One of the first challenges that Societe Generale SA’s incoming chief executive officer Slawomir Krupa will face this year is convincing staff that the bank is on the right track.
(Bloomberg) — One of the first challenges that Societe Generale SA’s incoming chief executive officer Slawomir Krupa will face this year is convincing staff that the bank is on the right track.
Only 40% of the French lender’s employees agree with its strategic direction, according to the results of an annual internal survey seen by Bloomberg News. That’s less than the 43% recorded last year, and far below the 75% score seen across the financial industry in a broader poll conducted by Ipsos. Among the bank’s top 1,400 managers, that figure rose to 80%.
Overall, a bigger group of SocGen employees, 44%, said they didn’t know enough about the bank’s strategy to answer.
In the study, conducted around the time of Krupa’s appointment last year and after almost 15 years of current Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea’s reign, 57% of the respondents said they trusted the decisions taken by top management. That’s again much lower than the industry average.
A spokesman for SocGen declined to comment.
Krupa, who is set to replace Oudea at the next annual general meeting in May, is expected to unveil his strategy plans later in the year. In the meantime, his immediate priority is to complete the bank’s main ongoing projects, such as the merger of its domestic retail networks, the integration of its car leasing businesses as well as the creation of a joint-venture with AllianceBernstein in equities.
While he will also be judged on the delivery of the bank’s 2025 objectives, Chairman Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has said the CEO’s main job will be to raise the bank’s share price. With a 0.31 price-to-book ratio, SocGen is one of the least-valued major banking stocks in Europe.
By comparison, 73% of Deutsche Bank AG’s employees said in 2021 that they trusted the bank’s senior management, up from 59% in 2019. The German lender’s multi-year strategy revamp is nearing an end under CEO Christian Sewing, and has been seen as largely successful.
According to the SocGen survey, Krupa can count on employees’ emotional attachment to their jobs, even if they’re hazy on the overall direction. Some 74% of the bank’s employees say they are proud to work for it. Still, this is 1 percentage point less than last year, and lower than the 80% seen across the industry.
SocGen invited its staff to take part in an internal poll from late September to mid-October last year. More than 75,000 employees took part in the poll released internally last month, showing a 73% participation rate instead of 59% the year before.
–With assistance from Steven Arons.
(Updates with details on Deutsche Bank)
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