Green Company

G-Bank, a fictitious investment and commercial bank with a strong social responsibility and “green” brand, is thriving in the Green World, having emerged from the global financial crisis of 2008-2010 fit and agile.

About G-Bank

G-Bank is a US-based investment and commercial bank, in business since 1922.

In a tough new regulatory environment, G-Bank has provided shareholders with steady growth and solid (if modest) returns by managing risk within its workforce and business. The bank’s actions are geared toward the long term, focused on both economic and environmental sustainability. Its corporate responsibility values permeate the organisation.

G-Bank realises that a failure to uphold these values could damage its brand with customers, as well as lead to penalties by governments or regulators.

How G-Bank emerged from the global financial crisis

Recognising that the workforce was more diverse than it ever had been, and that its current flexible benefits programmes were out of touch with the millennial generation, G-Bank decided to re-evaluate and reconfigure its benefits model from the ground up. They had to think creatively about incentives, beyond salary, that could engage its staff and attract the quality employees it needed.

G-Bank introduced a benefit credits system which would enable employees to earn bonus credits on an ongoing basis. Credits would be earned for good performance and demonstrating the company’s values, and used for a whole range of options—from a secondment to an overseas office, government department, NGO or other socially responsible organisation, to learning a new vocation/language.

+ Cultural change programme

Having been criticised (though not as much as some of their competitors) for accepting a high-risk culture under the old regime, G-Bank was keen to refocus its brand as an honest, safe bank with a conscience. To accomplish this, they realised they needed to change the corporate culture and reinforce new behaviours among their people.

HR teams led an extensive cultural change programme to get staff to live by a new code of conduct, from the mailroom to the boardroom. To help senior management stay focused on this goal, G-Bank also invited three key corporate responsibility (CR) partners to join the board as observers, giving them license to challenge the leadership when necessary.

+ Measuring corporate responsibility practices

G-Bank recognised the growing strength of the environmental lobby and the need for companies to react quickly to consumer concerns about any aspect of their business which might be deemed unethical. G-Bank introduced an audit process and quarterly company reporting that focused on measuring CR practices—henceforth, carbon emission ratings and carbon exchange activity was detailed alongside the more traditional company valuations.

Employees are also required to complete annual ethical and environmental reviews as part of the compliance process.

+ New rewards model

G-Bank was one of the pioneers of “new reward” practices in financial services—a radical shake-up of the previous reward-for-individual-performance model. It adopted “seven key principles of pay” stating, among other things, that incentive payments should be based on performance measures that adequately account for risks taken in producing profits.

The model was implemented across the organisation, from the top down, and praised by shareholders and regulators. G-Bank also adopted innovative new approaches to retirement funding.

G-Bank's strategic approach to managing people

+ 1. Rich rewards instead of short-term incentives

Employees are rewarded with a rich selection of benefits, however the company rarely offers short-term incentives for performance. This is partly due to the rigorous US regulatory framework and partly that G-Bank’s business model is geared towards slow but sustainable growth instead of quarterly results.

+ 2. People metrics paint the whole picture

G-Bank reports extensively on its people performance as well as a host of other metrics around customer knowledge, ethical behaviour and supply chain efficiency. In the recruitment process, the bank assesses candidates’ professional qualifications as well as the contributions made to society and environment.

+ 3. High levels of employee engagement

At G-Bank, as with many other Green World companies, people management focuses on achieving high levels of employee engagement. Pay is moderate by post-crisis standards. Compensation is aligned with carefully regulated financial and non-financial KPIs. Employee engagement levels are influenced by pay, but also by the chance to work for a company with strong values, an ethical culture, and behaviours that are in line with its employees’ belief systems.

 
 

North America

Scott Olsen
+1 646 471 0651

Ed Boswell
+1 617 530 7504

 

UK

Michael Rendell
+44 (0)20 7212 4945

Western Europe

Fons Hoogeveen
+31 (0) 88 792 5257

Central & Eastern
Europe

Steve Couch
+420 251 152 500

Middle East

Christopher Box
+974 4419 2852

Asia

Mandy Kwok
+852 2289 3900

Thorsten Barth
+65 6236 4382

 

Australasia

Debra Eckerlsey
+61 (2) 8266 903

South & Central America

Joao Lins
+55 11 2674 3536

Africa

Gerald Seegers
+27 (11) 797 4560