Westpac Banking Reviews

I worked at Westpac Banking full-time for more than a year

Pros – They are trying to be an employee friendly bank. They want to look after their staff and give them flexibility and a good work/life balance. Depending on team this could be the case or it could be lip service only so it is worth getting clear views from your manager.

On the whole there was a healthy atmosphere at a personal level but a lot of career grumbling. It seemed to suit people that were looking for a quiet life.

Cons – Really slow to change anything and the bureaucracy was heavy. A lot of effort seemed to be around managing how targets were reported rather than building the business itself as this was easier than implementing actual change. Because of this I didn't feel I was increasing my personal skill set and would learn more at other companies.

Advice to Senior Management – Set clear goals and let employees work to those. Management should focus on making sure the tools and systems are in place and avoid having too many 'interested' decision makers about. Make sure the focus is on what will affect the game, not hot topics.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Westpac Banking full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Convenient location, fair HR policies (e.g. parental benefits), investment in staff training, well known brand

Cons – Uninspiring management, lack of innovation, poor long term prospects for company, dependency on outsourced providers for most technology aspects

Advice to Senior Management – Install some younger management staff to update the culture and technology awareness

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Westpac Banking full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great new work environments, fair pay, generally young and fun people to work with

Cons – Leadership has made several poor decisions and is on the wrong path with its multi-brand strategy.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Westpac Banking

Pros – Work life balance is right

Cons – poor mid - senior management

Advice to Senior Management – learn to delegate

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Westpac Banking

Pros – There is a great team of people which makes it easy to work with.
Some great oppurunities are in front of Westpac and it was exciting to see things get done, sometimes

Cons – Difficulty with management who control everything and if it doesn't suit their own objectives it gets crushed
Slow and beaurocratic, while this can be relevant for such a regulated industry it does make it difficult at times to be productive

Advice to Senior Management – Remove some of the red tape which makes innovation and development difficult.
Identify when senior management are not performing and the advice that is given by their direct reports and take action.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Westpac Banking

Pros – Flexible working hours was one of the reasons why I stayed in Westpac. It allowed me to achieve work/life balance.
Westpac provides study assistance to employees seeking to improve their skills through undergraduate and post graduate studies.

Cons – There are too many 'chiefs' and not enough 'indians' to do the jobs at the coal-face. There is a persistent culture in Westpac to create pyramid structures and numerous management layers which does not really assist in information dissemination and transparency in decision-making processes.

There are people in senior management who are technically superior in their area of expertise but extremely lacking in people management and coaching skills. Senior management appear to be internally focused on nurturing their careers and not as much on nurturing the careers of the people reporting to them.

Advice to Senior Management – Over the years, Westpac has changed from an employer who looked after all of its employees to an employer whose main priority is to please shareholders. Westpac only plays lip service to its espoused values. Every year there is a restructure and every year, good people leave the organisation out of frustration of disillusionment. What happened to Westpac's honesty and integrity in the way it deals with its employees?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Westpac Banking

Pros – Lots of people try hard, have great abilities and intentions, and are a decent crew.
Good intentions in the work-life, diversity, career opportunities. Great true grass-roots commitment to lookng after customers, whether for servicing, online, ethically....

Cons – It's not that people don't make decisions, it's that other people don't accept yours. Your authority and area of responsibility is ALWAYS challenged and 'escalated'.

Woe betide if you are responsibile as keeper of any standards or policies. Many are very scared of adhering to standards, even for customer experience, as the culture is to embrace 'agility' and 'speed to market' so is a reason not to behave well. They will spend more time argung or trying to find ways to avoid the standards, than working out a way to work within them to a win-win.

Advice to Senior Management – Set up structures that EVERYONE AGREES WITH. Be clear on responsibility. 3 years in to our busines unit's structure we are still arguing with Marketing and IT about who should have a say in what. How on earth we deliver as well to customers as we do is a complete mystery.

And give some real help to managers in developing people, and supporting diversity. Lots of nice talk and PR, nothing that really helps or truly makes a difference at the coalface.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Westpac Banking

Pros – The outdated and ( toxic ? ) culture is still largely unknown outside the group so experience and the Westpac name still look good on a Resume.

Cons – A machiavellian backdrop, where an atmosphere of uncertainty has led to an atmosphere of distrust ( fear ? ). This has led in turn to many in senior management being forced to spend much of their time on internal politics, strategising and conspiring etc to protect or advance their own position.
As a consequence when major decisions are required there is not the staff connect or intellectual property in the appropriate areas.
This business culture permeates across the group and is firmly entrenched.
I/T development has lagged for many years and its antiquity is a problem.
Staff turnover is high, many are leaving, its no surprise that morale is not good.

Advice to Senior Management – There are too many spin doctors with all the dangers that entails. ( re Example ex NSW state Labour gov ).
There is also a layer of senior management whose behaviours are not in the long term interest of the Group.
The real position, the real performers and the real staff mood is not being reflected in the internal surveys.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Westpac Banking

Pros – Laid back culture- very easy to manage the work/life balance.
Extremely collaborative environment. Colleagues look for opportunities to support one another to achieve goals rather than compete.

Cons – Limited to no accountability taken, therefore decisions take forever to be made. I am a strong believer in consultation, but I think its overly consultative.
Mixed bag in terms of staff- some are hard working and bright, others are just not impressive.
People move around so quickly, I do not know how anyone is effective.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate changes better. You lose good people when they are uncertain of their future.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Westpac Banking

Pros – Brand recognition. there are long term prospects. particularly for women.

Cons – office politics in my region was the worst i have ever seen.
job security is not what it once was.
the actual culture (maybe it is just my region) very negative and a lot of back stabbing.
the administration overhead was about 50% of your work time, documenting what you have done...as opposed to doing work...yet your targets are huge

Advice to Senior Management – stream line your admin, as currently there is far too much reporting and admin..

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend