Banking: The frontline war between targets and incentives
“The vast majority of bank staff want to do the best for their customers but can’t because they are under constant pressure to hit ever-demanding targets, which increase every year. A failure to hit those targets can result in staff being subject to performance improvement plans and in some cases being dismissed for under-performance. A number of management practices we have been dealing with are based more on humiliation than on positive motivation. Extreme pressure causes desperate people to do desperate things. In that kind of environment, it is surprising that there have been so few mis-selling scandals.” Affinity (2012), Written evidence to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards
