Barclays Job Vacancies

If you are looking for a new, challenging career with a well-known respectable company then why not consider Barclays? There are various Barclays job vacancies available to choose from and so no matter what your skills, there will always be a position to suit you.

Where could you fit in?

Barclay’s pride themselves on often being the first bank to offer new innovative products to their customers. They were the first to offer credit cards within the UK and they also provided the first ATM machines. Their financial experts are some of the best in the world and by taking a job within the company, you will learn some of the best skills needed to work within the banking industry.

The jobs that you can apply for within the company include customer service roles, helping to produce and come up with new products, or you could even work in the international section. No matter which section you work in Barclays will provide you with an excellent benefits package and they will teach you everything you need to know to be the best at what you do. Once you have your foot in the door there will be plenty of opportunity to improve your skills through training programmes.
 
If you want to join Barclays then you will need to possess certain skills. One skill that is particularly appreciated is flexibility. The company prefers individuals who are flexible because they are constantly changing. You should also be incredibly customer focused. Barclay’s want to be one of the top five banks within the UK and so they are constantly looking into improving their customer service. So if you have great customer skills and you relate really well with other people then you have a high chance of being selected for a position within the company.

If you want to work within the Barclaycard sector then additional skills are also welcomed. These include having excellent leadership skills, being respectful and trustworthy. If you deliver the results then you will be rewarded really well. In fact, the benefits package alone will have you desperate to work for the company.

As well as good starting salaries, you can also expect huge discounts on cars, holidays, and financial products. You will receive a discretionary bonus each year depending upon performance and pregnant women may also be entitled to 52 weeks off which gives you plenty of time to spend with your new arrival.

Overall getting a career with Barclays could be the best thing that you ever do. Just as long as you are customer focused, flexible, and innovative you could go really far. There are many positions available from trainee positions on the shop floor to higher managerial positions within Barclaycard and translation opportunities within the international sector. No matter what your banking career needs, Barclays can fulfil them.

Barclays Job Vacancies & Career Advancement

Barclays is one of the world’s largest financial services groups, employing 82,000 people around the globe – 80% in the UK, where Barclays is the third-largest banking group, behind HSBC and RBS. Its principal operating groups are Personal Finance Services (UK banking and the Woolwich, between them servicing around 14 million personal customers); Barclaycard (11.4 million customers – one in five credit cards in the UK is a Barclaycard); and Business Banking (over 730,000 customers). Barclays is a full-service operation and also includes investment banking, asset management and Barclays Private Clients (high net worth customers), as well as Barclays Africa.

Executive Summary

In terms of market capitalisation, Barclays is one of the top ten largest banks in the world. A leading high street name with the best-known UK credit card operation, it also provides investment banking, investment management and coordinated services to multinational corporations and financial institutions worldwide.

In 2003 Barclays reported profits of up to 20% at £3.8bn and the first half of 2004 continued the good news with a 23% rise in profits (£2.4bn, well above City forecasts).

Job Pay and Benefits

People are critical to Barclays – the group argues that its business is driven by how energised and committed the staff are, and says this is reflected in the rewards structure. Base pay is targeted at the market average, but there is potential for earning large bonuses at all levels – the more you are able to impact the business, the bigger your potential bonus, but it’s typically 10-15% even for clerical staff.

The good news is that bonuses (and performance appraisals generally) are based not on just what the individual achieves, but how they achieve it. So, for example, growth and development are as important as any sales outcomes. And this is a systematic approach: Barclays has developed a sophisticated scorecard scheme based on customer service metrics to assess staff progression.

Like most employers, Barclays has moved away from a final benefit pension scheme, replacing it with the award-winning “afterwork scheme” that combines a guaranteed retirement fund with the opportunity to invest in the stock market. It requires employees to contribute a minimum of 3% of their salary.

Barclays has an extensive benefits catalogue that includes deals on all Barclays products and discounts on other products.

