question archive YOUR MAINE BANK COURSEWORK FURTHER ADVICE FROM BRUCE THOMPSON I have said further advice as there is advice at the back of the Maine Bank case study
YOUR MAINE BANK COURSEWORK FURTHER ADVICE FROM BRUCE THOMPSON I have said further advice as there is advice at the back of the Maine Bank case study
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YOUR MAINE BANK COURSEWORK
FURTHER ADVICE FROM BRUCE THOMPSON
I have said further advice as there is advice at the back of the Maine Bank case study. Do read this.
There is not a set of correct answers to this case, you may have different recommendations from me, which provided they meet business needs and are supported by reasoning, and some best practice (e.g. what similar organisations are doing) is fine.
Remember you are writing to the UK Managing Director, not the university. He/she is a busy person who wants clear recommendations and reasons. Leave out anything that is not relevant.
Remember the marking scheme at the back of the case study includes Implementation (e.g. priorities, timescales, who is responsible for what). A matrix can be useful here
Assume you are writing prior to the Coronavirus outbreak.
How I would go about doing the case.
Everything you recommend must meet the UK Managing Director’s objectives, notably improve performance, reduce costs, improve morale, increase use of IT, meet particular business objectives such as in Retail Banking improve customer service, and in Investment Banking support and increase business post Brexit.
I would first look at the company overall and then the individual businesses & departments.
Company Overall
You know from my lectures that Financial Reward (FR) has many components, basic pay, variable pay (e.g.bonuses), job evaluation, obtaining external market information, employee benefits. Look at FR in Maine Bank, one of these components could be changed with a large saving in costs. Many companies are making this change.
The general increase in pay was 2% to everyone and 0.2% for individual merit (performance). Does this meet the MDs objectives?
INDIVIDUAL BUSINESSES AND DEPARTMENTS
Retail Banking
Staff feel there are too many targets, the Directors feel Retail needs to improve performance. Look at Bruce’s lecture on merit and variable pay. Bruce gave two retail bank/building society examples in his lecture. Google ‘reward and bonuses in retail banking’ and perhaps ‘the mis-selling of products in retail banking’.
Business & Corporate Banking
Risk and morale is the issue here. Can you give managers better performance objectives and reflect this in pay?
The Call Centre
Why is turnover of staff so high? Monotony may not be the sole reason. Google in Call Centre performance and location. How might you save the company a lot of money? What is thought to be the best sort of variable pay to motivate sales staff? Look at Bruce’s lecture on merit and variable pay.
Head Office Support Functions
Certain groups of staff are difficult to recruit within the existing company-wide pay scales. Look at Bruce’s structures and external markets lectures.
IT use is crucial to the future of the business, can you afford to lose your IT staff? See comment at end of the Investment Banking section below.
Investment Banking (IB)
How do you ensure investment staff reward is competitive? Look at Bruce’s lecture on the External Market. How do organisations determine whether their financial reward is competitive or not? Google ‘bonuses in IB’. Remember IBs are different from Retail banks. Therefore look at Goldman Sachs, UBS, JP Morgan etc. But can you increase costs in IB? Yes, if you can make major costs savings elsewhere. See my comments in earlier sections above.
Young Graduates
In financial reward what are the different sorts if employee benefits?
DON’T FEEL YOU HAVE TO COVER ALL THE TOPICS ABOVE. HAVE A FEW KEY ONES.
TRUST YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT. IF YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS MEET THE BUSINESS NEEDS AND YOU HAVE SOUND REASONS AND GOOD BEST PRACTICE TO SUPPORT THEM, STICK WITH IT.
