Assessment of Management Trainee Officer at BRAC Bank Limited

Assessment of Management Trainee Officer at BRAC Bank Limited

A develop banking sector plays a vital role for financial stability of a country. BRAC Bank Limited (BBL) is a Commercial bank and financial institution. BRAC Bank is the last organization to have received a commercial banking license from Bangladesh Bank and it is the youngest private commercial bank in Bangladesh. I am very glad for getting the opportunity to achieve my practical training in the HR Division of BRAC Bank Limited.

This report has been based on the ‘’An Assessment of Management Trainee Officer (MTO) at BRAC Bank Limited. The three months long internship period started from January 06 to April 04 in BRAC Bank Limited.

Purpose of the Study:

As an institution, bank has been contributing towards the development of any economy for a long time and at the moment it is treated as an important service industry in modern world. Nowadays, the function of a bank is not limited within the same geographical limit of any country. Due to globalization and free market economy, this industry is facing severe competition. Most of the banks fail due to lack of proper strategic planning and goals. One of the major reasons of their poor performance is adaptation of traditional banking system. They are very much slow in adopting new product line, less concerned about attracting and satisfying customers and being reluctant to implement information technology.

That’s why it is very necessary for each and every bank to evaluate its performance over the periods. But the most important thing is that nearly all of the banks are more focusing on sale rather than the service, even they do not know how to evaluate their performance.

Basically, this study is conducted to expose the way to find out the employee’s satisfaction level and know how to provide them better service. Different evaluating procedures and techniques have been followed to measure the employee’s satisfaction.

Objective of the Study:

Specific Objective:

• Introduce myself to the BRAC Bank Limited.
• To know the inner side of the BBL banking culture. Provide information on BRAC Bank Limited.
• To find out the corporate social responsibility of BRAC Bank Limited.
• To describe the HR function, structure and its procedures, rules and regulation.
• To analyze the performance of BRAC Bank Limited.
• To understand the internal and external environment of the organization.
• To provide recommendation for improvement of BRAC Bank Limited.

Introduction:

BRAC Bank Limited is a full service scheduled commercial bank. It has both local and International Institutional shareholder. The bank is primarily driven with a view of creating opportunities and pursuing market niches not traditionally meet by conventional banks. BRAC Bank has been motivated to provide “best-in-the-class” services to its diverse assortment of customers spread across the country under an on-line banking dais.

Today, BRAC Bank is one of the fastest growing banks in the country. In order to support the planned growth of its distribution, network and its various business segments, BRAC Bank is currently looking for impressive goal oriented, enthusiastic, individuals for various business operations.

The bank wants to build a profitable and socially responsible financial institution. It carefully listen to the market and business potentials, It is also assisting BRAC and stakeholders to build a progressive, healthy, democratic and poverty free Bangladesh. It helps make communities and economy of the country stronger and to help people achieve their financial goals. The bank maintains a high level of standards in everything for their customers, shareholders, acquaintances and communities upon, which the future affluence of their company rests.

An Overview of the Organization:

BRAC started as a development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives. In Bangladesh It was founded in 1972 and over the course of evolution, it has established itself as a pioneer in recognizing and tackling the many different realities of poverty of which BRAC BANK is one of the largest operational commercial venture.

BRAC Bank Limited, with institutional shareholdings by BRAC, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Shore Cap International, has been the fastest growing Bank in 2004 and 2005. The Bank operates under a “double bottom line” agenda where profit and social responsibility go hand in hand as it strives towards a poverty-free, enlightened Bangladesh.

A fully operational Commercial Bank, BRAC Bank focuses on pursuing unexplored market niches in the Small and Medium Enterprise Business, which previously has remained largely available within the country. In the last five years of operation, the Bank has disbursed over BDT 1500 crore in loans to nearly 50,000 small and medium entrepreneurs. The management of the Bank believes that this sector of the economy can contribute the most to the rapid generation of employment in Bangladesh. According to Annual Report 2012, BRAC Bank is one of country’s fastest growing banks. With 155 branches, 12 Apon Shomoy, 300+ ATMs, 30 CDMs, 397 SME Unit Offices and 8,122 human resources. BRAC Bank’s operation now cuts across all segments and services in financial industry. With more than 1 Million Customers, the bank has already proved to be the largest SME financier in just 11 years of its operation in Bangladesh and continues to broaden its horizon into Retail, Corporate, SME, Probashi and other arenas of banking. In the year: 2010, BRAC Bank has been recognized as Asia’s most Sustainable Bank in Emerging Markets by the Financial Times and IFC.

About International Finance Corporation (IFC):

International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the commercial wing of World Bank. Using certain channels and overseas representatives, IFC it helps local financial institutions find profitable ways to target small and medium sized companies. Funding comes from the Asian Development Bank, Canada, the European Commission, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and IF itself. IFC is a 5.36% shareholder in BRAC Bank. A new assistance program signed in August 2005 aims to double the bank’s number of small and medium enterprise clients in 18 months through campaigns to target women entrepreneurs and rural clients, introduce new products and train branch managers.

