Proud to work in Banking

What we heard

One of the consistent findings from the 2021 éist Staff Culture Survey, and other research conducted by Karian and Box and the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB) in the Irish Banking sector in recent years, has been a profound lack of feeling proud to work in the Irish Banking sector. Feeling proud to work in an organisation or sector is highly sensitive to both internal and external corporate narratives. Internal factors that can affect this include organisational change, low trust in senior leaders (and a correspondingly low buy-in to an organisation’s strategy), and lack of recognition. External factors that can affect pride include negative media or regulatory narratives, poor perceptions of an organisation’s / sector’s Employer Brand and poor societal perceptions of those who work in the sector in question. Low levels of organisational pride impact on employees’ engagement in their organisation and advocacy for their sector as a place to work. Linked to this, it can also impact on a sector’s ability to hire or retain talent.

What we did

2022

One of the key findings from the IBCB éist Staff Culture Survey, was a profound lack of pride amongst staff across the sector. Only 57% of bank staff who participated in the éist survey said they were proud to work for their bank, which is 16 points below the FS benchmark of 73%.

It is concerning that Irish bank staff report lower levels of organisational pride than their peers in other jurisdictions. To ensure that customers’ needs are well served, it is vital that the industry can attract and retain talent, both now and in the future. Understanding and addressing the issues that are impacting bank staff’s sense of pride in their roles and organisations is therefore essential.

The IBCB conducted a piece of research to delve further on the topic and to explore the drivers impacting bank staff’s sense of feeling proud to work in their organisation. Using the original data from the éist Bank Staff Culture survey in 2021 and supplementing this with 2 staff focus groups and 9 in-depth 1:1 interviews, the research was compiled into the IBCB Proud to Work in Banking Report 2022.

The research found that there are 5 key drivers of feeling proud for staff within the Irish Banking sector:

Execs communicating a motivational vision for the future
Senior leaders setting a positive example
Staff belief that their bank puts customers at the centre of decisions
Staff feeling a sense of accomplishment from their work
Staff feeling able to always be themselves at work

Critically, staff’s experiences of the five internal drivers of organisational pride are
interlinked. When staff experience none of the drivers, only 4% feel proud to say they work for their organisation, compared to 90% when all drivers are in place.

The IBCB’s Proud to work in Banking report 2022 gives more insights into the research and you can view this short video with a summary of the key points.

Watch the video above.

To launch the report, the IBCB hosted an event for bank staff and employees where we shared the research which focused on staff’s ability to feel ‘Proud to Work in Banking’. The event allowed the IBCB to collect direct feedback from staff and employees to ensure the industry is learning lessons from the mistakes of the past and a more balanced discourse on an industry that has changed significantly in recent years, which is integral to economic success, may start to take place.

While many factors impact feedback from employees in being proud to work in banking, the IBCB is keen to ensure it is playing its part to increase the dial as it continues its work with the industry to facilitate cultural change.

Key insights

Only 57% of bank staff who participated in the éist survey said they were proud to work for their bank, which is 16 points below the FS benchmark of 73%.

Key drivers of feeling proud

Execs communicating a motivational vision for the future

Senior leaders setting a positive example

Staff belief that their bank puts customers at the centre of decisions

Staff feeling a sense of accomplishment from their work

Staff feeling able to always be themselves at work

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What we heard

What we did

2022

Key insights

Key drivers of feeling proud