While the outburst is understandable - I, for one, am yet to find a banker who is truly feeling contrite or remotely grateful to the hard working people subsidising his or her job - I can't help but think the focus on bonuses is a red herring. Instead, we should be focusing on the role of management. Financial failure was in large part due to executives failing to do their job properly, in particular with regards to decisions related to risk.
It's not like we haven't been here before. Back in 1994 the collapse of Barings, thanks to rogue trader Nick Leeson, highlighted the lack of risk controls in banks. The hitherto unthinkable downfall of the oldest investment bank in Britain, bank to the Queen no less, led not only to the jailing of Leeson but a flurry of scholarly articles on 'lessons to be learned' as well as an investigation by the Board of Banking Supervision of the Bank of England and the eventual creation of the Financial Services Authority. It was generally agreed that banking regulation in the 1990s was fragmented and not fit for the modern world.
The problem is that a decade is a long time in business, especially in the City, and, despite Leeson's activities forming the basis of many a business school case study, the financial crisis of 2008 showed that lessons had not be learned.
Indeed, Leeson says he believes other banks will fall victim to rogue trading and that risk is still not being addressed in financial institutions. "If personal risk were highlighted to future talent they would be less likely to take certain actions," he tells us.
A report by the Advanced Institute of Management Research also concludes that poor risk management continues to haunt the banks today. In many organisations the risk management decision maker is too far removed from the action to feel any genuine responsibility, it says.
There are many lessons for HR here, not least the need for consistent messages and actions from leadership to create an organsational culture that supports high quality insight and personal accountability, and enabling employees to understand how their work and actions have an impact on others. And, of course, it is not just banks that need to instill this culture: high profile incidents in the Metropolitan Police and BP demonstrate the need across all sectors.
The incentive framework, including bonuses, may well have contributed to a culture of excessive risk-taking but it is not the crux. Leeson talks about the need for success, at all costs, as well as the fear of failure. For most high-flying traders, the gloss of money wears off quickly (how much more can you spend your millions on?) but ego and the hunger for success are harder to conquer.
This sort of success does not bring happiness - and happiness is where it is at in HR circles at the moment Our exclusive research finds HR professionals to be happier than other employees when judged on a number of measures. It's interesting to note that Barings didn't have an HR department. Perhaps everyone would have been a whole lot happier if it had.
