Dive Brief:
- Reuters reports that Wells Fargo’s CEO claims the bank is now putting employees ahead of shareholders, following last year’s nationwide scandal. Bank employees created 2.1 unauthorized customer accounts to meet aggressive sales expectations.
- Wells Fargo scrapped its practice of paying branch employees based on the number of products sold and instead raised workers’ pay to between $13.50 and $17 an hour. Pay levels are based on market rates.
- In a speech at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, CA, Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said the bank improved its recruiting and retention practices and how employees are paid and evaluated since last year’s sales scandal.
Dive Insight:
Well Fargo, under Sloan’s relatively short tenure, discovered what proactive HR leaders and employment experts have expressed all along: Employees are an organization’s most valuable assets.
Employers can draw from the errors of Wells Fargo and other workplaces on how to put employees first. This requires investing in employee development for the long term, paying them a decent wage, facilitating their engagement and demonstrating the highest ethical behavior at all levels in the organization. Often, this requires a level of commitment from high-level leaders to listen to employees at all levels and to be transparent about company workings when possible.
To counteract low levels of engagement, some employers are turning to giving said workers more autonomy and focusing on improving the leadership qualities of middle managers.
