I have blogged quite a lot about the problems of the “bonus culture” particularly where very large bonuses are concerned. There wasHow Rewards Sabotage Creativity andUnintended Consequences – what do very large bonuses attract? andBonus Culture – proud to win a cabbage not the cash?And have you heard the latest spin on this from the Royal Bank of Scotland? (as reported by Graham Jones)Graham says
The boss of RBS has scored a Gordon Brown-like “own goal”. The bank’s Chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, has admitted that city bankers are paid too much – “astonishingly high”, is what he said their salaries were. He went on to say, however, that if you don’t pay these big salaries, then people leave. Indeed, said Sir Philip, many of the “top people” have already left RBS. That was before he went on to explain that the bank had achieved much better results than expected. Sorry, run that past me again? The “top people” have left – and the bank has improved. Er…sounds to me like you should let more of them leave, Sir Philip…!
which is more or less what I have been saying for sometime!and Graham goes on to say:
But why is it that everyone in the banking industry – and the Government – falls for the line “we have to pay people high salaries in order to keep them”?
If you want to read more on this then go to Graham’s blog here