All employees have the right to ask for flexible working arrangements and where possible the company is keen to take a supportive view. That’s seen too in unpaid parental leave and adoption breaks that exceed the government’s minimum rules; and maternity “buddying” is an interesting idea, giving new mothers the chance to talk to a friendly maternal mentor.

As you would expect from a bank, the financial options are extensive, with a SAYE monthly savings plan that enables staff to purchase Barclays shares at a 20% discount; and the Sharepurchase incentive plan which lets you contribute between £10 and £125 per month towards tax-free share purchases. Barclays estimate that 65% of their employees have a stake in the company through their employee shared plans. Together they represent the biggest private shareholder group. There are also recognition schemes (awards and rewards for exceptional contributions), tax-free saving for childcare and car purchase deals for managers.

Private medical cover is available immediately for most management levels, and to all staff after one year’s service. Cover can be extended to include partners and dependent children.

Barclays offer up to 30 days’ paid leave, with additional time off available for family or compassionate needs as well as for participation in voluntary organisations. You could also apply for an unpaid career break where your job will be held open for between one and five years.

Career Promotion and Development

All banks tend to be formally structured with established hierarchies and the clear lines of responsibility that are required for financial transparency and probity. Barclays is no different, but there is a flipside; the structure means clear career development opportunities, with an easy-to-read CV resulting from it. The company’s size also allows for sideways moves as well as simply upward progression –there is a huge variety of roles and career paths available throughout the organisation that bring all kinds of opportunities to develop new skills.

Barclays has always been highly regarded for the quality of its training – available via the intranet as well as in conventional face-to-face courses. The award-winning Barclays University lists courses for work-related and personal development, and there’s a grant of £150 pa towards any extra training anyone might want. Essentially any and all training is available, though obviously Barclays will target its resources on what it feels will be of most benefit to the business. Barclays also considers requests to support professional qualifications and MBA’s.

The HR department at Barclays has a sophisticated, market competitive and highly developed approach tot eh professional development of its talented individuals, and runs many specifically designed development programmes to identify and grow talent.

The Business Leadership Programme (graduate recruitment) is highly rated – graduates are recruited for specific professional streams, but all spend three months in customer-facing training followed by up to 12 months in placement with the relevant department. It’s a fast-track programme with a good success rate of quick entry to management-level jobs.

Company Culture

Barclays has a set of “behaviours” which it believes set the tone for the company. They include the common goal of “delighting customers” and the equally important “protect and enhance our reputation”. They also emphasise performance (encouraging achievement, avoiding complacency) and dynamic execution (taking ownership of collective decisions and pushing through change where it is needed).

This sounds at odds with the traditional representation of banking as old-fashioned and stuffy – this is because Barclays has put a great deal of effort into changing that image. From the new employee’s viewpoint, Barclays comes across as a consensus-oriented organisation that makes much of internal networking and team operations, but also wants the individual to contribute positively.

It seems to be working; Barclays is an employer that can retain it staff – the average length of service is 11 years and individuals now have the right to request to work up to the age of 70.

Barclays is an international group, operating in 60 countries. Some 30% of the workforce is outside Britain, and while there is a policy of staffing with local nationals, there is some international opportunities for expatriates.

Employees are continuously encourages to have their say via a range of mediums such as the annual Employment Opinion Survey, interim surveys, road shows, company magazines, events and conferences.

Innovation

While retaining a strong sense of heritage and culture of responsibility, Barclays thinks of itself as especially innovative within its sector. Certainly it has racked up a number of UK firsts – the first bank to install computers, the first with ATMs, the first with a website, the first credit card in Britain and the first to offer customers a personal banker.

More recently there has been a highly praised and successful deal with the union on offshore outsourcing, an ongoing experiment with non-PVC materials to produce a more environmentally friendly credit card, the new award-winning pension scheme, and a switch from an extended graduate training curriculum to a shorter, more intense programme that gives trainees real responsibilities within their first year on the job.

