TSB is trying to get all of the bad news out of the way before Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive Officer, takes to the stage at the Landmark Hotel on Monday to announce her new strategy. We’ll be listening with bated breath, albeit not on the front row.
Earlier in the week it was the Slaughter and May Report and yesterday it was the results of the ‘TSB Partner Experience Survey’ 2019. It makes for grim reading.
The overall Trust Index for TSB stands at just 60%, the lowest score we can remember. And let’s not forget, some 30% of TSB staff were so fed up they couldn’t even be bothered to complete the survey in the first place. So, if you include those it’s fair to say that the vast majority of staff don’t trust TSB. Furthermore, only 39% of staff said that the leadership team – Debbie Crosbie and her new executive committee – had communicated a vision that motivated them or gave them hope about the future of TSB. That is a devastating statistic. And 56% of staff said there were significant barriers at TSB which stopped them doing their jobs well. We would suggest that an IT platform which is still not fit for purpose is one of those significant barriers.
The Death Of ‘Local Banking’
The ‘Local Banking for Britain’ marketing strapline – which appears across the TSB branch estate – will disappear because it hasn’t worked. Moreover, Debbie Crosbie appreciates that you can’t call yourself a ‘local’ bank when you are going to close a large number of branches across the country.
We are aware that line managers attending briefings on the new ‘TSB Purpose’, which is all about being ‘fit and fast’ (more agile in the way TSB works), ‘digitally savvy’ (leverage investment in Proteo platform) and ‘commercially focused’ (shift to proactive sales culture with branch staff being capable of selling all products). It’s also clear from speaking to members attending meetings that controlling costs is going to be a fundamental part of the new strategy. Everyone now expects that further branch closures will be announced next week.
What the survey results show is that new strategy is not going to work if Debbie Crosbie can’t improve the employee engagement and trust scores. She knows there is a strong relationship between employee engagement and customer satisfaction – that employees who are satisfied with their work are more likely to satisfy customers. In TSB, the majority of staff are neither engaged nor motivated and the trust between the senior management team and staff is broken. Much of that damage was done before Mrs Crosbie arrived but robbing the pension pots of hardworking TSB staff is not going to build that trust and engagement any time soon.
Members with any questions on this Newsletter can contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029.
NEWS FLASH
It’s goes from bad to worse. On the very week the last IT disaster is exposed, thousands of customers wake up to find that payments haven’t been paid into their accounts. TSB is saying “Some payments…… have been delayed overnight and we are working to process these as soon as possible today. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and will ensure customers are not left out-of-pocket”. How many times is this going to happen? When is someone going to get a grip on this bank?