A Day in the Life – Stephen Higgins

Vital stats

• Name: Stephen Higgins
• Job Title: Fraud Intelligence Analyst
• Function: Customer Finance Operations
• Tenure: 8 years

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Stephen, but a lot of my friends and colleagues will know me as Shiggins instead. I’ve been part of Three since 2014, starting my journey in Customer Relations before soon joining Payments and later Fraud Operations. I grew up with 5 siblings, including my identical twin, living in East Kilbride, a town just outside of Glasgow.  Although we are all grown up and live separately now, family is still a huge part of my life and I love getting together with my siblings for a BBQ and a drink.

In a nutshell, describe your role and how you support our business objectives

The Fraud Intelligence Team analyse data within CFO to identify new or developing fraud trends.  We assess the scale of fraud, and report on the losses and saves to the business. The aim is to disrupt the fraud and hold those responsible to account.   Fraud is continuously evolving, and my role looks to stay on top of those evolving behaviours, allowing engagement with the affected stakeholders who can help us disrupt that fraud.  This is important, not only for protecting our business, but for protecting our customer’s and public who may be victims amongst the fraud being committed.

What does a typical day look like in your role?

A lot of Microsoft Excel! I joined Fraud Intelligence earlier this year, so recently there has been a lot of learning.   I have morning reports that I check daily which is good routine to kick-start the day and helps me spot changes and developments in fraud trends since the previous day. Once my morning tasks are complete, I can be investigating any number of fraud operations at any given time.  This can involve breaking down a lot of data to whittle down and identifying where the fraud is, or it can be starting from nothing and building up intelligence from links and common denominators. Either way I will spend most of my day exploring excel or in meetings.  I do enjoy the problem-solving and networking elements of my role and it is rewarding when you find the source of a problem that you can now begin to tackle.

How are you finding hybrid working now we’re back in the office?

I love hybrid working.  I appreciate being back in the office where I can see everyone in-person and see the city centre again, with the Glasgow office being based in the heart of the city. After work, it’s great to go out and catch up with friends for food and drink, shopping or just being social following almost two years of working from home.   Additionally, being at home lets me have a better work-life balance and I get a lot more time back through not having to travel into the office every day.

You chair the Pride @ Three committee, tell us more about what the network does and what its aims are

Pride @ Three is a Staff Network that anybody can join.  This is a platform that anyone can share their thoughts and ideas relating to LGBTQ+ without having to join the committee itself.  The ultimate goal is for LGBTQ+ staff to feel a sense of belonging and support in Three.  The committee have fortnightly calls with the aim to continuously improve the working experience for LGBTQ+ staff at Three.  This year, we have been excited to see the introduction of gender-neutral facilities in our HQ, more inclusive language introduced on our customer comms and careers page, Diversity & Inclusion training module and we also lead Three in celebrating our first ever Pride events in Reading and in Glasgow as a Sponsor! We will be continuing to work on development of comms and internal policy, working with the DIB committee to represent the LGBTQ+ community in Three.

Give us a fun fact about yourself…

Alongside my day job at Three, I am also a licenced door supervisor and have been working security at events for almost 9 years.  This has given me amazing opportunities to work backstage with the likes of Beyoncé, Elton John and Rihanna, and work at festivals all over the UK. One of my most memorable shifts to date was at 21 years old, being ‘outed’ on stage in front of 2,500 people by Bianca Del Rio, a famous insult-comic drag queen and winner of series 6 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.  Recently, I have led teams of security at COP26 and NHS Vaccination centres and I currently lead my own team at my local venue Slay.