Human Resources Functions at İşbank
In 2011 human resources were hired by İşbank in order to rapidly meet the increased need for manpower arising from both the growth in the Bank’s business and the opening of new branches. A total of 2,031 new personnel were employed to fill positions in a variety of job categories.
In 2011 the Bank began addressing its personnel requirements through local hires as well. Work is currently in progress to recruit a sufficient number of suitably qualified personnel and to employ them in appropriate positions so as to ensure that the Bank is able to effectively achieve its future goals while also taking into account its continuously changing requirements. In line with this, during the hiring process, objective decision-making about the fitness of a candidate both as an İşbank employee and for a particular position has been supported by way of using psychometric measurement tools that vary depending on the hiring position as well as competency-based interviews for the assessment of observable behavioral traits that are position-specific or by carrying out the Evaluation Center practices.
Training activities at İşbank are designed and implemented so as to be both compatible with the Bank’s corporate objectives and complementary to its other Human Resources practices. Before commencing their actual duties, newly-hired personnel first undergo “Starting My Career” training, whose features are customized according to the requirements of their job position. The experience built up in previous years at the Bank’s “Sales Academy” has been carried over into operations; sales training and content-enriched operations training are now combined under the auspices of the İşbank “Banking Academy” (BAK) and turned into individual brands under the names “BAK Sales” and “BAK Operations”. Technical and personal development programs are organized for managers as well as for management trainees in order to equip them with the knowledge and skills that they will be needing for new positions and duties.
Importance is given at İşbank to training and communication activities which are aimed at enhancing the performance of all employees, primarily the newly-hired personnel. Efforts continued to be made to introduce Performance Management practices that seek to manage and increase performance by focusing on employee behaviors and activities that will contribute to the Bank’s ability to carry out its strategies and to achieve its objectives.
Managers and candidate managers working at İşbank branches and Head Office Divisions are paid an “executive bonus” once a year. While executive bonuses are paid on the basis of individual performance, attention is also given to bonuses’ compatibility with such issues as the Bank’s long-term strategies and employee accountability levels.
Work is being carried out to introduce a number of innovative performance management practices and to reify the link between employee performance and corporate performance. To this end, a Quality of Work-Life Assessment Survey was conducted throughout İşbank in late 2010 to determine how the managers’ management and leadership performance was perceived by those working under them and to measure general satisfaction with the Bank’s human resources practices. The results of this survey, which were released in 2011, were made available to all employees while the judgments expressed by employees about their own supervisors were reported individually to each manager as appropriate in order to provide them with input for their own future development.
Focus-group activities involving employees in different job categories were carried out in order to improve the Bank’s Human Resources Practices so as to increase employee satisfaction. These focus groups considered the aspects of Human Resources Practices which the survey’s results had identified as needing improvement as well as the underlying causes for such need. They subsequently formulated and initiated action plans designed to effectively deal with such matters. As a result of these activities, areas where there were opportunities to resolve issues that adversely affect employee motivation and job performance were identified and appropriate action plans were made.
The Quality of Work-Life Assessment Survey that was conducted in December 2011, which not only quantified İşbank employees’ loyalty to the Bank and the degree to which they are satisfied with its Human Resources Practices but also provided valuable employee input both about immediate superiors and about the qualities and attributes that all İşbank managers are expected to possess.
Under the heading of activities initiated to come up with solutions that will have favorable impact on employees’ loyalty and motivation by taking their long-term career progression into account, a “Welcome to the Job” program was introduced to support the process of job adaptation among newly-hired personnel at İşbank. A website (isemerhaba.isbank) has been specially created for this program, whose purpose is to give the Bank’s new arrivals convenient access to orientation support from training consultants during the training period and from teammates once they are actually on the job. Work has also begun on providing development guidance for particular job categories in order to speed up the adaptation process among newly-hired personnel.
Furthermore, a trainee recruitment program aimed at university students was launched in 2011. The objective of this program is to strengthen İşbank’s reputation as a “Preferred Employer” in general while especially enhancing İşbank’s image as a preferred employer among trainee candidates who have the potential to offer the Bank the superior qualities that will enable it to maintain its competitive edge. As a result of these efforts, 224 university students worked as trainees at İşbank branches and Head Office Divisions.
In order to achieve a human resources structure, which supports the Bank’s strategies and sustainable goals and which contributes to its problem-free, profitable growth, İşbank completed its changeover to a new Human Resources Information System in June 2011, which enables human resources processes to function faster and more effectively and which increases employee participation. Thanks to this new system, functions requiring the use of human resources information have been integrated, such information may be viewed by those with the authority to do so, reliable reports may be generated by end-users and access is provided to current, accurate information needed to support decision-making mechanisms.
In 2012 work will continue on projects aimed at making essential changes and improvements in the area of human resources as may be dictated by business requirements and in order both to increase manpower productivity and to support İşbank’s Sustainable Profitable Growth strategy.
Existing activities will continue to be carried out with the support of best practices in order to increase the loyalty, motivation and productivity of the Bank’s human resources.
In 2012, the Bank will continue to take a prudent and selective approach in the recruitment and hiring of new personnel who may be needed to satisfy the greater manpower requirements that arise due to new branch openings, to in-house promotions, to growth in transaction volume and to terminations of employment.
One objective of training activities in 2012 will be to offer employees alternative learning and interaction environments in which such activities may be conducted with an approach that is more compatible with İşbank’s strategies. For this purpose, wikis, blogs, video clips, simulations, microblogging and similar social networking methods will be deployed in order to make learning a natural and integral part of individual and corporate life.
It is expected that the action plans that were formulated to deal with areas identified as being in need of improvement and development based on the results of the “Quality of Work-Life Assessment Survey” that was conducted throughout İşbank in late 2011 will be implemented in 2012.