Barclays Wealth Reviews

Pros

reputable name, leading wealth manager

Cons

communication, lack of progression, slow movement

Advice to Senior Management

promote promotions!!

Pros

"Aura" or Barclays brand, but that is all...

Cons

The organization does not function. Mired in bureaucracy, irrational decision making. Gross underinvestment in critical systems and infrastructure coupled with an intransigent administrative approach. Struggling to attract advisors to grow so they make promises that they cannot and do not intend to keep. Every advisor that I spoke to that had been hired in the last yeat was extremely unhappy... miserable in fact.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a critical look at yourselves. Start being honest.

Pros

Has a desire to be successful
A lot of fantastic people at or below VP level
Good (but getting worse) reputation in the marketplace when looking to move on. Still resume-friendly
A lot going on at the moment

Cons

Not everywhere, but definitely a lot of managing upwards and not so much leading at the upper-mid levels (VP/Director).
A lot of buck passing and not so much team building and development. Step one seems to be first find someone to blame.
Personality-based decisions/favoritism
Unclear and shifting priorities. Difficult to get a decision to stick

Advice to Senior Management

You have some great people - use them, develop them and support them. Otherwise they will walk, usually to competitors
You don't need to know everything nor be seen to be the best at every task. Accept that others will sometimes know more about and be better at some things than you. Successes by your people are a good thing and should be encouraged AND recognized. Not hidden or stolen.
Encourage debate and support argument. Otherwise you're going to get groupthink.

Pros

1. Great brand recognition.
2. Possibilities with BarCap.
3. Geographical spread.
4. If you are "favoured" progression can be swift and renumeration deep.

Cons

1. Intensely political - be prepared! There are practically internal political parties in this business!
2. Massively bloated with administrative employees and bureaucratic systems - as a result it takes ages to get anything done
3. No accountability - people get away with things here that would get you fired in a properly run business. Passing the buck is an Olympic sport here.
4. Management is too remote and obsessively focused on navel gazing activity which only serves to make them feel like they are doing something.
5. Short termist outlook - management is focused on the next promotion, their next payout and not on the long term things necessary to make the business succeed.
6. Demigod complex - senior management (and their lackeys) act like they are a superior form of life - and any interaction with them or involving them must be sanitised, cleansed and processed to be deemed worthy.
7. Compensation - Don't believe the hype - the comp is horrible and well below market competitors - that's why there is massive turnover in all sections - especially HR.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Actually care about the business you are building - some face time with your subordinates and producers within the business will not impede your next pay round.
2. Fight the flab - you can safely eliminate 50% of the administrative staff and free up producer time by implementing systems and process that actually work. This would massively reduce bureaucracy and internal politics.
3. Share the wealth - we have to take the flack of "barclays paying huge bonuses" but you get 90% of the "funds set aside for the bonus pool." Spread it around a little and you have happier workers, less turnover.
4. Embed accountability - if people make mistakes that cost the business and client's money, they should be appropriately dealt with, not molly coddled.

Pros

Benefits, Brand Name, Global Company

Cons

Awful local management is compounded by even worse over arching management in the UK. Nothing is accomplished without 5+ sign offs by Directors and MDs. Advancement is based more on sucking up then achievement. Overall people are extremely unhappy, with the best employees leaving as soon as they can.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus less on managing up and more on working with your employees. Take the time to understand what goes on at the lowest levels instead of condescendingly preaching to us at Town Halls.

Pros

Global presence presents many oportunities and confidence in the brand.

Cons

Can be a typical ruthless plc. Local leadership issues caused for an unpleasant envirnoment to work in from time to time

Pros

- Friendly people
- Challenges make work interesting

Cons

- Lack of a coherent implementation of a firmwide plan for improvement
- Constantly changing (but not improving) internal environment due to changes in strategy, short-termism, high turnover etc.
- Poor firmwide performance and strategic bonus allocation towards front office results in poor compensation for everyone else
- Too many MDs and Ds, making it extremely political and increasing the amount of conflicting messages. Too many people giving instructions, not enough actually doing work.

Pros

Great offering, Name in the market, great opportunities to move around and do different things. Barclays name and respect in the market is uncomparable.

Cons

Some of the negatives of a big bank exist. The bank has overall gone in the right track but the pain of the journey was avoidable and hence we need to suffer through the path of growth

Advice to Senior Management

None. Keep up the good work

Pros

some good facilities and up to date technologies

Cons

The most vicious culture. Back-stabbing and pathological bullying. i saw a whole team of people hired at a certain level just to be bullied once inside for not fitting the mould. constant shifting priorities and huge change in job roles once inside. it's like they hire you promise you a lot then force you to regress to office junior/tea boy or girl whatever your level hired at until you've proved yourself inside which means sucking up and not at all performance or results orientated. micromanagement of everyone to the point of orwellian nightmare and just a generally nasty place.

Advice to Senior Management

you could've saved yourselves the £350m spent on "efficiency" improvements by just encouraging your staff to behave like decent human beings. hiring people then ignoring them and concentrating on admin and presentation over results, lost time from turnover, number of girls crying in the toilets and launching complaints against hr would all be saved.

Pros

Aside from senior management, people are incredible and really want to make it a good place to work. ! Free coffee

Cons

Senior management does not know what they are doing. There is no money to make the necessary upgrades to systems and everyone has a cover your butt mentality! No room for growth and everything is just patched together

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of management who don't know products and don't know how to manage people. Listen to your employees and the ones who are working for you.