Barclays to Slash 3,700 Jobs Amid Cost Cutting

Barclays is axing at least 3,700 jobs and pruning its investment bank as its new boss put his stamp on the troubled British bank by aiming to cut 1.7 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) in annual costs and raise standards after a series of scandals.

The plans form part of an overhaul which Chief Executive Antony Jenkins hopes will convince a sceptical public that he can change a bank which has been dogged by controversy, including a $450 million fine for rigging Libor interbank lending rates.

"I understand the cynics and the sceptics out there, but cynics and sceptics never built anything. It will take years before people actually change their impression of us. I'm not daunted by that at all," Jenkins told BBC radio.

Jenkins is taking a harder line on pay and Barclays said it had cut the average bonus for its investment bankers to 54,100 pounds for last year, down 17 percent on the year. It will pay 1.85 billion pounds in bonuses, down 14 percent on the year.

Barclays said the job cuts will include 1,800 in corporate and investment banking and 1,900 in its European retail and business banking. Finance Director Chris Lucas said 1,600 of the investment bank cuts had already been made.

Jenkins plans to focus investment in Britain, the United States and Africa, and reduce the bank's presence in continental Europe and Asia.

That will include a scaling back of the investment bank's equities and advisory businesses in continental Europe and Asia. It will refocus its retail businesses in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France on mass affluent customers.

Jenkins, 51, has said he expects his plan, dubbed "Project Transform", to take five to 10 years to rebuild Barclays, and has told staff they should leave if they do not want to sign up to the new standards.

Barclays shares were up 4 percent by 0930 GMT, the best performer in a flat European banking index.



DIVIDEND LIFT

Jenkins aims to cut the bank's cost base to 16.8 billion pounds in 2015, excluding one-off costs to achieve that of 2.7 billion over the next three years, and lift its dividend to achieve a 30 percent payout ratio.

The bank will pay a dividend of 6.5 pence per share for 2012 from 6p in 2011, which analysts said was encouraging given that UK regulators are telling banks to conserve capital.

"We take this as a positive for the UK banks - the fact that a bank was allowed to increase its dividend in a backdrop where the Bank of England has been talking about capital holes in the UK banks," said Chira Barua, senior analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

Jenkins, a retail banker who was picked at the end of August to run the bank after his predecessor Bob Diamond was forced to quit, will unveil more details on his plan to media and investors later on Tuesday at London's Edwardian Royal Horticultural Halls.

He will reduce the balance sheet by cutting legacy assets. Barclays held 387 billion pounds in risk-weighted assets at the end of December, but that would be equivalent to 464 billion under stricter capital rules coming into force, and Jenkins said he aims to reduce that to 440 billion by the end of 2015.



CHANGING STANDARDS

Much of his focus has been on changing standards and culture that have been criticised as too lax after the bank's Libor fine, the mis-selling of products to millions of customers and investigations into whether Barclays provided enough disclosure in fundraisings from Middle East investors.

The Financial Services Authority and Serious Fraud Office are investigating certain commercial arrangements between Barclays and Qatari investors related to two 2008 fundraisings.

The bank confirmed it will close its controversial but profitable tax advisory business.

Jenkins' plan to keep but scale back the investment bank was expected, as it contributes more than half of group earnings.

Unveiling the strategic plan alongside annual results, the bank reported a 2012 pretax profit of 246 million pounds, down from 5.9 billion in 2011 due to the cost of compensating customers and losses on the value of its own debt.

However, the bank said its adjusted pretax profit for 2012 was 7.05 billion pounds, up 26 percent on the year and in line with the average forecast by analysts.

Pretax profit at the investment bank rose by 37 percent to 4.1 billion pounds, stronger than expected. Income in the investment bank was down 2 percent from the previous quarter, but up 13 percent on a year ago, with fixed income, equities and advisory arms all up.

The bank said it had a good January. "We've had a good start to the year, pretty much across the board and all businesses so we move into the rest of 2013 with confidence," Lucas told reporters on a conference call.

source:  http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2013/02/12/barclays-to-slash-3700-jobs-amid-cost-cutting/

How to Manage Workaholics

Given the state of the economy, it’s tempting to advise people to work harder and really focus on keeping their jobs. But too much effort at the office can be counterproductive.

We are now in a work smart economy where the focus is on doing more with less. Those seemingly stand-out individuals putting-in long hours may be viewed as less efficient than their more balance-conscience colleagues.

The challenge in managing workaholics is that they are often blind to the negative aspects of their behavior. Workaholics often lose sight of why they are even working and can pull their team members into their world if you aren’t careful.

To prevent the long hours are always better attitude to overtaking the office, managers need to take action:

Don’t be peer-pressured into becoming a workaholic. Avoid allowing yourself and your team to get baited into the workaholic’s schedule. It’s important not to punish your more productive and balanced team members with added timelines and burdens purely created by a wayward workaholic. Ultimately, when you let the team workaholic set the pace you lose control of your own schedule and any hope of keeping your family obligations this holiday season.

Help prioritize their activities. When managing a workaholic, managers must set clear priorities for the tasks at hand. Workaholics are driven to overdo it, so keep the employee focused on a limited set of priorities with defined tasks.    

Set clear boundaries. Workaholics tend to have few boundaries, which can be problematic when working on a team. They are the ones who will e-mail you at 2a.m. looking for feedback on something. Once you have agreed on a set of priorities, set clear boundaries around appropriate communication times and be sure to enforce them.

Encourage extracurricular activities. Talk about the fun you had over the weekend, but also point out how non-office experiences enhanced your creativity on the job. The best way to subtly nudge a workaholic into expanding his or her activities is to tie outside activities to work in some way. If workaholics can see how being healthy or spending some time traveling may help them at work, they may take a stab at it.

Don’t enable. Workaholism can be an addiction, and the last thing you want to do is enable a workaholic by legitimizing the belief that he or she is overloaded. Workaholics often overload themselves.  Avoid offering to pick-up extra work or chip-in on a weekend, because it won’t matter--the workaholic will find something else to fill the void. The best thing you can do is show them what they are missing in the world around them. 
Remember, effort doesn’t always equal results. Workers need to find that sweet spot that allows them to maximize productivity while also maximizing personal time. Be sure to find some balance this holiday season and don’t fall prey to the workholics in your office. 

source: foxbusiness.com