Not really sure where to start, but I know this is the worst job I have ever had in my life.
The management is horrendous.
They do not teach or show you how to do things due to their time constraints, and then rip on you for doing it wrong or not doing it. This is after bothering them time and time again to help you, but they always seem to be too busy, until its time to power trip and give you a lecture.
Management doesn't seem to move up through positive work and challenging themselves and others to make the workplace better, but through sucking up to whomever is above them in the chain.
Upper management waltz's in acting like someone they're not. Generally trying to act like some sort of "alpha male" in a fancy looking suit, even though these suits that boost their confidence are no more than average church goers suit, LOL.
Cutbacks also destroyed morale in the culture. Employee's there for their entire lives that everyone took a liking to were given a package and told to get out as their job would be centralized. Only causing chaos and non competent employees would take on these additional tasks so corporate could save money on the more expensive long time employees.
Inter-company communications are also horrible. If you ever need anything or have questions above your branch you will be passed around dozens of different departments all the while waiting on hold for a minimum of 30 minutes each transfer.
They give you a contract with your set hour
I am an employee who consistently, along with other colleagues, surpass sales objectives during the year. I am frequently solicited by management to make sales presentations due to my high product knowledge. I routinely participate at numerous charitable events throughout the year also. Despite my active involvement in the community and excellent sales track record, many of my colleagues and I have not been happy to work for Scotia for many years now. Below are some of the reasons:
- Employees are expected to work late to meet job demands. Overtime policies, such as requirements to secure approval before working extra hours, make it difficult for employees to get paid.
- It has a very poor record-keeping system for overtime.
- Unpaid overtime has been a complaint from employees working in all provinces
- Some branches pay employees overtime while others do not. Management denies it.
- Employee salaries are well below the average in the industry, despite record sales. Some competing banks offer up to $10,000.00 more a year for candidates with the exact same qualifications and position.
- Being short staffed is a common problem at most branches due to its high turn over rate.
- Administrative support staff in branches are being eliminated making the overwhelming job demands even worse and increasing the long unpaid work hours.
- The focus on sales is tremendous. For example, I've been asked to request some brand new clients I meet to come back to see me
ProsFree breakfasts during meetings
ConsLong Hours, Unpaid Work, Sales focused rather than client focused
3.0
Loan Officer | Toronto, ON | May 9, 2014
Not the best place
Scotiabank's best feature are the people that work there, which to me is a little disheartening. Their business practices are a little off in my eyes, such as their training. For example, I am a new employee and was thrown on to live calls with real customers, dealing with their live accounts, while in training. I was not comfortable with that at all. Coming in from being unemployed and knowing how sensitive an issue money is to alot of people, that was very surprising.
I now help support the loans and mortgages department, which I took because I needed the full time hours/salary. If I had known the training would have just been one week, three days of which, were spent reading manuals and having MAYBE one hour of computer "play time" to learn processes and procedures, I might have stayed in the entry level role a little longer to get used to the system, which is VERY outdated.
The workload is not very "employee friendly". Not that I'm at work to breeze by, but there is something to be said about making the employees happy by not treating them like dogs and just expecting them to take hours upon hours of calls, back to back to back, without room to leave a note on a customers account. Our time is counted against us by the minute, even if we take a 10 second breath between calls, which goes against our statistics, which goes against our merit increase. That's just one of the measures that we have to compete with.
I feel that if Scotiabank was to really look at how
ProsSome free banking/learning about money and the Shares plan
ConsWorkload is stressful, vacation time is based on the centre, not the department, system is slow/keeps crashing, unable to email statements to customers who request them
4.0
Business Intern | Toronto, ON | Dec. 11, 2014
Very good
cotiabank is a leading financial services provider in over 55 countries and Canada's most international bank. Since welcoming our first customers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832, Scotiabank has continued to expand its global reach. Today, through our team of more than 86,000 employees, Scotiabank and its affiliates offer a broad range of products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking, to over 21 million customers.
Scotiabank's continued growth and success is founded on several key factors:
A committed team that lives our shared values and works together to provide customers with expert advice, insights and financial solutions.
A highly diversified and well-balanced business, operating within a clearly defined global footprint.
A strategy with a clear focus on three priorities that will help us build an even better bank: being more focused our customers; enhancing leadership depth, diversity and deployment; and being better organized to serve customers and reduce costs.
Our Core Businesses
Our strategy of diversification underpins our potential for sustainable earnings growth in each of our four business lines: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth & Insurance and Global Banking & Markets, over the long term.
Canadian Banking
Canadian Banking provides a full suite of financial advice and banking solutions, supported by an excellent customer experience, to over 7.7 million per
ProsGood Work life balance
ConsBad management
3.0
Customer Relations Representative | Vancouver, BC | Apr. 14, 2016
A Great Place To Work
A typical day at work for me consists of assisting clients with their everyday banking needs, greeting them as they come to the branch for appointments, and following up with with my team. These days it seems like there is always something new afoot; these changes are often greeted with varying levels of enthusiasm from my co-workers but I do my best to try and be a cheerleader for change.
