Salz Review - Wall Street Journal

Salz Review
An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices
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represents the most effective point of intervention in building awareness of culture
and values. Better use should be made of the opportunity.
Recommendation 19: Recruiting and induction
In all recruiting, but particularly for senior managers, Barclays should look
beyond a candidate’s financial performance, and include a rigorous assessment
of their fit with Barclays’ values and culture. Barclays should supplement this
with induction programmes that reinforce the values and standards to which
the bank is committed.
Promotion
10.22 The bank considered that it was a meritocratic organisation. In many ways it was,
although some elements underlying career advancement show that this principle was
not consistently applied.
10.23 In the UK retail branch network, the performance management process appears to
have been used to encourage staff to think about their careers and which
development opportunities are required if they are to take the next step. Some frontline
staff join the bank as cashiers, and progress relatively quickly along different
paths. Many of the retail bank branch staff with whom we spoke believed their career
path could lead to other parts of the bank, including roles in head office, Barclaycard,
Business Banking, Corporate and Wealth. However, promotion decisions themselves
appear to be more influenced by sales rankings than formal appraisals, a signal with
obvious consequences for staff behaviour.
10.24 Elsewhere, our interviews with employees have indicated a less consistent emphasis
on career development. Employees consider promotion processes to be insufficiently
transparent and not directly linked to performance management processes. For
example, within the investment bank, employees believe promotion at junior levels is
primarily driven by tenure. As they become more senior, they see ‘political’
connections as increasingly important. Perceived promotion criteria for these cohorts
do little to support desired behaviours.
10.25 In conjunction with the industry move towards greater emphasis on professional
standards, there may be a case for aligning promotion decisions with professional
development milestones. Promotion for certain client-facing roles may in future
require membership of a chartered industry body (or similar organisation) from a
pre-approved list. This would reinforce a sense of banking being vocational, carrying
a commitment to continuing professional development for those seeking to advance
through the organisation. Membership of a professional body alone is, in any case,
no substitute for high personal and institutional standards. As the experience of
many existing professional bodies can attest, members do, on occasion, fall short of
expected behavioural standards. Irrespective of membership of a professional body,
Barclays should consider adopting the continuous professional education approach
that is a requirement of many of them. Barclays should also ensure that its staff have