THE INTERESTS OF clients always come first, says Goldman Sachs International. Not far behind is the need to keep its employees happy. Second on the financial services firm's list of business principles reads: “Our assets are our people, capital and reputation. If any of these is ever diminished, the last is most difficult to restore.” One of the ways Goldman Sachs makes its employees feel valued is by listening to them. Due to what the company describes as “unprecedented levels of scrutiny and media attention” in recent years, it has introduced more ways of giving and receiving feedback. Examples include access to senior bosses via email and voicemail, as well as town hall meetings hosted by Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde, joint chief executives of Goldman Sachs's Europe, Middle East and Africa wing. About 2,000 people were involved in the first session in person, on the phone or via video conference and staff say they have confidence in the leadership skills of the senior management team (a 78% positive score, ranked top). A 75% factor score for Leadership questions in our survey is a result better than any of the other Best Big Companies. Senior managers are said to live the values of the organisation (76%) and the leadership runs the firm based on sound moral principles (77%). Staff feel proud to work for Goldman Sachs (82%) and say the company makes a positive difference to the world (69%). Almost half (46%) the Goldman Sachs workforce has been at the company for at least five years and this may be partly due to the pay; nearly three-quarters (73%) of people earn £55,000 or more and four out of 10 are paid more than £100,000 a year. The firm has two internal initiatives for developing staff. Pine Street offers leadership training, while the company's own Goldman Sachs University has courses taught in the classroom and over the internet to improve business and interpersonal skills. Experience gained from the job is valuable to staff's future (81%, the top rating) and people believe opportunities to learn and grow within this organisation are not limited