The time that I have spent with my organization has taught me to listen and when in doubt, ask questions as ambiguity and assumptions often lead to mistakes. I believe that great customer service begins with listening. If a customer needs to vent their frustrations (within reason) sometimes it is necessary to let them. In the end, we must hear what they are saying and respond sincerely and helpfully. My job is about more than simply posting transactions correctly; in order to be REALLY good at my job, I need to offer sound and reasonable advice and solutions that help the client get ahead financially and leave them with peace of mind.
Management within my organization...management is a difficult job and there are some individuals that are better suited to it than others.
My co-workers make my job feel less like work. I feel that we are a great team, we look out for each other and try to help out wherever we can. These people are without a doubt the most enjoyable part of my job.
The hardest part of my job is dealing with difficult clients. For some, everything is "urgent", mu
ProsGreat people to work with
ConsRepetitive work
1.0
Assistant Manager | Toronto, ON | Aug. 30, 2018
You're never good enough and you're expected to give your life over to Scotia
This might just be the area I am in but it is an incredibly toxic environment.
Upper management does not trust their employees and is very condescending. We are always considered in the wrong and not doing enough. They have zero trust in their employees and we are made to feel incompetent.
Questionable requests have been made by upper management (all verbally because they would be in trouble if anyone had proof) such as telling us we are no longer able to book off new vacation for the foreseeable future because we are "short staffed". We are short staffed because Scotia has cut a ridiculous number of personnel and are squeezing every ounce of energy out of those that are left.
Overworked, no one in our group has taken a lunch break in nearly a year.
We often are told by management and upper management that we are wasting the bank's time and do nothing.
Constantly felt we are being spied on by management and are constantly under the microscope.
The atmosphere feels very much like a "boys club" and although they preach about gender equality and representation in the work place, if you look at those employed in upper management and as executives... you can see that equality and representation is clearly lacking.
Certain employees are able to get away with huge transgressions whereas others are held on a much tighter leash.
Seriously, everyone in our larger area hates it here. My recommendation to upper management would be to stop trying to squeeze ever
ProsSome of my coworkers have become close friends
ConsLack of respect for employees, bad management, "boys club" environment, everyone is looking for someone to blame for any issue, not paid enough for what we do, overworked, ridiculous expectations, toxic atmosphere, managers that are not fit to be managers, all about the bank's profit with no regard for employee well-being
3.0
Income Manager | Toronto, ON | Feb. 7, 2016
Bank is innovatively growing, career growth opportunities within the bank, Managment in a nascent stage
Scotiabank is growing while the other banks are showing signs of slowing down. The bank is developing a fresh vision and the bank is trying to venture in to some unique endeavours. The vision however needs to seep in to other groups.
A typical day at work requires time sensitive reports to be delivered to trading floor, risk management and finance. Month end and quarter ends are particularly busy and require working over the weekends for timely reporting to upper management. This requires attention to detail and sensitivity to time given the information is published for the investors of the bank.
The co-workers are hard working however, some times skills do not match the work that they are asked to deliver. Training opportunities have been made available to the staff .The staff has varying levels of competencies. Its a challenge and an opportunity for personal growth.
Hardest part of the job is to get timely approvals from the front desk and risk management on the month end valuation adjustments. It needs to ensure that the analysis reflects the market conditions and is conservative enough to protect the bank at large on any adverse market movements. Being a part of a big organisation also requires ability deal effectively with internal business partners who might be apathetic to the requirements of my group. This also create opportunities for improvements in the processes and sensitising staff to changing requirements. The banks are all heading towards tight ope
ProsPart of huge change, and opportunities in various parts of the bank
ConsMismatch of talent and deliverables
3.0
Financial Advisor | British Columbia | Jul. 26, 2020
Good Place to get started. Poor Standards and Ethics
Fine people, fine culture. Most of the people are nice, and management team respect employees.
Compensation are fine--above market average, and good additional compensation.
However,
1) All the banks(not just Scotia) would never treat people equally and nicely unless you are rich. They all advocate that they treat people nicely and equally regardless of their nationality, race, economic status and occupations. That's a lie.
2) This is a Sales Role. It means that sales is everything. If you want to follow code of conduct, standards and ethics, you would never be successful. Sales is everything--again, all the banks are the same, not just Scotia(Scotia is actually comparatively better than its competitors regarding to this).
3) People are really nice and respect each other, and that holds to be true at 99% of the time. The 1% being left is that if the issue is related to their sales------You can spend 3 days to work for a customer in order to gain the customer's respect and trust; however, a senior would tell you that this customer has been assigned to other people when the customer is about to bring you big sales. Again, this job is all about sales.
