Survey Results – New Zealand Workers
Employment
45% of respondents were satisfied with their current employer and 28% were dissatisfied.
Direction of bank
Slightly more respondents think that their bank is moving in the wrong direction (39%), than think it is moving in the right direction (37%).
Staffing levels
63% of bank employees believe that their unit or department does not have enough staff. 37% think that they have enough staff.
Technology and customer service improvement
43% of employees think that customer service has got worse. 38% think that it has stayed the same, and 19% think that it has improved.
Customer Service
42% of employees think that their employers wants them to concentrate on selling, 31% consider their attitude to customer service to be pretty fair.
8% think that their employer puts making the customer happy first.
Emphasis on selling debt
45% of bank employees think that selling debt to customers has become a higher priority, 30% think selling debt is as important as it always was.
4% think that their employer has become more lenient in having their employees meet debt sales targets.
Sales targets reflecting economic conditions
77% of bank employees think that their employer does not reduce their sales targets when economic conditions in their community are more difficult.
4% think their employers do reduce their sales target, 19% said this question was not applicable to them.
Customers ability to meet their financial obligations
25% of bank employees stated that they were uncomfortable about their customers being able to meet their financial obligations with a new debt product. 24% said they were comfortable, 25% said they were neither uncomfortable nor comfortable and a further 26% said the question was not relevant to their situation.
Customer Service
60% of bank employees stated that they felt empowered to do what it takes to make the customer happy.
30% stated that they try to help as much as they can, but their manager has made it clear that their first priority is selling more financial products.
23% of bank employees stated that they disagreed with the statement that when people got to them, they had been on hold or waiting in a queue for a long time.
Off-shoring
Large numbers of bank employees appear to be concerned about losing their jobs to off-shoring with 83% stating that they disagree with the statement that sending jobs offshore is no big deal, and 74% stating that they are worried about how many jobs will be left in New Zealand in 10 years time.
46% agree with the statement that their customer get angry at the delays caused by off-shoring and 32% stated that their job was getting harder because of off-shoring.
Debt Selling
63% of bank of employees stated that every year, there sales targets went up.
54% disagreed with the statement that they were given a fair opportunity for input into what their sales targets will be. 35% disagree with the statement that they don’t like sales targets, but banks are a business. 35% disagreed with the statement that they are under pressure to sell debt products.
Profits/CEO Salaries
52% of bank employees think that highly profitable banks are good for our economy, but 69% think people can be paid too much and that the government should cap bank executive salaries.
82% state that they don’t mind CEO’s making lots of money, but the gap between their salaries and ordinary worker’s has got too big.
Nearly as many disagreed and agreed with the statement running a big business like a bank is hard work and CEO’s deserve to be paid well.
Responsible lending
50% of bank employees think the government should step in and stop banks’ high risk activities. 73% think that personal debt is a significant problem in New Zealand and we need tougher regulation to stop it getting out of control. 75% of bank employees think that NZ is part of the world economy and should support new, global rules to prevent high-risk banking activities.
44% of bank employees disagree with the statement that they would still receive regular pay increases even if they don’t sell lots of debt products. 46% disagreed with the statement that New Zealand’s banks survived the global financial crisis, which shows they do not need any new rules around how they operate.
Charter for better banking
Other than the strong support shown by National Bank employees, there was little difference between the different bank employees.
There was majority support for all 5 different aspects of the charter. The commitment to stop off-shoring received the highest level of support (92%). This was followed by the de-linking of sales targets from workers’ pay (85%), linking CEO and executive remuneration to customer service and long term business growth (79%), requiring interest rate decisions to be in line with the Reserve Bank (69%), requiring a direct link between bank fee increases and providing better customer service (69%).