Diversity and Social Responsibility

Barclays is a highly responsible organisation, and not just because of the stringent regulations that apply to this sector. The group has a strong brand and a good reputation for being leading edge, and it wants to maintain both.

As part of that, Barclays has a strong culture of community and social responsibility within the group. Indeed, Barclays aims to become a leader in its attitude to CSR; and to that end it has set up an impressive structure of oversight and compliance.

The whole CSR agenda is driven by the group’s vice-chairman, who heads a Brand and Reputation Committee that includes five board directors. Barclays sees a seamless link between its brand and CSR, and the main role of this committee is to ensure conformity, identify areas of non-compliance and act as a CSR think-tank. It has three subcommittees on CSR itself, the environment, and equality and diversity.

In 2003 Barclays was named in the top ten of the Employers Forum on Disability Global Inclusion Benchmark, and in the top give of private sector companies by Race for Opportunity for promoting global diversity.

The group certainly has positive policies in the equality and diversity field, including the establishment of Spectrum – a group of employees interested in gay, lesbian and bisexual and transgender issues that acts as a consultation forum and a support network. There is a similar group for employees interested in disability issues, and a further network for those interested in cultural diversity. More broadly, some 30,000 staff have completed special awareness courses on diversity issues.

People from an ethnic minority background made up 2.7% of senior executives in September 2004, up from 1.1% two years before. Two of the 20 members of the board are women and Barclays is committed to ensuring that the representation of women in senior positions will hit 22% by the end of 2005 (from 11% in 2001).

In 2003, £32.8m was given to the community, including a continued commitment of 1% of UK pre-tax profits. The national Make a Difference Day is now in its ninth year – 10% of the whole group tool part last time, contributing their time as well as money to local projects and charities. Barclays sees this as good for teambuilding and goof for giving something back to local communities. Also, their £ for £ scheme matches the money employees raise for charity (up to a maximum of £750 for each initiative).

In Africa, Barclays is doing more to support families with HIV/AIDS than some governments; in the UK, Spaces for Sports will transform 300 sites over 3 years to convert under-used and derelict land into community sports facilities.

At the National Business Awards 2004, Barclays won the award for being the organisation that can best demonstrate company-wide commitment to corporate social responsibility. Judges looked for evidence of a clearly articulated and widely communicated CSR strategy embedded in the company’s business strategy, and policies and projects that positively impact on the local community in terms of the environment, local employment, local education and charitable work.

Corporate Governance

Barclays takes corporate governance very seriously, as befits an organisation that places such emphasis on its reputation. The responsibility of the company secretary, it is overseen by an Audit Committee of the board.

The corporate governance report (included in the group’s annual report) has a great deal of detail on board structure and its remuneration (including itemised share holdings and options). It complies with the Combined Code on corporate governance except for the formal appointment of a senior independent director to oversee it – that is “a priority for the board during 2004”.

Environmental Record

Barclays has a defined policy on environmental management, administered by an environmental director and overseen by an Environmental Steering Group (senior management from major business areas and functions). The policy is based on compliance with local environmental legislation and international accords on sustainable development.

The company’s environmental management policy and reporting has been rated “exceptional” by the EIRIS Guide to Responsible Banking 2003. A list of key environmental targets is monitored and a detailed annual report is published (the group is currently on track for all targets except paper consumption and overall energy consumption). However, by purchasing 50% recycled paper, recycling all confidential waste and ensuring no redundant electronic equipment is sent to landfill, Barclays are making good progress in achieving these targets.

Barclays recently ranked 4th out of 13 banks in the Economic Index of Corporate Environmental Engagement and are, to their knowledge, the only bank to have achieved ISO 14001 accreditation.

The new HQ that Barclays has built in London’s Canary Wharf has been rated “excellent” under the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method. It has also won a Green Apple award for its high environmental standards.

Barclays plc
54 Lombard Street
London
EC3P 3AH
www.barclays.com