In a couple of recent posts, we’ve been looking at instances of entry-level or frontline employees creating major PR, financial, or legal troubles for major organizations.
In our first post on the topic, we looked at the case of a Starbucks employee calling the police on two black men waiting at a table in one of its stores. In the second, we discussed a notorious fat finger incident at Samsung Securities.
Here, we’ll look at another incident—really, incidents—involving another financial institution: Wells Fargo. In this case, though, the cause of the meltdown wasn’t a mistake but rather systemic malfeasance.
Wells Fargo Faces Serial Scandals
Wells Fargo has faced a string of scandals starting back in September 2016 when news broke about its employees creating millions of unauthorized bank and credit accounts without customers knowing about it. That scandal alone led to $185 million in fines and the termination of 5,300 employees. Shortly thereafter, news broke about Wells Fargo illegally repossessing cars from servicemembers. And there was more, but you get the gist.
This isn’t a single employee creating trouble for a company—it’s thousands of employees engaged in unacceptable behaviors. And while top executives faced a great deal of scrutiny themselves, the vast majority of the bad actors were low-level staff.
Training to Tackle Dishonesty, Poor Values
We’ve covered a couple of examples of poor judgment or mistakes by frontline employees that have cost their companies big money, bad PR, and regulatory scrutiny. In the case of Wells Fargo, the issues were dishonesty and fraudulent behavior, but there are still opportunities to train employees with an eye toward preventing this type of behavior.
Often, employees may not know what they’re doing is wrong. Even if they do, they might not have a firm grasp of how serious the penalties are for their wrongdoing.
For companies that face big-time financial and regulatory risk, training on these matters is critical. In fact, for any company, ensuring that employees know what is ethical and fair, and what is not, is paramount.
Are your values sound? Are your employees steeped in them? Do they understand the risks they may create based on actions that are contrary to your values? If not, it’s time to take steps to ensure that they do.