ANZ staff morale tumbles after Hisco revelations
Employee morale is at a low ebb at ANZ NZ following the departure of the bank’s chief executive, David Hisco, and the disclosure by Stuff of the lavish benefits he enjoyed during his tenure.
Through a recent staff survey, ANZ found that ‘‘overall trust’’ in senior leadership at the bank has fallen to 49 per cent. And only 60 per cent of bank employees said they feel able to raise issues and concerns within ANZ ‘‘without fear of negative consequences’’.
That measure fell from 86 per cent before Hisco’s departure.
Staff satisfaction also dropped to 69 per cent from 83 per cent, while 71 per cent of employees said they would recommend the bank as a place to work to friends and family, down from 87 per cent previously.
ANZ distributed the results of the ‘‘My Voice’’ survey to staff by email last week; a source within the bank shared them with Stuff, but requested anonymity fearing reprisal. ANZ has warned staff against speaking to the press.
ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick said the company held the survey following Hisco’s departure in order to ‘‘find out the mood of people after the leadership change’’.
He called the results ‘‘disappointing but not surprising considering what’s happened’’.
In the internal email to all ANZ NZ staff, acting CEO Antonia Watson also called the results disappointing, and asked employees to be open with their concerns.
In June, the bank announced Hisco’s departure; chairman Sir John Key said Hisco had misrepresented tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of personal bills as business expenses, including wine cellaring and chauffeur-driven cars.
In making the announcement with acting CEO Antonia Watson at his side (Hisco was already off work on medical leave), Key said Hisco’s actions fell short of the standard of integrity required by the bank.
But subsequent revelations by Stuff quickly revealed that Key and Watson had given only a very partial accounting of the benefits Hisco enjoyed as ANZ NZ’S top banker.
For example, in 2017, the bank sold Hisco’s wife, Deborah Walsh, the six bedroom Auckland mansion Hisco had previously rented from ANZ.
The sale price was close to $4 million less than the home’s rateable value, and it was not disclosed to shareholders and regulators as a related party transaction.
ANZ had also spent more than $500,000 renovating the home in 2015 and 2016, and it footed more than $100,000 annually in maintenance costs.
Acting CEO Antonia Watson has refused to answer questions about the sale, though she knew the details. In 2017, she was a director of Arawata Assets, ANZ’S wholly owned real estate holding company which sold 269 St Heliers Bay Rd to Walsh.
The source who leaked the survey results said employees see ANZ executives as hypocritical.
‘‘They knew what was going on with Hisco even as they were enforcing integrity for everyone else,’’ the source said.
The staffer said that both Felicity Evans, former general manager of human resources, and Watson, then head of retail and business banking, were enthusiastic enforcers of ANZ’S ‘‘culture of integrity,’’ and took a strict line with middle managers on such breaches as company credit card use for personal spending.
Evans left the bank in 2018; she was a director of Arawata in 2017 when the St Heliers house was sold.
Annis O’brien was also a director of Arawata in 2017 and remains on the bank’s executive team.
Watson is understood to be in the running for the permanent CEO position. ANZ said it expects to announce Hisco’s replacement in late September or October.
Australian-based ANZ has the largest share of the lending market in New Zealand.