About Shore Cap International:

Shore Cap International Ltd. is an international private non-profit, equity company seeking to invest in small business banks and regulated micro finance institutions in countries with developing and transitional economies. Founded in mid 2003, Shore Cap has a current base of $28.3 million in capital commitments and seeks to support the growth of development finance institutions in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. The institution has made investments totaling $7 million in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Armenia, Mongolia and Kenya. Shore Bank is a 9% investor of Shore Cap and runs the management company, which oversees investment activities. Shore Cap typically invests between $500,000 and $2 million for an ownership position of 10-25% of a company. As a minority shareholder, Shore Cap seeks financial institutions with a strong, experienced management team and a committed set of local development-minded investors. Shore Cap currently owns 0.86% of BRAC Bank Limited.

Subsidiaries of BBL:

BRAC Bank has different subsidiaries to support its banking system. All those subsidiaries are related with financial activities and serving to reach a broad number of customers. The subsidiaries are as follows-

 According to BRAC Bank there are still 50% people are out of banking service. To reach to such huge chunk of people and bring them into banking service, bKash is working through mobile phone technology. The overall value proposition is simple: a safe, fast and convenient way to send and receive money.

 BRAC Partners Limited (EPL) – It was founded by a diverse group of international fund managers and brokers from Bangkok, Hong Kong, London and Dhaka in October 1, 2009. It aims to increase the exposure of Bangladesh in the international fund management community. It has two different wings and that are-

1. BRAC EPL STOCK BROKERAGE LTD- Has developed a disciplined approach toward providing capital market services, including securities trading, wealth management and corporate advisory services.
2. BRAC EPL Merchant Bank- BRAC EPL delivers a whole range of Investment Banking services including traditional merchant banking activities along with offering investment services to non-residential Bangladeshis (NRB). It offers IPO’s for its clients (organizes syndication if necessary). One of the remarkable IPO’s offered by BRAC Merchant bank was Grameen Phone IPOs.
3. BRAC SAJAAN- It’s an exchange company incorporated in England and Wales. The Company mainly provides remittance services to the large Bangladeshi Communities living in UK. Apart from remittance services the Company also caters to the investment needs of the NRBs through its parent organization BRAC Bank.

Departments of BBL:

The BRAC Bank Limited has 26 departments in three different criteria. The Departments are-

• Business: These sectors basically deal with the valuable customers of the bank and interact with them on daily basis. The daily transactions for the bank are handled by these departments.
• Support: These sectors provide support to the business by ensuring the proper functioning of the various resources, risk management, and banking regulations.
• Operations: These sectors basically deal with the technicalities of the relevant sectors and ensure smooth functioning of the business for the bank.

BBL’s Social Initiatives:

I. BBL Believes that “SME Financing Is Key to Financial Inclusion”:

BRAC Bank is a financial hypermarket that offers financial solutions for all strata, it would be retail, SME, wholesale banking, capital market, or remittance; but it always had a focus on SME. This bank was actually founded on a philosophy of keeping trust on the hopes and dreams of Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and majority of these entrepreneurs have been beyond the conventional banking reach. The bank was the pioneer to get into this segment of SME.

They are disbursing loan to areas where their Bank does not have branch network. Other local bank branches (called as Correspondence Bank) are being used for loan disbursement and repayment. This strength has set the Bank apart from competitors in SME arena.

BRAC Bank is the first bank in the country to setup a Women Entrepreneur Cell under SME Division in 2006 and introduced a loan product only for Women Entrepreneurs, named “PROTHOMA”. This cell is run by female personnel and just to make sure that their female entrepreneurs feel more comfortable to discuss their (business) issues. The bank has so far financed women in growing cattle farms, poultry businesses, boutiques, screen-printing and schools. Even, green field start-ups are also there in their successful, rich portfolio. In addition BRAC Bank has held a number of seminars and training programs for women entrepreneurs to strengthen their capacity and develop financial management competency.

II. BBL Work for the Missing Middle:

To serve the “Missing Middle”, BRAC Bank was founded in 2001 with institutional shareholding of BRAC, Shore Bank and IFC. BRAC Bank is now 11 years old and it has pioneered the small and medium enterprise (SME) banking.

If we think of the financial pyramid, there are corporate institutions (local and multinational) at the top of the pyramid and there are low income individuals at the bottom. Those at the top are served by all public & private commercial banks and other financial institutions while those at the bottom are served by Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), e.g. NGOs. But Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh did not have access to banks and financial institutions like the big multinational & local corporate and that’s where BRAC Bank has filled the gap.

