ready 01

People & Operations

Leave, payroll, hiring, offices and the three rules we never bend on.

12 min·9 sections
Coming soon 02

IT & Security

Your laptop, access requests, MFA, and what to do when something phishy lands in your inbox.

Coming soon 03

Finance

Expenses, procurement, budget approvals, and how to get an invoice paid without three follow-ups.

Coming soon 04

Compliance & Risk

KYC, AML, market conduct and the regulatory lines everyone at Bamboo needs to know.

Coming soon 05

Engineering

How we ship, review, deploy and stay on call. Useful even if you never open a terminal.

Coming soon 06

Product & Customer

How we decide what to build, how customer feedback reaches us, and who to tell when you spot something.

Module 01 · People & Operations

Welcome. We're the people people.

We look after everyone who works at Bamboo, and most of the machinery that keeps the place running. This module covers who we are, what we own, and how to get things from us quickly. Twelve minutes, then you're done.

12 min 9 sections 2-question check Lagos & Abuja
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What you'll learn

Six things you'll walk away knowing

No fluff. These are the things people actually ask us in their first month.

Who does what

Which of us to ask about pay, hiring, your laptop, or the office aircon. Names and faces included.

Leave and time off

How much you get, how to book it, and how far ahead we'd like to know. Spoiler: take the leave.

Performance and growth

How goals are set, when reviews happen, and what a good conversation with your manager looks like.

How to reach us

The right channel for the right thing, and how long we'll take to come back to you.

Life in the office

Lunch, hybrid days, the Lagos and Abuja offices, and everything ops quietly keeps running.

Speaking up safely

What to do when something isn't right, and who you can talk to in confidence.

Meet the team

Six of us, two cities, one shared inbox

Tap a card to see what each person owns and when to go straight to them.

Kafayat runs the whole function, People and Ops together. She's the person for anything about how Bamboo is structured, compensation reviews, or a decision nobody else can make.

  • Org design, headcount and compensation
  • Policy calls and escalations
  • Anything you'd rather discuss in confidence
EscalationsCompPolicy

Tunde owns hiring end to end. If you're building out your team, or you know someone brilliant, he's your first call.

  • Role scoping, job ads and interview loops
  • Offers and the referral scheme
  • Interview training for new panel members
HiringReferralsInterviews

Amara keeps the engine running. Payroll, contracts, HMO, and every letter you'll ever need from us.

  • Payroll, pensions and PAYE queries
  • Contracts, confirmations and employment letters
  • HMO enrolment and dependants
PayrollHMOLetters

Chidi sits where People meets Ops. He runs both offices, vendors, and the internal tooling that saves us all a lot of clicking.

  • Lagos and Abuja office management
  • Vendors, facilities and travel
  • Internal automation and workflow tooling
OfficesVendorsTooling

Fatima looks after how people grow here, and how it feels to work here. She also built most of the module you're reading.

  • Onboarding and Bamboo Academy
  • Learning budget and training requests
  • Engagement surveys and culture rituals
OnboardingLearningCulture

Seyi turns everything we do into numbers we can act on. If you need people data for a board pack or a headcount plan, ask Seyi.

  • Headcount, attrition and hiring dashboards
  • People data quality and reporting
  • Performance cycle analytics
DataSystemsReporting
About us

People and Operations, deliberately mixed

Most companies split these two. We don't, and there's a reason for that.

A great day at work is rarely just about HR policy. It's the laptop that arrived on time, the office that has power, the payroll that lands on the 25th, and the manager who knows what you're working towards. Splitting those across two teams means you get bounced between them. So we didn't.

One team owns the whole employee experience, from the offer letter to the office generator. Fewer handoffs, faster answers.

We track four things, and we share them openly at every all-hands.

  • Time to hire: offer out within 28 days of a role opening
  • Response time: first reply on any request within one working day
  • Engagement: quarterly pulse score, target 8.0 and above
  • Payroll accuracy: 100%, every month, no exceptions

Four of us are in Lagos, two in Abuja. We're in the office Tuesday to Thursday and remote on Monday and Friday, same as everyone else.

Both offices run the same way: desk booking through the ops channel, lunch ordered weekly, and someone from the team on site every in-office day.

Three bets for the quarter:

  • Bamboo Academy, replacing live onboarding sessions with modules like this one
  • A clearer career framework, with levels published for every function
  • Automating the manual bits of ops, starting with lunch orders and desk booking
What we own

The eight things that land on our desk

If it's on this list, come to us. If it isn't, we'll still point you to whoever owns it.

Hiring

Role scoping through to signed offer, plus onboarding for every new starter.

Payroll & benefits

Salaries on the 25th, pensions, PAYE, HMO and every employment letter.

Performance

Goal setting, mid-year check-ins, the annual cycle and promotion rounds.

Leave & attendance

Annual, sick, parental and study leave. All of it runs through one request.

Learning

Bamboo Academy, the annual learning budget, and external training requests.

Culture & wellbeing

Pulse surveys, socials, EAP access and the things that make a week feel good.

