This spring, following market sanctions against unethical business practices Citigroup announced mandatory ethical training for all its employees. Since then they have made a real effort to change their corporate culture and have developed a five point plan to achieve more balance between short-term results and maintaining a longer-term perspective on their franchise. An interview in Corpedia under news and events with Chuck Prince, CEO, and Michael Schlein, Senior VP Global Corporate Affairs, Human Resources and Business Practices describes what they have put in place and what they have achieved so far.
Citigroup's objective is to be the most respective global financial services company. And they are building their training around the 200 year history of Citigroup. The five point plan is aimed at improving training, talent and development, performance appraisals, communications and controls. They base it around the idea of "shared responsibilities" - to clients, to each other and to the franchise. All employees are required to take their "ethics and code of conduct" training every 18 months, and they are now trying to apply it to directors, temporary employees, contractors and consultants. Their Citigroup Franchise Forum is a full-day program for the top 1% of senior managers (about 3000 persons world-wide), based on case studies.
They have Business Practices Committees at corporate and divisional levels (forums for maintaining high standards of integrity), and have created a company-wide award to recognize outstanding employees. More from their website under Corporate Citizenship.
Citigroup might have had a very hard landing last year and at the beginning of this year, but they are now very intent on imbedding this into their culture, and they might very well be setting the new industry standard.