 III. Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) of BBL:

Since the beginning, as a responsible corporate body BRAC Bank Ltd. has undertaken various initiatives considering the interest of customers, employees, shareholders, communities and environment. These initiatives go beyond the statutory obligation to voluntary activities that promote sustainable development.

A significant portion of earning of the bank is routed through the ownership structure of the Bank for building just enlightened poverty free Bangladesh – is the vision that the founder Chairman and Chairperson of BRAC, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed dearly and closely follows through. BRAC Bank’s vision is linked with social responsibility which focuses on the ‘triple bottom line’: People, Planet and Profit. Being guided by this vision, BRAC Bank provides continuous support to the environment and communities that it operates in.

BRAC Bank CSR Initiatives are given below-

• Amor Ekushey Grontho Mela
• Bangla version of BRAC Bank Website
• Patriotic poem cd
• Computer Donation: Bagmara High School, Nawabgonj; Sallah Samabaya High School, Kalihati, Tangail
• Employment of Acid Victims
• Lifetime support to Bir Protik Taramon Bibi
• Scholarship for Adomyo Medhabi with Prothom Alo
• Scholarship for poor students of BRAC University
• Scholarship for Afghan Student
• Scholarship for the children of poor Journalists in Patuakhali region
• Supported Libya returnees in association with BRAC
• Donated to IRRI for their research activities
• Computer donation to Presidency University
• Daur 2013
• Warm Clothes Distribution to the cold hit poor people
• Supported Digonto Memorial Cancer Foundation

BBL’s SWOT Analysis:

Strength:

• BRAC Bank Limited has perfect policies to maintain and control their employees.
• The ‘X’ & ‘Y’ motivational theories are perfectly use by the Human Resource Division to control the employees properly.
• Well organized team.
• Well maintained CV database.
• Better employee motivation generation through internal recruitment opportunity.
• Less dependent on external recruitment agencies.
• Well planned training schedule with sufficient time allotment.
• Training opportunity provided to employees working in every level.
• Little amount of bureaucracy in the process.
• The Employees of BRAC Bank Limited respect Human Resource Division and the Human Resource Division earned it.

Weakness:

• The overall situation of Human Resource for a company like BRAC Bank Limited is not that much controlled to be used and utilized it perfectly.
• The salary structure is not high enough according to the workload of the employee.
• There is less manpower to control and maintain the large amount of employees.
• Online recruitment system is not upgraded.

Opportunity:

• BRAC Bank Limited has 8122 employees to work with.
• The Human Resource Division is always thinking to do something new with their employees that can help to motivate the employees and can able to make them better resources/assets for the BRAC Bank Limited. Very few Bangladeshi organizations have this kind of opportunity to be used.

Threat:

• BRAC Bank Limited has a huge number of employees. So is difficult to maintain the Human Resource policies with this large number of employees.
• The resignation rate too high in BRAC Bank Limited then it anticipated.
• The emergence of multinational banks and their rapid expansion poses a potential threat to the new growing private banks. Due to the booming energy sector, more foreign banks are expected to arrive in Bangladesh. This bank is establishing more branches countrywide and already launched its SME operation. Since the foreign banks have tremendous financial strength, it will pose a threat to local banks.

HRD OF BBL

Human Resource Department of BRAC Bank Ltd.

In today’s competitive world any organization without having a Human Resources Department cannot even imagine. All the financial or non-financial, government or private organizations want to get the best effort from their employees to achieve the goal. As on the same path BRAC Bank has also a proper HR department. Moreover the HR Department of BRAC Bank is one of the largest in the industry. As BRAC Bank has huge number of employees relative to other commercial banks, so they have the larger management team.

As already known that BRAC Bank has two broad divisions Business and support, HR department is one of the integral part of the organizations support. And the support is so organized that BRAC Bank successfully manages their large number of employees centrally.

The centralization system means that each and every employee working at different parts of the country are managed, monitored and controlled by one single HR division of Head office. Human Resources Division of BRAC Bank Limited comprises of Recruitment, Compensation & Benefits, Learning and Development, Human Capital Department and HR Administration Departments with a team of dynamic HR Relationship Managers who bridges HR support with the business need.

BRAC Bank views the employees are the most valuable capital of the organization. HR Division of BRAC Bank Limited recruits staff members of the highest caliber through a competitive selection process based on criteria determined by the needs of the Bank and the requirements of the position, paying due regard to the importance of recruiting staff on a diverse basis. It is the hiring of the “right” people that foster learning, developing, growing and striving organization and hence, the Bank actively pursues hiring of the “best fit” according to business need and respecting organizational values through proper human resource planning, using effective assessment methodology, ensuring efficient process and establishing & maintaining a strong employer brand. The Bank offers competitive compensation package and provides equal opportunity for career development to all employees. To support the ongoing growth of the bank and to strengthen the commitment of the management of taking the bank to the door step of the people, HR division has recruited 4847 regular staffs, outsourced 1139 employees and 2136 contractual employees in various grades and in doing so qualitatively HR Division interviewed some fourteen thousand job applicants throughout the years. At the beginning of 2013, the total manpower strength stood at 8122.

