What It Does: Barclays provides commercial banking services such as wholesale and retail banking, investment banking services such as wealth management, and private banking services to individuals, SMEs, and corporations.
Mission: Barclays’s mission is to forge superior, value-giving partnerships with its suppliers and enable innovative solutions that put its clientele at the heart of what it does.
Size and Presence: Barclays Bank’s workforce in Canada comprises thousands of employees across its offices in Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary.
Best Known For: Barclays is one of the most popular banks in the world. It’s one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.
The Good Bits: The bank offers several learning opportunities for new intakes. The work culture is great. Barclays has an excellent welfare program that offers juicy perks and incentives to its employees.
The Not-So-Good Bits: The company’s hiring process is tough and slow.
The rich history of this financial institution goes back to the 17th century when it started as a gold banking outfit. Its name, which it uses to date, was derived from one of the founder’s sons-in-law, James Barclays. As of 1776, the company was named Barclay, Bevan, and Bening. Nine years later, another name was added, and the company was renamed Barclay, Bevan, Bening, and Tritton. Barclays Bank Canada came into existence in Montreal, Quebec, in 1929. In 1966, it launched Barclaycard. The following year, it opened the first cash machine in history. In 1975, Barclays purchased Mercantile Credit Company. A decade later, there was a merger between Barclays Bank International and Barclays Bank.
Barclays launched its first debit card, the Connect card, two years later. In 2004, the bank replaced Barclaycard as the sponsor of the English Premier League. In 2008, the bank acquired Goldfish, a credit card firm. It also acquired a controlling interest in Expobank. As of today, Barclays Bank is one of the largest banks in the world.
The strength of Barclays’ culture is established on five core values, including:
Barclays strives to be like its host communities. It enforces its equity, diversity, and inclusion policy in its hiring process to achieve a diverse employee pool and foster an inclusive environment. Its dress code is business professional. Freshers and interns find it easy to adapt to life at Barclays because the employees are warm and friendly.
Barclays have diverse career development opportunities. Its apprenticeship programs target young school leavers who want real, paid, hands-on work experience while they also study up to degree level. These apprentices are exposed to real, challenging projects, which gives them deep insights into how the organization operates and conducts its business. Fresh graduates are not left out, as the bank's graduate program opens them up to a world of innovative finance. It's the perfect gateway to land essential job roles in the organization and gain expertise in relevant financial and leadership skills that will make them high-value employees.
Barclays Bank receives several thousand applications on an annual basis. Its recruiting process includes an application review, initial assessment/screening, a technical interview, and an interview with HR. The job offer comes next.
A fresh graduate working at Barclays Bank earns an average yearly income of CA$ 50,000.
Employment at Barclays attracts incentives, including income protection cover, retirement fund, annual bonus, life assurance, parental leave, and flexible working arrangements.
Through its Covid-19 Community Aid Package, the company partnered with several charity organizations to provide support and make certain donations to local Canadian communities in need.
In 2012, the chief executive of Barclays and his chief of operations in Canada resigned due to allegations of interest-rate rigging.