Pros
Santander is a global bank with a overall good reputation. The customers, for the most part, will say they love their bank, and the bank truly means well in their attitude towards those who bank with them. It is a highly sales driven organization and the monetary incentives are top notch. There is incredible employee recognition for those who generate the most income for the bank.
Cons
Execution of all of the above. Though the bank means well when it comes to delivering excellent service to the customers, branches are often so significantly understaffed to meet the volume of traffic. For some locations this might not be as big of an issue if the bank employee system interfaces are not inconsistent and difficult to navigate. The bank builds and maintains its own applications, making them horribly dated and inefficient especially because their “training” is really no more than a few conference calls and the rest on the new hire. I became accustomed to accepting my customers often seeing significant wait times of up to 25mins for a teller and over an hour and a half for a banker (no exaggeration). No matter intention, how much it is talked about within the company, or how even the best of employees addresses it, this is not delivering positive experiences for the customers. As mentioned above, the sales-driven culture is very much alive and the incentives and recognition awards are no joke. This is fantastic but the way both are structured the employee seeing these rewards are likely not putting the customer, and their coworkers first. In fact most employees feel grossly overworked and undervalued as a direct result. The employees in my group, were often ranked, not by what they brought (or might possibly be capable of bringing) to the table, but by how much money they made the bank. Nothing else. Bankers, and not just my reports, were often known to fight over customers depending on what they walked in for. No true camaraderie. Internal gains aside, the sales process itself is also micromanaged with a focus not on the results, but on HOW they are obtained, which is really not empowering on any level. Finally, it’s hard to make friends, which was a surprisingly challenge for me... and then I learned it was because most people don’t stay very long. I even interacted with a few great people that I thought I have in my corner in my less than 1 year tenure, and they just ended up leaving. The turnover here is unlike anywhere I have ever worked and it not only takes a toll on employee morale, but also on the customers view of the bank. I was often uncomfortable when told by my customers that I was probably only as permanent as all the others before me that also said they were there to stay. I wanted so much to love this place but I started to really lose myself and the value I knew I had to give. I had to go where I knew it could be utilized.