HR Division of the bank maintains its committed support for SME business of the bank that is meant to reduce poverty in the rural Bangladesh by assisting the niche market of small entrepreneurs. 37% regular employees the bank dedicatedly serves for this noble reason. On the other hand, graduating students from reputed colleges in the district towns fall short from qualifying for the competitive job market due lack of knowledge and skill in terms of CV writing, interview preparation, grooming and exposure to corporate world which although remains minor issues but matters crucially in the highly competitive job market. Each year HR Division of BRAC Bank Limited attends sessions for the graduating students of reputed universities around the country. In 2012, HR Division intends to attend session for the graduating students from the reputed colleges in the district towns to help them better prepare for the job world.

BRAC Bank truly believes that the human asset is most crucial one to achieve success and that’s why they put a great emphasis on their employees and tries to make well HR practice. The bank has a strong focus on imparting training towards enhancement of the skills and competencies of their employees and in this regard they have a proper training planning and schedules. For example BRAC Bank provides average 30 hours of training in a year to each employee. BRAC Bank Limited maintains an e-learning portal to provide CBT (computer based Training) through BBL internet. The modules of e-learning include products & services, divisional/departmental overview, rules and regulations and some soft skills. The Human Resource division of BRAC Bank Limited recognizes the immense importance of elearning to provide training and refreshers for its large employee base assigned throughout the country. Every year all regular employees of the Bank are required to take part in the elearning Exam and complete a pre set e-learning modules declared at the beginning of the year. Human Resources division intends to intensify its training effort through e-learning.

While the bank trains its employees to enhance their skills and abilities for better understanding of job responsibilities, it also takes planned development initiatives to ensure future requirement of managers and leaders. Human Resources division intends to focus on skill development and management development through various intensive internal and external trainings for the employees of the bank.

HR division arranged various promotions and events on account of international and local auspicious days and ensured employee participation to recognize and celebrate them. As part of employee engagement initiative, they arranged celebration of “Bengali New Year” and “Women’s Day”, wherein, celebrities from different fields were invited, who cordially took part in these events and spoke on various issues like Women Empowerment through Employment, Gender Equity and Work Life Balance.

Functions of Human Resource Division:

BRAC Bank Limited has a fully functional Human Resources Division (HRD) supported by manpower. The HRD of BRAC Bank Limited performs the following functions:

• Selection and Recruitment.
• Training and Development of Employees.
• Compensation and Benefits Planning.
• Promotion Planning.
• Local and Foreign Travel Planning.
• Bond Policy Formulation for Travel/Training/New Joiners.
• Policy Formulation for Leaves.
• Making Reward and Recognition Policies.
• Policy Formulation for Staff Loans (Car/Housing).
• Policies for Resignation or Termination from Services.
• Retirement Policy.
• Employee Gratuity Fund Policy Formulation.
• Employee Provident Fund Policy Formulation.
• Employee Welfare Fund Policy Formulation.

Wings of Human Resource Division

• Recruitment, Compensation & Benefits
• Learning & Development
• HR Administration
• MIS & Strategic Planning
• Payroll

Recruitment:

Recruitment is an integral part of any organization that heavily depends on their workforce to successfully perform their mission and achieve their vision in the long run. Thus appropriate selection of candidates to join in the workforce is a necessary part of Human Resource Management, which is ensured by the Human Resource Division in BRAC Bank Limited. The recruitment team is responsible for collection of CVs, Job Applications for vacant posts, Internship Applications etc. The recruitment officers collect and store these hard copies and also updates, maintains computer databases regularly. The recruitment officer’s task is to organize CVs of potential candidates so that in time of recruitment they can be found and short listed within a reasonable time. The very general idea about the functions of recruitment division is that after CV short listing, the short listed candidates are contacted (usually by telephone) for interviews. In case of large number of candidates, letters are mailed to the candidates mailing address. These are done according to the interview schedule made before contacting the candidates. The interview or written test schedule is made prior to contacting with the short listed candidates by communicating with respective departments who submitted requisition for the needed workforce. The respective Department Heads accompany the Head of HR in the interview board and cross Department Heads also join the board. After the interview the recruitment division acquires the Interview Score Sheet which is printed and handed to Interview Board before starting the interviews. The filled out Interview Score Sheets are then used to list the finally selected candidates for the respective posts. According to the Score Sheets, the Recruitment Division issues Appointment Letters to the finally selected candidates and requests them to collect their Letters from the HRD. The new employees are then greeted to finish all the official formalities (e.g. Bond Signing, PIN number assignment etc.) and assigned a joining date in their respective departments. Written tests are only arranged when necessary, usually in case of large number of applicants. Before a recruitment process is completely finished, the recruitment officers must communicate with the Learning & Organization Development officers so that they can arrange orientation or initial training sessions for the newly recruited employees on time. This is done frequently because most of the time the posts getting filled up require an initial training or orientation.

