The financial industry’s regulatory body, the Financial Services Authority
(FSA), has defended its record on employee satisfaction after claims that it
‘falls short on staff issues’.
The Financial Times reported that a study of the FSA’s 2,200 employees
painted a poor picture of how it dealt with its staff in numerous areas,
including management and retention, speed of decision-making and providing
vision and direction to workers. However, in an exclusive interview with
Personnel Today, Jonathan Chapman, head of organisational development and
reward at the FSA, said that staff satisfaction was up across the board since
the last employee survey in 2001.
He said that since the FSA was created in 2000 by an 11-way merger of
regulatory authorities, its leaders had concentrated on policy development,
which the organisation was now implementing for the benefit of staff.
"We have received positive feedback from staff, particularly in line
management, learning and development, reward, and teamwork," Chapman said.
"The survey… is a catalyst to action, not just management paying lip
service [to staff]; it will let us find out where we need to go," he said.
The FSA has begun leadership development programmes to embed appropriate
management behaviour in the organisation, and has created a leadership model
with 360-degree feedback.
One of the problems highlighted by the Financial Times was the need to
improve the staff view of organisational ethics.
Chapman said the FSA was working very hard to promote the ethical role of
the body and to attract and retain staff.
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He said flexible working and work-life balance would continue to attract
people from investment banks who wanted to "work smarter, not
longer".
By Michael Millar
