Recommendation
1. Global recession has caused financial institutions and banks to review their business lines. This is because the demand for their traditional products has altered due to the downturn in their clients businesses; business lines that were showing expansionary trends are either no longer in demand or have become high risk for the banks and financial institutions.
Recommendation: It is recommended that National Bank of Abudhabi reassess the relevance of the existing products; whether some are to be discontinued and new ones to be added.
2. Whilst National Bank of Abu Dhabi has instituted formal policies and procedures, there is a need reexamine those policies in the light of changing economic times, particularly in a recession where the likelihood of exposure to risk increases.
Recommendation: It is recommended that NBAD should assess the risk exposure of current products in the light of current changed economic circumstances.
3. Recruitment and selection of human resources is undertaken as a requirement to fulfill certain business objectives which has evolved over time based on market conditions (of demand & supply); in an expansionary economic period the objective of NBAD might have been to increase the portfolio of its consumer products (such as consumer loans).
Recommendation: Manpower planning should be conducted based on the extent to which NBAD wishes to attain the sales objectives and the number of resources it will be required to engage to achieve the sales.
4. As there appears to be a contraction or complete cessation of certain product lines at NBAD due to the current global economic recession affecting NBAD, certain resources have become under or un-utilized.
Recommendation: NBAD should conduct a man-power inventory and assess the number of persons working at the various positions and whether the current objectives of NBAD warrant these positions.
5. The findings in item 3 above will enable NBAD to identify new job positions.
Recommendation: The number of people required for this purpose should be recruited and in accordance with the generic flowchart (page 18 above) job analysis and job specifications should be prepared at NBAD.
6. Having conducted the human resource planning and inventory profile, NBAD should be in a position to determine the skill-set of each of its employees, and qualification and experience profile that is required in the changed economic scenario.
Recommendation: Recruitment and selection of a suitable person is only possible if the profile of person is described accurately for the job that he/she is required to perform. NBAD should try and match the profile of its current employees with the positions as re-evaluated. It should ensure that based on the customer demands both the soft skills and the educational and proficiency are as closely matched as possible.
Whether there is a need to recruit fresh graduates or persons with some work experience. An assessment of customer demand for service delivery is the key to devising a successful recruitment policy.
7. In case of the ‘wrong’ person doing the job is discovered all efforts should be taken to place him in the appropriate position. As it is difficult to demote a person, in certain cases NBAD might find that certain capacity building training will have to be offered to the employee so that he is able to perform the job as required.
Recommendation: NBAD should establish a system offering training courses to enhance the competency levels of employees. Also, those that need to be transferred to other positions require additional skills that will be added.
8. In view of the aforementioned, NBAD may find that certain fresh positions have been created, and there is available resource which is surplus.
Recommendation: NBAD is recommended to try to fill the fresh vacancies through internal transfers and from its surplus pool that has been determined, through internal job postings. This will result in cost savings on two fronts. Firstly, external press and media advertisement casts will be saved in addition to administrative costs on time and efforts in processing the applications from external candidates. Secondly, internally transferred employees will have a better learning curve as they are familiar with the culture and the operations of NBAD. They can become productive sooner than an external recruit.
Evaluation
Based on the primary and secondary data reviewed the current global economic downturn has made National Bank of Abudhabi re-examine the practices and policies pertaining to recruitment. It has also made NBAD realize that the bank should not lose customer focus. Its entire business including the recruitment and selection must be based upon providing customer satisfaction.
The bank has taken certain positive steps in this regards and is aligning its products on the basis of customer demand requirements.
Whilst doing that it is also reviewing the quality of its customer services. To retain the customer base and in order to offer improved products to its customers NBAD is instituting a review of its recruitment and selection process. In current economic times formalizing the recruitment and selection practices applied across the bank will ensure uniformity and release some pressure in unnecessarily favoring one incumbent over another. It will also ensure that the recruitment process is transparent and fair.
Compensation policy will also be reviewed enabling it to maintain equity across all job position levels. It will also ensure that employees are fairly compensated for their efforts; incentive based compensation further ensures that high achievers are rewarded in time and keeps employee motivation levels high to attain their targets and goals.
CONCLUSION
NBAD is a prestigious bank, and in the financial institutions sector is a prestigious banker as far as clients are concerned. Added efforts are required in a recession to maintain its position as a leading financial institution not only in the Middle East but across the world. As a financial services provider the service quality of NBAD is dependent upon the quality of its human resource. The better the recruitment and selection process the better will be the caliber of its employees, its service quality which will also instill a positive work culture.
NBAD, with an appropriate recruitment and selection process will ensure that it not only engages the best possible candidates it will become an employer of choice.
All the aforementioned practices will improve its service delivery and ensure that it not only retains its market share but also build on the best practices currently adopted. A fair and transparent recruitment policy ensures good quality employees who are motivated to provide best quality customer service. As banking is based upon trust, these measures will ensure the level of trust among all stakeholders is improved.
As a way forward National Bank of Abudhabi should undertake these measures to ensure that it is well poised to become a strong institution in the banking and financial sector.