BRAC Bank also provides a large number of internship opportunities for students all over the country. Communicating with different departments and finding out open internship scopes is one of the tasks for a recruitment officer. Departments, Branches also communicate with Recruitment Team whenever there is an Internship opportunity is available in their respective stations. Matching the subject studied by the student and the open department enables the recruitment officer to make decision in selecting an intern. BRAC Bank HRD gives priority to interns (who have successfully completed their internship in any department or branch of BRAC Bank) when they apply for a vacant post.

Recruitment Procedure:

The success of a commercial Bank depends largely on the quality of services rendered to the clients. Quality depends on the competence and the quality of the officers and executives. BRAC Bank Limited believes in paying competitive salary and emoluments to its employees and to get maximum services out of them. Therefore, the authority of the Bank has to be careful in recruiting the right persons for the right jobs. The following procedures will be followed as the general guideline for recruitment:

Recruitment up to OGII Grade

Cross Functional HR Relationship Managers or Recruitment Manager Representative from concern division, Member from cross functional division. This Board will interview, select and finalize the candidate. Appointment letter is to be signed by Head of Human Resources.

Recruitment from SO to SPO

Head of Human Resources Division (HOHR); Department Head of Concern Department; Concern Division Head (Optional) and Cross Functional Department Head. This Board will interview, select and finalize the candidate. Appointment to be signed by Head of Human Resources

Recruitment from AVP and Above

First Interview: HOHR, Concern Division Head;

Second Interview: HOHR, Concern Division Head and MD or DMD

Appointment letter to be signed by Managing Director & CEO

• Recruitment of MD’s direct reports and second tire reports to MD and Vice President
• First Interview: HOHR, Concern Division Head; MD or DMD
• Second Interview: HOHR, Concern Division Head and MD or DMD and Board will conduct the final interview. Appointment letter to be signed by Managing Director & CEO

Recruitment Process:

For the recruitment The BRAC Bank Limited use the following process-

Through Advertisement

Sometimes the HRD of BRAC Bank Limited can’t able to short list CVs for specific post from their CV Bank. In this situation the HRD advertise of recruitment in specific post mentioning the job description with the minimum requirement that the applicant should have for the post. And collect CVs which are being specified according to the requirement that has been published in the advertisement. After that the CVs will be short listed and the recruitment procedure will go according to the direct recruitment process.

Direct Recruitment

The BRAC Bank Limited has a CV Bank in HRD. In direct recruitment the HRD short list the CVs from the CV Bank or collect the CVs that referred by the employees of BRAC Bank Limited for direct interview for the specific selected post. After short listing the applicants are directly informed or called for the interview. And after interview the applicant will be finally selected.

Internal Job Posting:

For any kind of internal job search it will operate through a circular as lotus notes or board notice. Any existing staff other than permanent also HR Temporary (minimum one year with BRAC Bank Limited) & outsource staff (minimum three years with BRAC Bank Limited).

Only the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer can allow exceptions. Job specification will be clarified in that circular and interested candidates will have full liberty to apply subsequent to the clearance from his or her respective line manager. After a formal interview in front of the Recruitment committee or Management Committee/MANCOM he or she can be absorbed in the suitable position.

Through Promotion:

• Promotion can be used as an effective tool for recruitment as it can serve the internal purpose for recruitment within the organization. As of internal job search the process flow can be the same. For example CRO-I can be lifted to CRO-II after meeting certain performance criteria. Same rule can be followed for other departments.
• Promotion may also take place if the job size increased and the MD/ Management Committee decide to upgrade the job upon recommendation of the respective Department Head or Line Manager. The process of upgrading a job will have to be undertaken through a process of reviewing the Job Content, Job Responsibilities, Job Dimensions, Changes in the Organization Structure, etc. Full justification of the necessity of the change must be justified. Proposals for such upgrading will be processed by the HRD and forwarded with recommendation by the Head of HR to the MD/MANCOM.
• All promotion will be recommended by the function heads and shall be approved by the Managing Director.
• Transfer on Deputation: Based on requirements and needs bank can adopt that policy after taking the approval from MANCOM.
• Contract as specialist/consultant/counsel: It is not a post of regular employee. It is a contractual job and these persons are directly appointed by MD with the reference of the Chairman/ Board of Directors or Management Committee.

Note: If the number of post for recruitment is several then the candidate will face the interview in Direct Recruitment system. If the number of Post is in large number then the HRD of BRAC Bank collect huge number of CVs by giving paper advertisement and then create a written exam for short listing the candidates and after that the candidates have to face interview board. Every time for Customer Relation Officer and Management Trainee Officer the BRAC Bank HRD use written exam to short list the applicant for interview.

