National Australia Bank Reviews

Former Employee – worked at National Australia Bank full-time

Pros – Retail:
- the company has big goals which are communicated clearly to all staff
- a nationwide training initiative means managers have finally been taught how to properly manage teams
- big emphasis on self development and progress
- great pay and room for promotions if you're willing to progress
- recent focus to simplify processes and make processes leaner

Cons – - dated computer systems. when I left last year tellers were still using a very old system which many other banks had long discarded. And even the more recent systems in the branch were outdated, slow and unreliable.
- a new promising system had been due for over a year and still hadn't been delivered when I left.
- a lot of older staff, majority of which have lots of experience but also difficulties adapting to newer ideas and processes

Advice to Senior Management – Although long overdue, I think the company is now on a good track.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Job stability, great work and life balance

Cons – less pay rate, management incapability

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - Used to be a good place to get a variety of exposure, this has curtailed due to the hush-hush possibilities of restructuring
- Embraced working from home, to the extreme of people who don't need them
- Embraced Women in Finance, to the extreme that targets are set and people are promoted blindly, discriminating the other gender
- Open communication culture, in some teams

Cons – - Inconsistencies in employee treatment in different teams, leadership style very much depends on the general manager of the division, ie can be pro-sucking up; or pro-productivity; and for people who leave the bank, some get exit interviews and some doesn't; so the good become better and the bad become worse
- Top heavy structure, with most senior management external hires; the gap between middle to senior management is never addressed, despite big talk on transparency, retention and leadership programs
- Go to HR for advice about how to go about discussing something about your manager and they tell you to go back to your manager
- Team engagement score is put onto your performance scorecard, and people who have been told they under-performed are assumed to be the culprits of dragging the score down, and subsequently politically gotten rid of

Advice to Senior Management – - Practice what you preach: if you truly want to improve engagement, get a true engagement assessment, not a manufactured one through scorecard
- In some obviously top heavy team, replace the senior people who do nothing but talk to presentations. They are more expensive and less productive. Invest in the people who actually do work, eg. make revenues, support processes and perform analytics. it's a waste of money to have 100 GMs, 100 head ofs, 100 senior managers, 100 managers, 100 analyst.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at National Australia Bank as a contractor for more than 3 years

Pros – NABs has really interesting workplaces.

Cons – There is an air of uncertainty like none of ever experienced before in NAB at the moment.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work, I'm sure getting rid of the people who know what they're doing will help the profit this FY.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at National Australia Bank full-time for more than a year

Pros – Work life balance and benefits

Cons – No downside factors to mention about

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good people; balanced approach towards incentive systems; customers respect the brand and bank;

Cons – Bloated middle management layers; slow and centralized decision making; limited empowerment; chronically outdated IT

Advice to Senior Management – Middle management justify existence by centralising decision power. Cut middle management and empower decision making lower in the bank to improve morale, performance and customer outcomes.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Big company, trying to change the face of banking in Australia, great products and a friendly management team

Cons – Systems very outdated, trying to do even the simplest task requires re work and trying to get things through credit decisioning is like pulling teeth, so much wasted time going back and forth. A lot of customers get frustrated at this slow response time

Advice to Senior Management – Stop the "doing more with what we have" mentality and make everyone's life easier, hire some more staff and streamline processes. Also outsourcing doesn't fix everything

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – all-in-all very good and friendly place to work in

Cons – could be lots of red-tape to follow the processes

Former Employee – worked at National Australia Bank full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Excellent Culture
Work / Life Balance

Cons – Career Opportunities are somewhat limited in the sense that its not easy although there maybe opportunities.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at National Australia Bank

Pros – Wide variety of work is available to staff who want to have the challenge of different roles in different cities in Australia.

Cons – Salary does not move from when you start at the company even when you are promoted.
Latest initiative for high performing teams made participation in bonus scheme harder and less attainable than in previous years.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend