Appendix A: Barclay’s employees Essay

Barclay’s Bank Organizational Strategy and Employee Morale September 15, 2007? Contents Barclays Bank 3 Roadmap-Thesis 5 Interview Results 5 Academic Research Recommendations for Improvement 7 Conclusion 10 References 12 Appendix A: Barclay’s Employees 14 Appendix B Employee Interviews 15 Appendix C: Framework For Improvement 19 ? Barclays Bank Barclays is the third largest bank in the United Kingdom. The bank can trace its roots back to 1690 in London. The name â€Å"Barclay† first arose in 1736. Today the bank is a global financial service provider operating in the UK, Europe, United States, and Africa. The bank’s headquarters are at One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, in London’s Docklands, having moved there in May 2005 from Lombard Street in the City of London. Barclay’s US headquarters are in Wilmington, Delaware where it acquired the former Juniper Bank (Answers Barclays Bank 2006). Barclays is a UK-based financial services group, with a very large international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. It is engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management. In terms of market capitalisation, Barclays is one of the largest financial services companies in the world (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Barclays has been involved in banking for over 300 years and operates in over 60 countries with more than 113,000 permanent employees (including 33,500 at Absa). For the year ended 31st December 2005, the group achieved a pre-tax profit of ? 5,280 million, up fifteen per cent on 2004. In 2005 Barclays paid approximately ? 3 billion in taxes (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Customers are served through a variety of channels comprising: the branch network, cash machines, telephone banking, online banking and relationship managers. It is managed through two business areas, UK Retail Banking and UK Business Banking. In UK Retail Banking there are 14 million retail customers, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, and general insurance (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Local Business provides banking services to 592,000 customers; UK Premier provides banking, investment products and advice to 286,000 affluent customers (Barclays Newsroom 2006). UK Business Banking provides relationship banking to larger and medium-sized businesses. 183, 000 customers are served by a network of relationship and industry sector specialist managers (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Barclay’s strategic objective is to â€Å"To deliver top quartile total shareholder return relative to our peers, consistently over time† (Barclays p 2 2004). The company focuses directly on increasing shareholder value rather than employee retention and morale. Barclay’s does not have a directly available mission and values statement that is visible to the external environment. The internal environment at Barclay’s is one of traditional top-down management. The corporate culture at Barclay’s maintains a hierarchy of experience and education, where the management team places a large amount of focus on meeting the shareholder strategy. According to Barclay’s â€Å"In recent months, we have taken a number of steps to enhance further our corporate governance practices. We have expanded the remit of the Remuneration Committee to cover strategic human resource issues† (Barclay’s 2004 p 3). These strategic changes included: â€Å"continued and upgraded our investment in established; programs for the community, equality and diversity, and the environment; built on our reputation as a pioneer and leader in the field of financial inclusion; excellent terms and conditions for colleagues impacted by offshore outsourcing; developed a clear statement on human rights, and continued our participation in the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights; and made good progress in adapting our branches and offices to be fully accessible to customers with disabilities (Barclays p 12 2004). Barclay’s did not, however, remunerate a corporate strategy or mission to address its near 20% turnover rate which has been continuous and barely changing for the past three years, an indication that Barclay’s focus is on stakeholder value and not developing or addressing employee morale. However, Barclays does have a large focus on community service, receiving the â€Å"2004 National Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility† (Barclays p 12 2004). (Barclays p 47 2005) ? Appendix B Employee Interviews Employee 1 What is your job and role at Barclay’s? I am a telephone operator and sales advisor, working both the phone lines and desk. Sales advisors are front-line employees performing work at the transaction level. We are dedicated to customer satisfaction and providing great service. We want to provide great service but recognize the challenges in improving the work processes. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? Our philosophy is client centred. I believe the clients have ultimate knowledge of themselves and that the banker’s job is to draw out this information and insight, help clients organize it, and stimulate clients to use their funds better. What are these challenges in improving the work process? Office politics at all levels, particularly where reports of motivation and such are concerned, there is sometimes when they call out the good, and embarrassingly the bad also. Sometimes leadership is motivational but not always. So, if you have a good idea and you don’t hobnob with the management, you are not going to be listened to. The same is true if you are having a problem, or a customer is being overly abrasive towards you. It can be a little insane. Can you explain the leadership strategy in motivation? They focus on certain people and not the whole department or team. Favoritism is the â€Å"coin of the realm† in my department. The â€Å"code of silence† dictates that discipline must be administered when broken and rewarded with favor when adhered to, in contrast to a system where one is encouraged to excel. My department operates more on the prison model of behavior control. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? Our philosophy is client centred. I believe the clients have ultimate knowledge of themselves and that the banker’s job is to draw out this information and insight, help clients organize it, and stimulate clients to use their funds better. What do Barclay’s mission and value statements mean to you? Value of an open, thoughtful and complementary approach to quality informed customers and developing customer loyalty. a planned and systematic approach to quality including ensuring that the results of monitoring and evaluation are fed back in order to effect improvement. How does Barclay’s leadership ensure proper monitoring and evaluation? Use of internal performance/service benchmarks is not enough although several recognized performance indicators are used by managers, but customer satisfaction information should be requested for each purchasing transaction. There is a lack of cooperative work processes and supporting information systems which negatively impact customer service. What kind of customer service do you try to perform? I believe in being responsive to what the customer wants as opposed to what she ought to have. With service, you also always tell the truth as you see it. I put a lot of emphasis on contracting-what can I do for her that will be of value to her in that time frame. Does leadership help you want to provide good customer service? Leadership has not helped me want to provide customer service. Not everyone is a decent human being. Not all are treated with respect. Someone seriously rude in the office and nothing is done as it is not viewed as wrong. Employee 2: What is your job and role at Barclay’s? I provide telephone customer service. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? There is an emphasis on customer service as a driver of business performance. What does customer service entail? I have to have an in-depth understanding of various components including stock option and restricted share award processes; eligibility requirements; and knowledge of plan design, alternative practices and business needs/issues and I use this to help the customer build their best banking services. I have to be able to track and monitor customer accounts and customer service. Does Barclays give you frequent training and all the materials you need to do your job? No. I wish I had access to more ongoing training program for customer service as what I do is quite complex and precision is very important so the customer’s bank accounts are all correct. Some managers are really willing to help you out. Others talk to you like you are an idiot for asking for help. It is a half and half shot at getting training or help with something, unless it comes from corporate management. How does corporate management get information or motivation to you? I don’t think corporate has motivated anyone. They send training videos or PowerPoint presentations explaining the importance of customer service, but what I really want is more technical training so I can give better customer service. I’m already polite and courteous. How do your direct leaders motivate you to give good customer service? Management appears to want to make this an issue and an expectation that everyone should jump on board. If someone becomes ostracized or somehow made less because they don’t buy into the hubbub, it seems we’ve just created a worse problem. It’s almost a Catch-22, I’m not engaged all the way because they don’t give me what I really need and I get treated like I’m a moron, but they expect me to always smile and be happy, even when the manager is quite literally rolling her eyes at me. It’s a terrible, rude atmosphere at least half of the time. What about the other half of the time? How do you feel about ‘engaging’ with your job? I am not sure how to respond. I talk to customers and do what they ask as quickly as possible and sometimes I make recommendations for better banking, but I don’t know how this engages the customer one way or the other. ? Appendix C: Framework For Improvement.