Morgan
Stanley is wooing its investment bankers by introducing paid sabbaticals for
newly-promoted vice-presidents and making earlier job offers to those at the
start of their careers.
The Wall
Street bank’s initiatives come as lenders on both sides of the Atlantic explore
more creative ways to discourage talented staff from defecting to more
fashionable industries such as technology and hedge funds.
It
typically takes about five years of long hours to reach VP level, where bankers
usually earn more than $150,000 a year.
In
another strategy to keep staff, the bank will talk to analysts about their job
prospects in November this year — three months earlier than the usual
performance review. “We will communicate to people earlier in their careers
that they have significant runway at Morgan Stanley, that we want them to
stay,” the bank said.
Other
innovative schemes to improve banker retention rates include global mobility
programs, such as that offered by Deutsche Bank, and volunteer opportunities,
in evidence at Citigroup.
Most
banks have also brought in measures to improve work-life balance for junior
bankers, including news this week that UBS has asked junior bankers to take two
hours off a week to attend to “personal matters” and Credit Suisse has banned
staff from working Friday nights, other than in highly exceptional
circumstances.
edited from The Financial Times
