Members have been telling us for weeks that issues with the Benchmark system are seriously affecting their ability to offer customers a great service. These system problems are not “bumps in the road”, which sounds like a rather cack-handed attempt by senior management in Schroders to try and down play the serious issues with the way the system is working or not working to be more precise In a recent survey, 53% of staff said they didn’t have the right tools to do their jobs properly. That needs to be put right immediately. The system was supposed to have been tested to destruction and ready to go before staff moved across to the new business.
Just as worrying for the business is that the majority of staff taking part in the survey, including those who ticked the “neither agree or disagree box”, said that they couldn’t recommend Schroders Personal Wealth as a great place to work. And a quarter of staff said they had thought about looking for a new job with another company. If those 26% of advisers acted on that, and more IT problems is going to make that more rather than less likely, then Schroders Personal Wealth would be in serious trouble. The rest of the results from the recent pulse survey are set out below:
And what’s happened with the changes to the car scheme is a good example of why many staff are disengaged. Ignoring the fact that Lloyds would have known about the changes to the car scheme when it was putting together the TUPE package, why did Schroders just roll over and accept that company cars would no longer be available from 1st October 2019? If Schroders are going to just accept everything Lloyds does, then what was the point of the TUPE transfer in the first place? What was the point of all the documents setting out the terms and conditions? If Lloyds changes its private medical cover does that apply automatically to Schroders staff? Is it the position that Schroders simply follows the HR policies of the bank until it becomes a fully stand-alone business at the end of 2020? And let’s not forget that according to Lloyds and Schroders the redundancy terms finish next year. We will deal with that issue in a letter we will be sending to members shortly.
In the meantime, members with any questions can contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (Choose Option 1).