Office operations

Lagos and Abuja facilities, vendors, lunch, desk booking and travel.

Employee relations

Grievances, conduct, disciplinaries and anything you need handled in confidence.

Working with us

How a request actually moves

Everything starts in one place. No forms to hunt for, no chasing people in DMs.

Our promise on timing

First response within one working day. Anything urgent (payroll, safeguarding, a security concern) gets picked up the same day, whatever the hour.

Step 01

Raise it in #people-help

One Slack channel for everything. Post it there rather than DMing an individual, so whoever is on duty can pick it up straight away.

Step 02

We acknowledge and assign

Someone replies within a working day with an owner and a rough timeline. If it's confidential, we move it to a private thread immediately.

Step 03

You do your one bit

Most requests need something small from you: a date, a document, a manager approval. We'll tell you exactly what, once.

Step 04

We close the loop

You get a clear yes, no, or "here's when". We don't leave threads hanging, and we don't make you follow up.

Anything urgent

Escalate to Kafayat

If something is time-critical or you're not getting a response, go direct. That's not rude here, it's the process.

Tools

Where things live

Five tools, each with one job. You'll get access to all of them in week one.

HR system
Leave, payslips, personal details, org chart
Slack
#people-help for every request
Google Workspace
Email, docs, shared drives, calendar
Notion
Handbook, policies, team wikis
Lever
Hiring pipeline and interview feedback
Bamboo Academy
Onboarding modules, like this one
Golden rules

Three things we never bend on

Everything else is a conversation. These three aren't.

RULE 01

Confidentiality is absolute

Anything shared with us in confidence stays with us. Salary, health, personal circumstances, grievances. We only share when there's a genuine risk to someone's safety, and we'll tell you first.

RULE 02

Speak up, always

If something feels wrong, say so. To your manager, to us, or anonymously through the ethics line. Nobody at Bamboo has ever been penalised for raising a concern in good faith, and nobody ever will be.

RULE 03

If it isn't written down, it didn't happen

Leave, personal details, your manager, your job title. A verbal yes from anyone doesn't count until it's recorded properly. That protects you as much as it protects us.

FAQ

The questions we get most

Genuinely the top eight, pulled from a year of #people-help.

Twenty-two days a year, plus public holidays, accruing monthly from your start date. Submit a leave request and your manager approves it. Give us two weeks' notice for anything longer than three days. And please take it. Unused days only carry over up to five.

The 25th of each month, or the last working day before it if the 25th falls on a weekend. Payslips are issued the same morning. Anything that looks wrong goes to Amara. Flag it before the 30th so we can fix it in the same cycle.

Tuesday to Thursday in the office, Monday and Friday wherever you work best. Some roles need more on-site time and your manager will have told you at offer stage. If you need to change your pattern for a while, talk to your manager first, then let us know so your record reflects it.

You're enrolled in our HMO from day one, and you can add a spouse and up to four children at no cost. Your enrolment code lands by email in your first week. Amara handles additions and changes, and there's an open window each January if you want to switch plans.

Twice a year: a light mid-year check-in in June and the full cycle in December. Goals are set in your first month and reviewed every quarter with your manager. Nothing in a review should ever be a surprise; if it is, that's a manager problem and we want to hear about it.

Yes. Every full-time employee gets an annual budget for courses, conferences, books or certifications. Send Fatima a note on what you want and why it helps your role. We approve most things, and we approve them quickly.

Send Tunde their CV and a line on why they'd be good. If they're hired and pass probation, you get a referral bonus in the next payroll run. Referrals are our best hiring channel by some distance, so this one genuinely matters.

Message Kafayat directly, or use the anonymous ethics line in Notion. Either route is confidential and neither requires you to have proof. Tell us what you saw, we'll take it from there, and we'll keep you informed at every step.

Resources

Bookmark these five

Everything opens in a new tab, so you won't lose your place here.

The Bamboo HandbookEvery policy, in plain English · Notion Book leaveLeave, payslips and personal details · HR system Org chartWho reports to whom, kept current · HR system Ethics lineAnonymous, monitored daily · Notion #people-helpOur front door for every request · Slack All Academy modulesSee what else is coming · Bamboo Academy
Quick recap

Five things worth remembering

  • We're one team covering both People and Operations, in Lagos and Abuja.
  • Every request starts in #people-help, and you'll hear back within one working day.
  • Leave, payslips and personal details are all recorded formally. If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.
  • Payday is the 25th. Flag any issue before the 30th and we'll fix it that cycle.
  • Anything confidential goes straight to Kafayat, or anonymously via the ethics line.
Take the knowledge check
Knowledge check

Two quick questions

No pass mark, no pressure. It's here so you know what stuck.

Question 1 of 2
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This records your completion with the People team. Takes about ten seconds.

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Your response is saved to the People team's completion sheet. Nothing else is collected.

That's module one done

Nice work. Your completion has been recorded and your manager has been notified. You'll get the next module when it's ready.

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