Salz Review - Wall Street Journal

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Salz Review
An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices
recommendations). Outside the retail branch networks, there is not a widespread
requirement for a minimum number of training or development hours to be
completed each year. Indeed in our survey of employees, staff recognised a
significant gap between the level of importance staff assigned to continuous
professional development and the priority given to it today.
10.34 A significant proportion of training is offered remotely (e-learning) and often is fairly
generic in terms of content. While there are clear efficiencies in promoting training
online (for reasons of cost, time and managing compliance), we believe much more
emphasis should be given to the benefits of training in groups. This is particularly
important given the need to spend more time discussing Barclays’ values and how
best to make them real for staff and customers. Our own survey indicates that very
few employees consider that training is used as a significant tool for communicating
values today. Many of the cultural and change management experts with whom we
consulted argued passionately for far more regular staff discussion about how to
translate values into action. This is most important in the investment bank and in the
senior cohorts – possibly the groups most cynical about so engaging.
10.35 More broadly, Barclays could do more to build a learning organisation. We have
already commented on the bank’s mixed success in learning from specific events and
applying those lessons more broadly. Successful learning organisations encourage
mentorship, regularly reflect on where things go wrong (as well as on what works
well), and have leaders who set an example of inquiry and curiosity. The
meaningfulness of employee reflections is significantly increased through regular
discussions of real dilemmas which the businesses can face in the course of their dayto-day
operations.
10.36 Through the Transform Programme Barclays has announced its firm intention to
measure not only what people deliver, but how they deliver it. As it works to embed
this, Barclays should identify clearly what competencies it wants in staff and ensure
that training programmes develop these competencies in a comprehensive and
systematic way across the bank.