Deutsche Bank Employee Morale Said to Steady After 3-Year Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Morale among Deutsche Bank AG employees is showing signs of steadying after declining for three consecutive years, according to a person familiar with the company’s survey.

Staff commitment to the Frankfurt-based lender was mostly unchanged from last year, at about 58 percent, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing the results. The survey, conducted in April and May, also showed that about half of staff are now “proud” to work for the bank, a slight improvement, the person said.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the results, earlier reported by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Morale at the bank was eroded last year by market concerns about its financial strength that pushed its share price to a record low on Sept. 30. While Chief Executive Officer John Cryan has since resolved some of the bank’s biggest legal cases and raised 8 billion euros ($9.1 billion) in capital, a steep bonus cut and a new round of job cuts announced in March may continue to weigh on workforce morale.

The share of people who are uncertain they will still have their job three years from now rose to three-quarters, likely reflecting the worry created by the March announcement, the person said. The level of commitment was 63 percent in 2015 and 66 percent a year earlier. In 2012, it was as high as 73 percent. 

A survey published by salary benchmarking company Emolument.com in May showed that 61 percent of Deutsche Bank’s investment bankers were dissatisfied with their bonuses, by far the highest share among the 13 banks included in the report.

Deutsche Bank questions a representative sample of its staff yearly, publishing the results in its annual report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Cindy Roberts