Recruitment Budget:

• Managing Director & CEO will determine and analyze the necessity of manpower based on recruitment required by the Departments and projected budget based on the year after discussing with different department heads. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the management to examine the work load and carry out the job analysis and as well as looking into the real requirement of employees under various categories, to see whether an additional hand is really necessary
• Board of directors holds the authority to finally decide any matter regarding any sort of recruitment. Besides they are the supreme authority to create any kind of new position.
• BRAC Bank must recognize the importance of manpower estimation and accordingly an Organogram should be prepared for the Bank and for each Division & Branch. The Organogram shall however, not be rigid, it may be reviewed and revised when necessary from time to time. Subject to review from time to time, the competent authority as per power delegated by the Board will make the appointments.

The Recruitment Policy at a glance:

• All regular employees will appointed by the Managing Director.
• All HR contract and outsource contract employees will be appointed by The Head of Human Resource Division.
• The schedule of recruitment will be created according to the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
• The interview board will with The Head of Department of that post, The Supporting Department Head and The Head of HRD.
• Officer Grade-l and Officer-ll can appoint directly after the interview.
• From Senior Officer and more there will be a second interview with the Managing Director of BRAC Bank Limited after the first interview.
• For internal job posting the employee can only apply if he has the service time in BRAC Bank is more than two years and also need to recommend the candidate’s application by the reporting supervisor of the employee.
• The HR Contract employee can apply for the regular post after servicing more than two years in the BRAC Bank.
• Outsource Stuff can apply for the regular post after servicing more than three years in the BRAC Bank.
• The new recruited will get the probationary period of one year if the employee has less than three years of working experience and will get the probationary period of six months if he has more than three years working experience.

Observations:

One of the characteristics of this fastest growing bank in Bangladesh is rapid expansion of service area. And to support this, BRAC Bank relies on heavy recruitment. In the past three months, BRAC Bank has recruited many people. But this large volume of recruitment gives rise to a question that whether BRAC Bank is preferring quantity over quality regarding its manpower. The following sections will briefly describe this issue. We know that in Human Resource Management, Recruitment is one of the key activities of an HR Department where the quality of recruitment directly affects organization’s productivity thus success in the long run. So the performance of HR Department in finding good candidates and selecting the best from the pool is vital for an organization. In BRAC Bank, staff requisitions come in short interval every week and Department Heads, Managers puts pressure on Recruitment to get the requisitioned number of people as soon as possible. It is as if they don’t care whether the new hires will fit for the post or not. They completely rely on the interview and never concern themselves with the fact that within a limited amount of time, quality recruitment is impossible. Most of the time, Recruitment wing in HRD gets requisition for processing along with some pre-selected CVs coming from the concerned departments. They send the CVs along with their requisition form. This reduces the work of the Recruitment wing in HRD to a great extent but chances of selecting a deserving candidate from external sources is reduced as well and it also opens up scope for favoritism. References from superior levels are also entertained as those CVs are always given priority in times of recruitment even if the candidate is unfit or unqualified for the vacant post. This bold style of recruitment might be the reason behind high turnover rate in BRAC Bank Ltd. For a small recruitment team (3 members only) the large number of requisition processing has became a challenge recently as the Bank is growing faster than expectation. There is no rule, policy or guideline provided to the recruitment officers for the CVs which are rejected after an interview. The accepted candidates’ CVs go to their personal file upon their joining in the Bank but the rejected CVs are always kept stored wherever there is some space in the office.

Team’s coordination is vital for a department’s success. The wings related to Recruitment often fail to coordinate themselves due to stagnant or duplicated processes.

An Assessment of Management Trainee Officer at BRAC Bank Limited

Management Trainee in Bank:

In every industry there is a need for managerial staff. From first-line supervisors to top executives, managers plan and direct the work of the organization, set policy, establish channels of communication and evaluate the work that is done. These functions require knowledge, skills, and judgment that are most effectively developed on the job. To prepare individuals for management responsibilities, many companies use Management Trainee positions. These positions are most often found in finance, trade, and manufacturing and in government agencies. Depending on the business, the position may also be referred to as marketing trainee, purchasing trainee, accounting trainee, or management intern. Whatever the title, the purpose of the position is the same that is to qualify individuals for management functions within the organization. The Banking Management Trainee job description pattern includes the following job summary: The primary function of this management trainee position is to become familiar with banking operations and procedures by performing assigned duties, responsibilities and projects throughout the bank system. Additional information available includes essential job functions, additional responsibilities, and education and experience requirements.

