Royal Bank of Scotland Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

Great co-operation amongst teams
Lots of job opportunities
Competetive pay
Good flexible benefits

Cons

IT systems need massive investment
Bank has become too reliant on consultants
Morale is very low
Senior Management not very imaginative

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in systems
Come up with a strategy for staff retention

Pros

ex work life balance
good deal flow
large market share therefore visibility on most major deals
good dcm capabities - no. 1 sterling bond house

Cons

Horrible reputation
Government now runs the bank and management has no voice
awful compensation
no exit opportunities
lack of star performers as they are all leaving

Advice to Senior Management

Need to return to standalone strength and pay people who they want to keep
Need to fire the dead wood

Pros

Great for those looking to call themselves an investment banker while still having a good work-life balance. Strong push on training and development

Cons

With that work-life balance you're not going to get the pay packet that "real" investment bankers get! Seems to be a great place to start and end your career but most people should try to look elsewhere for the middle bit to earn some decent wolla.

Advice to Senior Management

The Shred left so there goes the first piece of advice I could give... I guess the next is to control those pesky new shareholders!

Pros

the organisation has got a very good Research and development wing with good opportunities of growth for computer science and technology graduates

Cons

the organisation should improve Research and development wing further ensuring to create good opportunities of growth for computer science and technology graduates

Advice to Senior Management

please be advised that good customer service is key area to focus in the current financial climate that is expected to prevail for a few years

Pros

99% of staff are likeable, friendly and helpful
There is a strong focus on work-life balance, meaning that if you're in the office at 5:05pm you'll be very lonely
Its a large organisation that provides ample opportunity to "work your way up" - most staff I work with started with no tertiary education
You don't have to work too hard!

Cons

Management is paralised at the moment - decisions are simply not made, very frustrating
Lack of accountability - the culture encourages work to be shared so widely that people are rarely held responsible for failure
Offices are widely spread - and as the organisation is in spasm right now, you may suddenly find your job has moved across the country
Politics mean that teams rapidly grow far beyond the need for resources, meaning that there are large amounts of downtime waiting for things to happen
Suffers from the same problem as all retail banks - risk averse, slow moving, a bit boring.

Advice to Senior Management

Shake off the paralysis, use this opportunity to cut some of the plentiful deadwood, and get a grip on where you're spending your money...

Pros

Transformation and Integration programmes were good opportunities for greenfield implementation work. Rapid expansion in Asian markets enabled good industry relevant experience to be gained in a rapid period

Cons

Budgets always very tight. Ridiculous year end head count targets forced curtailing contracts by mid-December. Huge amount of unnecessary reporting at programme, Integration, Transformation and departmental levels.

Advice to Senior Management

Employ less Accenture consultants. Delegate programme management to more of the actual teams doing the work. Spend less time creating irrelevant milestones that need tracking and instead focus on the less is more mantra for MIS.

Pros

Theoretically a good package that went with the job - unfortunately, effectively deconstructed by the bank's financial difficulties. Only lip service given to career development - London not the place to be in RBS, whereas Edinburgh was.

Cons

Opaque management practices, lack of honesty, and an obscure way of managing promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Try and make some effort to retain talent, not just those who want to stay, but the ones you need as well.

Pros

Great place to learn about the markets, friendly colleagues, great atmosphere, well equipped, a lot of self-improvement opportunities, a lot of place to move within the firm

Cons

very long working hours, high expectations of you, extremely fast paced, sometimes no breaks, start v. early in the morning

Advice to Senior Management

Should again be more risk oriented and take chances on the market. Get rid of the gov. involvement. Place more emphasis on innovation

Pros

There are not many reasons to work at The Royal Bank of Scotland in fact the only one is that it is better than the dole.

Cons

Lose of share value, loss of salary, loss of bonus, loss of profit share. Embarrassing! Low morale. its is just a rubbish environment which is a shame as it was a great place to work and people used to work hard.

Advice to Senior Management

Make people feel valued, make engagement feel real and sincere. Given some commitment to benchmarking salaries to make up for the pay cut that RBS staff have taken staff and the unfairness with ABN getting paid so much more.

Pros

Everyone at RBS is very committed to what they are doing. Corporate finance analysts work hard and work for long hours. The job is very demanding and challenging. There is definitely a camaraderie at work where everyone is looking out for each other.

Cons

recent developments with its trading business. nevertheless, it will come back stronger

Advice to Senior Management

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