Identify 3 most strategic issues being faced by the bank, rank them in order and justify your ranking.

Issue-1: Disparity in payment of managers in view of their job responsibilities

Justification: Suzanne Roberts, the Vice President of Accounting of Valley National Bank noticed that some of the best contributors of her department were the lowest paid employees whereas some of the inefficient managers were drawing high salaries i.e. there is absence of performance based payment. For example, Bob Philips, a manager of the department lacks organizational and planning skills to manage his people. He is unable to complete employee performance appraisals on time. Also his weak interpersonal skills have caused employee resentment and many good employees have left the company. In their place some inefficient people have been hired. Similarly, Carla Goodman is another manager who draws a quite high salary but does not accept the responsibility of supervising and reviewing people. She openly criticises the company, thus drawing concerns of other employees. Greg Williams is not the quickest person to catch on to things, and has a difficult time interacting with others. On the other hand, Kathy Lewis, the most efficient manager in the department is technically sound, has good knowledge of the latest systems, is willing to put in extra hours of work to get jobs done, and effectively manages the people. However, her salary is not commensurate with the responsibilities that she takes. Inefficiency of some of the managers is reducing employee morale. Also, the disparity in payment may result in diminishing the drive of the hard working managers.

Issue-2: Inexperience of managers and employees

Justification: Valley National Bank will shortly acquire the new bank after which its assets will be close to $12 billion. Even though there is a wealth of talent in the acquired company, yet the managers and employees do not have much collective experience of managing a large company. The line and staff management employees do not have the requisite knowledge/ expertise to use the managerial accounting software. Usage of the software is necessary for making better decisions in the daily operations and thus benefitting the bank in terms of bottom-line results.

Issue-3: Recruitment policy vis-a-vis placing right people at right positions

Justification: The recruitment policy of the company is faulty since it was found that often the first person who walked in for the job interview was hired. Since human resource is the most important element in taking a company forward, recruitment of employees should not be done in such a slipshod manner. Suzanne Roberts has also observed that the right people are not placed at the right places in the department and as such optimum utilization of human resource is not being done.