Control System Management of NAB Bank Australia; people/cultural controls and personnel control
People / culture controls
National Australian Bank is committed to investing in its people; culture and reputation diversity, inclusion, flexibility and wellbeing are good for its people and are good for business. NAB people want to feel proud of their organization. It’s an essential part of lifting engagement, unlocking creativity and innovation and driving a better outcome for customers and shareholders

NAB emphasizes on the accountability of its leaders to create a work environment and foster a company culture where individual differences are understood, respected, and fully valued. It realizes that its employees want to feel proud of their company, and this is an essential factor in lifting employee engagement, unlocking creativity and innovation, and driving a better outcome for our customers and shareholders. At a time when the industry is frequently criticized, employee engagement and confidence are critical to performance. Employees are an important asset and a key driver of the company performance. Flexible working have been put into place whereby each and every member of the organization works flexibly – in a way that supports, their duties and responsibilities and the way they live. (Garry M p. 4)
NAB measures and rewards the employees performance by conducting an annual survey on key aspects of its culture which include: Engagement in terms of how employees feel about working at NAB, and how connected they feel to the enterprise, its strategies and culture; Enablement which involves how its processes, technologies, policies, tools and systems help or hinder employees in doing their job; Beliefs and behaviors – how well employees feel the entity is demonstrating the organization’s purpose and behaviors; Diversity whereby they track the feelings of their employees on their efforts to create and sustain a diverse and inclusive workforce by assessing whether the enterprise understands and values the employees’ differences and lastly, Risk culture where the survey finds out the extent to which employees feel NAB is demonstrating behaviors supportive of a positive risk culture. (Garry M p. 5)
According to (Bell A p.5) the Bank is working to achieve the gender diversity targets published in 2011. It is committed to addressing existing imbalances to achieve greater gender diversity – particularly in the senior levels of the organization – through the development of measurable objectives by the Board that will provide the framework for achieving their progressive realization. The entity is committed to the Board evaluating these objectives annually and critically assessing the progress in their attainment. In addition NAB is the only Australian bank to complete a gender pay equity audit which revealed that it is making progress towards narrowing the gap.
The organization strives to be a diversity leader and to advocate it in their industry by fully integrating diversity based practices into the way they work, and how they do business; to invest in building capability among its people leaders so as to support and foster diversity and flexibility; to consistently meet or exceed their legal and regulatory obligations in relation to equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion, wherever the business operates; and to be recognized externally as being an organization that exemplifies diversity in action.

Personnel controls that are implemented through:
a) selection and placement
(Garry p. 31) states that NAB has laid down foundations that are sustainable that develop recruiting protocols, both external and internal, that eliminate bias whether it is real or perceived. The bank has more than 43,000 employees who are predominantly Australian based (66.9%), with a majority in permanent full-time positions (84%).The organization believes that the investment made in the employees, culture and reputation sets it apart from its competitors.
NAB has an award-winning African Australian Inclusion Program (AAIP) in partnership with Jesuit Social Services that help people experiencing disadvantage gain access to mainstream employment by providing skilled African Australians with a six-month paid work placement at NAB. People have graduated from the program, and among these, over 90% have secured ongoing employment either internally or externally in their chosen field. (Garry p. 5)

(Cline p. 20) clearly stipulates that NAB has a Reconciliation Action Plan which includes a renewed commitment to financial inclusion, job access, cultural awareness, and building business partnerships with Indigenous Australians. Indigenous employment program continues to grow as per the Annual engagement survey. NAB’s Indigenous employment program positions include school-based trainees and full-time trainees, trainees awarded permanent roles, as well as general recruitment.

The enterprise focuses on realizing the potential in employees through people leaders; enablement through work processes, and on how to manage change. It also focused on retaining the best talent in the business. Talent is those employees identified as strong performers who have potential to move into ‘Enterprise leadership’ positions in the future. Employees are identified, assessed, developed and deployed through Talent Management program in the organization

b) Training
NAB has continuously invested heavily in the capability of its employees. In 2012, they invested $41.1 million in training and development programs, and 1,807 employees across the Group attended leadership and development programs. As well as maintaining a concerted focus on career management and individual development, the organization is embracing technology to deliver learning throughout the organization. Online learning, virtual classrooms and podcasting are augmenting the more traditional face-to-face approach to learning, with the aim of providing distributed learning opportunities in a timely manner.

In line with the organization’s commitment to enhance the capability training delivered through digital channels of the training Academy NAB opened five virtual learning studios to make learning more accessible for employees in rural and regional areas. These continue to deliver cost and productivity efficiencies by reducing travel time and expenses associated with face-to-face learning.