Why BBL Start MTO Program:

Management Trainee Officers highly qualified students of BRAC Bank Limited. The MTO’s are regular employee but they have to learn as a student inside BRAC Bank for the period of one year. After one year if they can complete their learning period successfully they will become a senior officer directly from the MTO. BRAC Bank started their first MTO program at 2005. They arrange this MTO program once in a year according to their organizational need. In this year they completed their 11th batch MTO recruitment process. They consider that MTOs are the future leaders of their organization. BRAC Bank look for ambitious, smart, goal-oriented and enthusiastic individuals for the MTO position because BRAC Bank is not a place where transactions occur; it is a place where potentials are realized. MTOs are the valuable asset for their organization. MTO program is a long recruitment process. BRAC bank gets their potential future leader through this MTO program. They train them and make them valuable asset for their organization. MTOs are more capable of performing every task of the bank rather than normal employees because bank gives them extra care. BRAC bank makes their MTOs suitable for every division so that they get a future leader of their organization. BRAC Bank exploits a huge number of budgets for their MTO program. This MTO program is very much beneficial for the bank. Throughout one year the MTOs are attached in different sectors or departments of the bank. So, they have overall idea about the entire working procedure of BBL. Therefore in long term process when they are set future leaders, they can easily overcome any problem and any task from comprehensive point of view. BRAC bank appoints MTOs for 7 divisions (Dhaka, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, and Chittagong). BRAC Bank serves the “Missing Middle”, so that they always try to provide their banking facilities to the whole country. To run the SME new concept, they sent their MTOs in different regions according to their organizational need. For this reason they recruit a huge number of MTOs for several districts. It also helps them to spread their banking facilities to all level of people of the country.

Requirement for Management Trainee Officer (MTO):

(a) The candidate must be a citizen of Bangladesh by Birth.

(b) Candidates having no past banking experience and must not be over 27 (Twenty Seven) years of age as on the date of application.

© The Management Trainee Officers should have any of the following academic qualifications, MBA/MBM not less than 3.00 CGPA with two First Divisions shall be given same weight age as MBA degree obtained in Bangladesh. Candidates having at least two first class/divisions and without any third class/division are eligible to apply.

(d) For BBA graduates the minimum requirements of CGPA are not less than 3.00. Candidates having at least two first class/divisions and without any third class/division are eligible to apply.

(e) Master Degree from reputed local Government and private Universities with at least 2 (Two) First Divisions and no 3rd Class/Division.

(f) Management Trainee after completion of 1 (one)-year probation period will be absorbed as Senior Officer. However upon their performance and discretion from MANCOM he or she can be absorbed as Principal Officer (PO).

Recruitment Process of Management Trainee Officer:

After receiving a total of 14,865 applications in prescribed form of the BRAC Bank, in the first step of recruitment process the core recruitment team of HR sorting the applications according to the divisions and also done the initial screening. Then the 4 ARMs have done the short-listing part. They actually short-listed approximately 960 candidates for the first screening. After that, they have done the data entry of short-listed candidates based on 7 divisions (Dhaka, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, and Chittagong). When the data entry was done we issued admit cards in the names of the short-listed candidates. The admit card contains details of the next stage of recruitment process that are the date, time etc of the stage of first Screening. These admit cards were sent to the candidate’s address through courier service. The candidates who did not receive the letters are called them to collect it from our Head Office.

First Screening Stage is a proper interview session. The interview board includes the MANCOM members and the divisional heads. This interview contains 10 marks. The first screening comprises of some set of questions. At the end of the first screening, the core recruitment team selected 182 candidates from the first screening and informs the selected candidates the next day, after 3:00 pm. The result of the first screening was published on the career page of the official website of BBL and also published on notice board in front of the head office.

In the second step of recruitment process, the selected candidates are appeared for the written test. The written test is conducted by the recruitment team of HR. The subjects tested are General knowledge, Arithmetic, English etc. The written test contains 50 marks. A candidate must secure 70% marks in written test to be eligible for the presentation skill test. Within 48 hours of the written test the core recruitment team published the result in the official website and also informs them about the date and time of the next test that is presentation skill test.

To be qualified for MTO, the total scoring out of 90 before MANCOM’s final interview must be over 60 score. Finally 62 candidates are selected for next step.

In the third step, the MANCOM members choose a topic for each group and ask them to instantly prepare a presentation on flip charts provided to them. Each group instantly preparers and presents to the board. On the day of the presentation skill test the Board member evaluated and selected the successful 24 candidates and gives the name of those candidates to the recruitment team. The team only informs the selected candidates within 48 hours .The core recruitment team calls up the successful candidates and informs them about the date and time of their interview with MD.

After the interview with the MD, within 48 hours the recruitment team calls up the finally selected 8 candidates and ask them to do pre-employment medical test for which they are asked to collect the sealed letter addressed to the officer of the pre selected diagnostic centre from the HR. Once the selected MTOs do the pre-employment medical test, the HR team calls up the MTOs and ask them to collect the appointment letter and the joining pack from the recruitment team of HR.

