Salz Review - Wall Street Journal

91
Salz Review
An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices
discussing the culture, values and business practices developing in the Group –
except in relation to the Lehman acquisition, when it was concerned with the
challenges of cultural and organisational integration. We concluded that some of the
more qualitative information that could have alerted the Board to fundamental
indications of cultural issues was not discussed. For example, reports to the Board
from the Employee Opinion Surveys showed an increasingly positive picture. Most
of the time, the Board was given aggregated scores which showed that employee
satisfaction was increasing year-on-year across the Group. But the Board reports did
not consistently include granular data indicating, for example, wide-ranging concerns
about escalating ethical issues.
8.54 Until recently, there was also no explicit agreement at the level of the Board about
the target culture and how it might operate as a key driver of Barclays’ reputation.
Since the beginning of the financial crisis this is likely to have been in part because
the Board agenda was dominated by the large number of difficult issues faced by
the industry in general and by Barclays in particular.
Restoring Trust in Barclays
8.55 When Bob Diamond became Group Chief Executive, he promoted the concept of
‘One Barclays’. In addition to seeking to address cost overruns and to centralise the
functions, he promoted the importance of citizenship. Antony Jenkins was asked to
lead the citizenship work.
8.56 Those initial efforts to address citizenship have continued, and we now see an
increased leadership focus on, and interest in, understanding and harnessing the
importance of values and culture. On 17 January 2013, Barclays’ Chief Executive,
Antony Jenkins, sent a memo to all 140,000 staff requesting that they sign up to a
new ethical code of conduct. In this launch, he admitted that the bank had
“a tendency at times, manifest in all parts of the bank, to pursue short-term profits at
the expense of the values and reputation of the organisation.” He added: “We must
never again be in a position of rewarding people for making the bank money in a way
which is unethical or inconsistent with our values.” 156 Good decisions are made in
the context of society’s values, expectations and needs. 157
8.57 Values need to be embedded in the way a bank engages with the wider community.
Barclays’ community support activities are extensive, but there seems to be little
awareness of them in some parts of Barclays. In 2012, Barclays invested a total of
£64.5 million in communities around the world, focused on building the enterprise,
financial and life skills of the next generation. In addition, 68,000 Barclays’ employees
– around half its workforce – supported community activity through volunteering,
matched fundraising and regular payroll giving. 158 Indeed, the 2012 Employee
Opinion Survey showed that 83% of employees overall are proud of the contribution
Barclays makes to the community and society, although less so in Europe RBB, the
156 Internal memo as quoted by Margot Patrick in the Wall Street Journal, “Barclays tells staff to uphold
values or leave”, 17 January 2013.
157 Blueprint for Better Business, A Framework to Guide Decision Making, 2013.
158 Barclays, 2012 Annual Report, March 2013, p. 31; Barclays, 2011 Citizenship Report, pp. 59-62.