NAB seeks to endure differentiation through leadership, reputation and culture. It differentiates itself through leadership by creating a deep pool of enterprise leaders. This creates a cohort of leaders who shape strategy, inspire teams, deliver results and enable future performance. The enterprise has put significant effort into retaining skilled staff by driving learning and development for its employees through the Academy model. The academy was created to deliver value across the business by building a workforce with world leading capability to drive sustainable, enhanced performance and strengthen NAB’s reputation. The Academy provides employees with experiences and tools to develop the skills they require to be successful in their current role and to prepare our people for career opportunities of tomorrow
c) Job design and the provision of the resources
NAB has been successful in recognizing and celebrating each other’s successes, and collaboration. It has focused on the Employee Effectiveness Framework, which categorizes employees into one of four effectiveness clusters based on how their engagement and enablement compares to that of an external norm.

The bank continues to invest in and to improve the support structures and frameworks supporting formalized skill mapping and development processes. It expects is that 100% of its employees have scorecards – including individual development plans (IDP) – and are assessed via the same Performance Management Framework.
Ensuring that all employees have Performance Scorecards and IDPs is the responsibility of all people leaders, and the Scorecard and IDP is developed through agreement between a people leader and employee. Employees are expected to have them in place in order to receive their individual performance related compensation.

NAB has embedded an enterprise-wide set of behaviors into its core processes and programs. These support the overall objectives of the organization, including its culture and reputation. These behaviors require that employees should always be authentic and respectful, work together and create value through excellence (Enterprise Behaviors).
The Enterprise Behaviors are integrated into core processes and programs (e.g. performance management framework and organizational capability framework). All employees are assessed on these behaviors as part of the mid-year and end-of-year performance cycle.
In terms of resources NAB has a focus on Health & Wellbeing where it remains proactive in implementing strategies and systems to help prevent injury or harm to employees while at work and by providing them with opportunities to improve their general health and wellbeing.
In terms of mental health NAB Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Manager Assist and an online service called EAP Direct, provide a range of free counseling support services to its people and their families in Australia. These services offer confidential support when dealing with personal or work related issues such as stress, anxiety, depression and grief. Education workshops and learning programs are also available to build employees’ capability to manage their mental health, and to create awareness of mental health issues and how to identify and understand them. Courses are available through the Academy in areas of Personal Resilience (dealing with adversity at work) and Emotional Intelligence. (Sharma p.10)

According to (Sloan p.3) NAB supports employees who are injured at work by providing early intervention and return to work programs. These are designed to immediately address circumstances surrounding the nature of injury and care for the employee. Early intervention and return to work programs assist employees to make a recovery from an injury quicker in a well-supported workplace environment.

As well as days lost due to workers compensation claims, NAB also measures other types of unplanned absenteeism. This includes sick leave, carers leave and bereavement leave. These measures are normally calculated as average days lost per full time equivalent. Unplanned sick leave provides an important indicator of the health and wellbeing of the organization and is measured monthly. Any material movement in sick leave trends is further investigated and analyzed as to possible cause.

Employees of NAB can join and be represented by a union without suffering from any form of discrimination or prejudice. The bank endeavors to comply with all relevant freedom of association legislation, regulatory requirements and ILO Conventions 87 and 98. In the three largest regions in which NAB operates, employees are represented by the following unions: Finance Sector Union (Australia), First Union ( New Zealand) and Unite (United Kingdom) NAB’s Global Unions Engagement Agreement recognizes the three unions as key stakeholders in business and the union’s rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association within NAB Group. (Murdoch p. 5)

REFERENCES
Bell A. (4 May 2010). “NAB earnings expected to trail rivals”. Melbourne: Australia. Retrieved 17 November 2011 p.2-5
Cline K. (11 October 2011). “Innovating for Customers”. BAI Banking Strategies. Australia pub. Melbourne. Retrieved 17 November 2011. P. 20
Garry M. (2009) People dig deeper annual NAB review paper Ernst & Young
Melbourne, Australia p. 5
Garry M. (2012) NAB code of conduct our behavioral guidelines: a code of conduct brochure Ernst & Young Melbourne, Australia p. 4

Garry M. (2012). 2012 annual review National Australia Bank Ernst & Young
Melbourne, Australia p 23- 31
Murdoch, (2009). “Big Four Australian banks have joined the global elite”. News Limited, Australia. Retrieved 2009-02-03. P. 3-7
Sloan (2012) Group Diversity & Inclusion Policy Ernst & Young
Melbourne, Australia p. 3
Sharma M. (4 March 2008). “NAB sends jobs offshore”. Australia. Retrieved 2008-03-04. P. 10