Training procedure for Management Trainee Officers (MTO):

• Joining/participating in orientation with different departments
• Foundation Course
• Attachment with SME Unit Offices & Branches
• Organization of Development Program
• Attachment with different departments
• Information Technology Training
• On job hands-on training according to Job Description

In every 3 month, the HR sits with the trainees to follow up on their progress along with MANCOM. The whole training program is divided into two major parts. One part is the training on foundation courses and the other part includes attachment in core and support business and operations unit.

1. Core banking training comprises of BIBM – Foundation course, Induction and SME & Retail Attachment.
2. After completion of foundation courses, the trainees are attached in different departments basically on core business departments and operations departments.

The training and development department conducts this training session; HR department works as a coordinator for the whole process. Training wing also follow an SLA (Service Level Agreement).

MTO’s Training Evolution Process:

Management Trainees are recruited with the potentially to be the future leaders. BRAC Bank intends to invest time on their training and assessment during their initial 12 months with the bank. With this view, each management trainee is to be allocated a Mentor who will sit with the Mentee (MTO) on a regular basis to follow up on their progress and help them set a goal for the key purpose of development. Mentors would be the MANCOM members and the mentoring program will be for 1 year. However, the number of sessions must be at least 1 in each month. A mentor created a profile of the mentee to identify their development need, criteria, strength and weaknesses. Mentor or mentee will plan their timing or frequency of meeting, mode of communication. Mentor will share information, experience, indentify new challenges and offer support to the mentee and help them understand the vision, mission and values of the bank. The mentee will have an agenda and prepared for the sessions. On the other hand, mentor will review progress of the mentee after end of attachment in each division. They also encourage the every MTO to solve their problems. They also evaluate them monthly and identify the learning, development plan of the MTO. This evaluation would be based on the development need & action plan. The mentor submits the evaluation form to the HR division.

After attachment with every department the division heads and department heads take an interview or presentation to judge the MTO’s learning ability. They have an evolution from where they mention the MTOs strength, weaknesses and also give feedback. They mainly evaluate the MTO in following characterizes:

• Time management,
• Attitude,
• Initiatives,
• Willingness to learn,
• Willingness to listen,
• Interpersonal skill,
• Communication skill,
• Leadership skill,
• Ability to handle the various tasks.

After that, MTOs attain the BIBM foundation course for 15 days. When the course complete they should be attain written test, surprise test and also submit report. BIBM evaluate their test and submit to the HR division. The minimum grade is A- for MTO in BIBM exam. After 7 months of training period, MD will take interview of every MTO and select their posting division which is actually their final posting division.

Recommendation:

It must be said that BRAC Bank Ltd. immediately need to improve the satisfaction level of their employees by making their effort worthwhile. In this part of recommendations, some valuable issues of BBL are discussed. These were the aspects that came out while working as an intern at BBL. These were related to various parts of BBL and thus are placed in the list of general recommendation.

• I have seen that BRAC Bank does not go for paper ad that much when they recruit employees. Only when they recruit the MTOs and higher positioned employees like CEO, then they give ad in the newspaper. They should give more paper ad so that many people can know about it.
• Online recruitment system is not upgraded. They should upgrade it. Because, if they upgrad online recruitment then it will be very helpful for the MTO recruitment process.
• BRAC Bank is a big company now. Insufficient manpower in proportion to the bank’s total workforce. They should increase the manpower of HR department
• Make the salary structure attractive to the employees. Low salary range is the major reason behind huge number of turnover.
• Strong influence of external references in some cases. The external forces should be reduced.
• BRAC Bank does not go for succession planning that much. Make succession planning effectively.
• Arrange co-curricular activities for employee’s refreshment.
• They should provide that much of information in orientation training that will ensure them to do their job smoothly.
• Arrange proper training for the employees. The training should be motivational. For better training they can go for professional trainers.
• After training, it is very much important to take evaluation about training program. They should take feedback from the trainees properly.

Conclusion:

BRAC Bank Limited is a renowned Commercial Bank of the country. It is the fastest growing Bank in Bangladesh. Their numbers of client’s service improves and supporters have been increase rapidly. Even their employee number is now around 8,122. They are maintaining their banking business with their 155 branches. For its diversified banking service, it has got a wide range of publicity and created a special image for the banking area in the country. BRAC Bank Limited intends to set standards as the market leader in Bangladesh. It demonstrates that they can provide efficient, friendly and modern banking service on a profitable basis.

The report is aimed at the Human Resource Division. BRAC Bank Limited operating in the market with the objective of becoming the Bank of choice for its clients and all its stakeholders. BRAC Bank Limited is committed to focus to all its energy on its customer as well as its employees. This is sure that a strong Human Recourse practices will help BRAC Bank Limited cover the way leading to farthest destination. Human Resource Department is the most confidential department for any organization as well as Human Resource Division in BRAC Bank Limited.