Westpac Banking Reviews

Pros

Worklife balance
Variety of opportunities
Career advancements

Cons

Bureaucracy, speed to respond to market

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.

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?

Pros

Laid back culture
Friendly teams and colleagues

Cons

Below average pay
Sometimes long hours

Advice to Senior Management

Improve the IT systems, its 90's technology and still very old and slow

Pros

depth of knowledge is very good here. people are willing to help

Cons

bonus is low. recognition should be more

Advice to Senior Management

recognition should be more

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.

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.

Pros

Relaxed culture
Good pay
Employees taken care of

Cons

Outdat ed systems
Slow moving
Outsourcing

Advice to Senior Management

Retain your talent

Pros

Great vision and strategy and great execution to reach this vision; while exceeding customer expectations in day to day business

Cons

Having to leave the organisation to migrate to another country for family reasons

Advice to Senior Management

Continue on this great journey and I wish you all the best

Pros

Great benefits. My immediate boss is a very poor leader, but I actually think the company is trying to do something about him. (Always a challenge). Good working environment, excellent work/life balance. Communication (ignoring my own leader) seems pretty good all round.

Cons

Westpac is doing a great many large initiatives and have bitten off more than they can chew just at the moment. They are addressing this too which is good, but need to do it faster.

Advice to Senior Management

Get some stakes in the ground that are manageable and stick to them rather than try to pull off every possible feat to gain customer loyalty and market share. I like where you're going but if it isn't done properly, it'll do more damage than good.