The Co-operative Bank Partnership Report

our staff couldn't be more co-operative

Staff

From the Bank's point of view, we recognise that we owe our success in recent years to the enthusiasm and commitment of staff, who genuinely share our values and objectives. We aim to offer our staff a commitment to personal and career development. This is reflected in the fact that we are the only clearing bank to achieve the Investor in People Award across all operations. Equally important, we strive to involve and empower our people - communicating openly; listening to views; and operating the kind of flat management structure that enables staff at all levels to make a contribution that really counts.

The vast majority of staff, 89%, say they feel proud to be an employee of the Bank, and the longer they have been employed , the stronger the feeling of pride.

Human interest - it may sound obvious, but we believe the more fulfilled our people are at work, the more they'll enjoy life outside of work. And vice versa.

[ Where our staff are, and how they work ]
Based in Manchester, the Bank has a total of 3,776 employees (this figure excludes 95 staff at Unity Trust Bank, in which the Bank holds a 36% holding), over 60% of whom work within the North West region. More specifically, our staff work in the following locations:

• Head Office in Balloon Street Manchester (798 staff)

• 90 branches throughout the UK (724 staff)

• 12 regional Corporate Business Centres (172 staff)

• Personal Customer Services and Telephone Banking Centres at Skelmersdale (894 staff) and The Pyramid, Stockport (310 staff)

• Business Customer Services Centre in Salford (202 staff)

• Other locations (676)

More interesting than where our staff work is how they work. Over the last 10 years, we have evolved a very flat organisational structure, in which there are only five layers of management. We've found this enables us to work together in a much more flexible and co-operative manner, with a minimum of bureaucracy. For individual members of staff, the result, we believe, is that working for the Bank is more enjoyable. Working together in "cross-functional" teams on projects, without constantly needing to refer decisions upwards, our people have a real opportunity to make things happen within the Bank. Our recent Staff Survey, demonstrates our willingness to listen to what they have to say; and our commitment to improving communication is reflected in a major initiative now underway, making every line manager responsible for encouraging constructive feedback from staff. Our staff make a huge contribution to the Bank's success.

In this section of the report, you can read how we are attempting to ensure their efforts are repaid in full.

When we launched our mission statement 10 years ago we made a commitment"to act as a caring and responsible employer".

When the Bank announced its Ethical Policy in 1992, it was explicit that the statements contained therein reflected the concerns of the customers.

The impact that the Bank and its staff have on the environment is significant and in its Ecological Mission Statement the Bank has addopted a set of guidelines for ecological sustainability.