When it comes to job satisfaction staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland retail banking division are counting their blessings. Great bosses and colleagues, a company that helps the community and treats its staff well with benefits such as profit-related pay all make RBS Retail a good place to work.

Employees provide banking and other financial services to about 3.5m customers through the organisation’s 655 UK branches, 1,700 ATMs, the internet and its 24-hour telephone service.

They have fun with their colleagues, earning RBS Retail an 81% positive score in our employee survey, and say they are proud to work for the company (76%).

The bank’s employees feel that their job is secure (79%, a score bettered by just two other firms), are fully involved in their work (77%, a top five score) and believe they can make a valuable contribution to the success of the organisation (76%).

Related Internet Links

• Company website

• RBS Retail Banking's entry in 2007

• RBS Retail Banking's entry in 2006

Turning up the Heat pays off

Strong training and a sense that work is to be enjoyed add up to Heat powering past its rivals into top spot this year

Background

• Hats off to great leadership

• Getting the message across loud and clear

• Fly high with the X Factor

• Why it pays to know what you’re doing

Background

• Charity wins top small company award

• Special awards for best practice

• Rules of engagement

• 100 Best SME's to work for 2008

Multimedia

• Best Small Companies to Work For 2008

• Highlights from the awards ceremony

This confidence comes from strong leadership, and at RBS Retail managers lead by example. Everyone in the bank is encouraged to have a personal development plan that is regularly reviewed to help identify individual training needs. The company recently launched its own “drive for future leaders” programme, which was designed by managers for future managers, and an online Access2Learning scheme enables employees to create personal learning plans.

As well as regularly expressing their appreciation when staff do a good job (76%), managers share important information with employees (74%) and help them to fulfil their potential (70%), all top five scores.

However, RBS Retail gains a positive score of just 47%, the lowest for this question of all the top 20 big best companies, for employees feeling they are fairly paid for their responsibilities.

As well as flexible working options such as reduced hours and term-time only contracts, the bank offers all employees the opportunity to request short or long-term employment breaks. Policies such as these mean that wellbeing levels are high and work does not tend to interfere with people’s responsibilities at home (69%, the third highest score on this point).

The company marks the efforts and achievements of employees with gala dinners held across the UK. The most outstanding staff members are invited to attend the RBS Achievers Conference, which was held in Lisbon in 2007 and will take place in Barcelona this year.

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