4) You don't need a college degree, and you don't need to have any financial knowledge to do a sales role. They would train you how to make people happy and getting sales instead of teaching your financial knowledge--If you don't trust me, ask a FA to calculate interest payment/amotization/mortgage payment/rate of ret
ConsSell or go home
5.0
Senior Financial Advisor | Calgary, AB | Feb. 11, 2019
Great Employer with Great People
I am currently a Senior Financial Advisor with the Bank of Nova Scotia in Calgary. I take an all encompassing approach to analyze and meet the needs of high net worth clients' financial affairs and provide them with the necessary investment advice to meet their goals and objectives. My role allows me to provide financial planning advice through taking a holistic approach towards understanding not just the client's financial affairs but their overall lifestyle as well as their past, present and future objectives. From there, I use that information to assist and advise clients on different financial matters, such as investment solutions available to assist them reach their goals, mainly retirement or more immediate credit solutions they may need. I regularly assist high net worth clients, such as business owners and surgeons and other professionals, with more complex borrowing and financing needs related to their business.
As the role of a Financial Advisor has become more competitive, I add value to client relationships by relating with them on a personal level before discussing any financial services. Once rapport has been established, I determine their overall situation as well as their financial objectives and provide investment solutions accordingly. My primary objective is to focus on providing value added service for my clients using my knowledge and expertise rather than solely giving a solution to what they originally asked for. I aim to continuously discover differ
ProsExcellent Work Culture
ConsBranch open less hours than other banks
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Ottawa, ON | Aug. 20, 2019
Disorganized, Poor Work Environment
They have great benefits and pay. I really got along with my co-workers.
They have an outdated system from the 80s, the type which requires you to enter values in obsolete fields and press buttons just to be able to navigate from page to page, let alone everything else you have to do with it.
Then I got voluntold to train to handle corporate accounts and that system is even more dated, requiring you to enter a long string of code just to log in repeatedly throughout the day. Not to mention, you have to be going back between systems. You do not get even a thank you for adding systems and skills to your already high call volume.
We had to manage our own schedules and submit all our hours, while taking back to back calls, doing case work, adding notes after the call. It was worse for my boss who confessed that he had to come in, in secret, after hours just to finish all of his work.
Their resources should be consolidated and made more searchable.
Their systems and resources take ten minutes to set up before you actually start working. Consultants have a serious attitude problem, many were condescending and snarky. One lady in our team was actually told by her boss, that the other team managers didn't think she was going to last long, needless to say she had a break down and left not long after that. She was an older lady and had her struggles, I admit, but she was really giving it her all.
I could go on, and on, and on... suffice to say 50% of the people that
ProsGreat pay & benefits
ConsHorrible Work Environment, did not feel valued
Questions and answers about Scotiabank
If you were to leave Scotiabank, what would be the reason?
Asked Mar. 28, 2017
Managment.
Answered Oct. 12, 2019
Si cette ne correspond pas à mes attentes et objectifs
Answered Aug. 27, 2019
Why did you leave your job at Scotiabank?
Asked Mar. 21, 2017
Scotiabank was the most toxic environment I had ever encountered. The managers literally swore at the staff for missing sales targets that had quadrupled in three years. There was no sense of integrity. You were praised for actions that ripped off customers at long as you didn’t get caught. Any complaints would be dumped on the front line staff even-though management encouraged actions that led to complaints. Promotions were 100% about politics. Great colleagues were pushed aside even if they tried to mind their own business and their positions given to people with an utter lack of competence but played political games with management. Anybody that tried to stand up and have even possibly blow the whistle on this was quickly dealt with. Do not ruin your mental health by working for this company. They are utterly corrupt and if you do work for them, you’ll see this within a few weeks.
Answered Dec. 12, 2020
Because it is boring, awful
No work for you to do, then blame you for not working for them
Answered Nov. 29, 2019
What would you suggest Scotiabank management do to prevent others from leaving?
Asked Mar. 21, 2017
Treat everyone fairly, pay better and don't burn out your people. Don't under utilize and overwork your employees. Provide better training so new contract workers don't have to train other new employees when they are still learning. Also favoritism is very real at Scotiabank. If they like you, you go far...even without experience.
Answered Oct. 12, 2019
J ai une entière confiance à cette entreprise avec laquelle j ai beaucoup travaillée en tant que Directeur financier depuis de nombreuses années, et les négociations se sont toujours bien terminé ! Vraiment une entreprise à l'écoute de nos besoins !
Answered Aug. 27, 2019
What should you wear to an interview at Scotiabank?
Asked Mar. 6, 2017
I would wear a formal suit .
Answered Jan. 10, 2019
Professional suit
Answered Jan. 4, 2019
What are the perks offered by Scotiabank?
Asked Apr. 5, 2018
Health Benefits, Pension Plan, Employee Share Plan, End of Year Performance Bonus
