Survey Finds 60% Of Bank Managers Hunting New Jobs

Bank managers are a restless bunch, if a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers is any indicator.

The survey, conducted over the past three years, queried roughly 300 bankers below the level of chief operating officer and found that 60% were looking for new jobs.

"We always ask our clients, 'How happy are you, and what are you doing about it?' " said Thomas F. Casey, a Pricewaterhouse-Coopers partner and the accounting and professional services firm's national practice coordinator for retention. "Most are at least passively looking by putting resumes on the Internet or contacting headhunters, and a lot are also aggressively looking - knocking on the doors of places they want to work."

The three major reasons resumes are being polished up are not especially surprising: the lure of making a fortune by joining a cutting-edge, dot-com start-up or technology firm; disruptions caused by consolidation; and, simply, the desire to make a career change.

Though these factors in most cases are beyond employers' control, the survey uncovered a few clues to how banks can do a better job of retaining talent.

More than 90% of the executives indicated that they like what they are doing but not necessarily where they are doing it. Among their complaints, three-quarters of those surveyed said they do not have a clear picture of their prospects for advancement.

"A significant majority believe that they'd be better off career-progression-wise someplace else," Mr. Casey said. Banks could improve retention by laying out a distinct advancement route, he said.

Much of the ambiguity stems from the rapid pace of consolidation and change in the industry, which has blurred once-clear lines of succession and promotion.

"In the old days you could clearly see the strategic direction of your institution and could plot your role in the future by looking at your predecessors," said Peter W. Kelly, a managing partner at the Los Angeles executive search firm Rollo & Associates. "Things are changing much faster now, and one has a tough time seeing a clear path ahead."

In the not-too-distant past, bankers implicitly were expected to stick with an employer for decades, Mr. Kelly added. But now there is an understanding by both banks and employees that job changes happen more frequently and often require moving to another company.

In a finding closely related to the advancement issue, PricewaterhouseCoopers said that bank managers value learning opportunities as one of the most important parts of a job.

"People feel this adds to their long-term career potential," Mr. Casey said.

Setting up mentoring programs is a good way to retain employees, he said. However, the survey found that this carries a risk as well.

More than half those surveyed said they would leave their bank to follow a mentor who was taking a job at another institution.

Compensation alone was not mentioned by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers as an overriding factor in the retention game. Regardless, the firm found that among other industries, financial services ranked an admirable third in general compensation increases this year. Not surprisingly, the technology sector had the biggest increases; the chemical industry was ranked second.

However, though financial services salaries are growing, the attractiveness of higher-paying technology jobs and the often-easy segue from the world of finance to high-tech requires banks to be creative in keeping employees from jumping ship, Mr. Casey said.

"A lot of organizations are going to have to have very adept and proficient strategies to retain talent," he said.

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