Pros
Lloyds TSB looks after it's employees well by creating decent benefits packages (with in-house advice) plenty of holiday, flexible benefits (4% on top of salary to use on perks or take as cash). Good work environment with an emphasis on Work-Life balance and understanding of the individuals requirements for development. Lloyds should become a stronger entity post integration if it can apply its risk averse framework to the HBOS entity. There is a strong underlying structure, with planned investment on IT systems likely to bring them right up to date. Lloyds long term trading strategy should see them through the recession, and in general the long tenures of the workforce will mean that the lessons learned will not be forgotten quickly.
Cons
It's difficult to tell what the downsides will be in a years time (2010), but currently the key one for me would have to be the slow consulatative culture which means that 3 month projects can take 6 months (meetings about meetings). The lack of attrition of staff can be a positive when considering lessons learned, but it also limits the amount on new and fresh ideas that come into the business as job rotation is never likely to happen in less than 18 month or (more likely) 2 years. The lack of Due Diligence on the HBOS assets has been a widely publicised issue and although most of the write-downs were expected, it is slightly concerning that the board did not allow time to pick this up.