Passing the bucks

A recent survey by Here Is The City has highlighted what could be a challenging new trend for top-level staff: giving the boss a pay cut could actually increase employee satisfaction.

The survey, designed to find the best workplaces within the Square Mile, ranked Japanese investment bank Nomura the number one city employer. While Nomura’s President and CEO Yugo Ishida has offered up the company’s growth in emerging markets and strong client focus as fairly standard explanations for its win, there could be another underlying reason the bank was voted number one. Something the big bosses of big business might want to keep under their hats.

After a dismal 2007, in which one third of US staff were laid off, Nomura bucked the trend of giving its bosses multi-million dollar golden handshakes and instead its top three directors and other executives agreed to take significant pay cuts of up to 30 per cent.

Further reinforcing this, companies like Citigroup, who were also hit hard last financial year, placed much lower in the survey – 12th in fact. The difference? Their CEOs were given the standard huge payouts on their way out. Hmm…

Whether or not this idea catches on, it is refreshing to see the big bosses accepting some of the responsibility for a change, rather than simply (or literally) passing the buck.

Saara Tarjavaara
Operations Manager
Melcrum