'Top Banking Employers' Guide Turns Companies Inside Out
SunTrust Bank is known for its "gobs of girls" and "happy, shiny people" and Citigroup employees have "super superiors" but "live in a box." Such are among the insider reports in the just-published Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, 2006 Edition.
The guide by New York-based publisher Vault is the latest illustration of how the Internet has revolutionized job-seeking by providing a forum for information exchange on the inner workings of a company. Through its extensive message boards at www.vault.com, Vault has made a name for itself by providing the "unvarnished scoop" on employers.
The 2006 guide provides multiple-page narratives, including the "buzz" as reported by people on the inside and outside of the institution, "the scoop," which includes a summary of recent strategy drivers, and insights on "getting hired." While limited information is available online, the full report is a 576-page $34.95 downloadable document.
Vault's "top 50" includes commercial and investment banks that were invited to participate in an online survey "based on previous Vault surveys that gauged opinions of industry insiders as well as on various factual data, including league table standing and size in terms of revenue or assets."
A total of 15 companies, including Citigroup, SunTrust Bank and Wells Fargo, cooperated with Vault's request to distribute its online survey to employees. For companies that refused to distribute the survey, Vault sought contacts at the firm "through other proprietary sources." The survey is based on responses from a total of 583 professionals.
In the war for talent, experts say, performing well in this kind of survey can help attract candidates. »more
Survey results serve as the basis for rankings on what Vault calls prestige. Participants were asked to rate companies with which they were familiar but they were not allowed to rate their own employer.
Commercial Banks On the Vault 50
Bank
Ranking
JP Morgan Chase
# 8
Citigroup Inc.
# 9
Deutsche Bank
# 12
Bank of America Corporation
# 17
Wachovia
# 20
HSBC Holdings plc
# 23
Bank of New York
# 28
Wells Fargo & Company
# 29
The Royal Bank of Scotland
# 31
BNP Paribas
# 37
U.S. Bancorp
# 46
ABN Amro
# 47
Source: Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, 2006 Edition
A "best of the rest" listing includes PNC Financial, one of the survey's sponsors, SunTrust, KeyCorp and National City, among about a dozen other commercial banks.
Despite a distinct investment and corporate banking bias throughout the guide, the three retail banks that distributed the survey to employees (SunTrust, Wells Fargo and Citigroup) scored high on "quality of life" rankings. Unlike with the prestige rankings, survey respondents were allowed to rate their own firms on areas such as overall satisfaction, compensation, hours, treatment by managers, training, hiring selectivity, offices, quality of manager and diversity with respect to women, minorities and gays and lesbians.
In the war for talent, experts say, performing well in this kind of survey can help attract candidates who might have otherwise passed by a potential employer.
"It makes a difference to the student who is in the very preliminary stages in their research," says Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of the Career Management Center at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Business. "You might capture somebody's attention that you haven't already captured."
Beyond recruiting and hiring, though, institutions are increasingly focusing on employee satisfaction as a driver of customer retention.
"There's research that shows there's a link," says Debbie Tanis, BAI's managing director of employee research. "Committed employees lead to more satisfactory customer experiences. It has really morphed into a business metric."
Tanis says the banks that have recognized this connection are now investing in ongoing research to track satisfaction levels among their employees -- and results are playing into managers' performance scorecards. When the numbers decline in a surveyed category, managers at these banks are encouraged to dive in and improve performance in that area.
Internal surveys, though, show only how a bank performs against its own previous efforts. Vault and BAI report heightened interested in their respective efforts to provide benchmarks.
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