Internship Experience at BRAC Bank

Internship Experience at BRAC Bank

BRAC Bank started its journey in 2001 and in just 12 years proved to be country’s fastest growing bank. BRAC Bank Limited, one of the latest generation of commercial banks started its journey on July 04, 2001. It is an affiliate of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), one of the world’s largest non-governmental development organizations founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972. It 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.

BRAC Bank, a fully operational Commercial Bank, focuses on pursuing unexplored market niches in the Small and Medium Enterprise Business, which hitherto has remained largely untapped within the country. In the last five years of operation, the Bank has disbursed over BDT 2200 crore in loans to nearly 50,000 small and medium entrepreneurs in 2007. And this year Bank’s disbursement plan is BDT 4100 crore.

Today, the bank has 81 Branches, 22 SME Service Centers, 48 SME/Krishi Branches, more than 250 ATMs, CDMs 30 and 405 SME Unit offices across the country. It has disbursed over BDT 14,500 cores of SME loan and has over 1,200,000 individual customers who access online banking facilities. Its services cuts across all strata of clientele be it corporate, retail or SME.

Fig: Brac Bank Distribution Network

Corporate Mission

• Sustained growth in Small & Medium Enterprise sector
• Continuous low-cost deposit Growth with controlled growth in retail assets.
• Corporate Assets to be funded through self-liability mobilization. Growth in Assets through syndications and investment in faster growing sectors.
• Continuous endeavor to increase non-funded income
• Keep our debt charges at 2% to maintain a steady profitable growth
• Achieve efficient synergies between the bank’s branches, SME unit offices and BRAC field offices for delivery of remittance and Bank’s other products and services
• Manage various lines of business in a full controlled environment with no compromise on service quality
• Keep a divers, far flung team fully controlled environment with no compromise on service quality.

Core Values

• Our Strength emanates from our owner – BRAC. This means, we will hold the following values and will be guided by BRAC as we do our work.
• Value the fact that one is a member of the BRAC family
• Creating an honest, open and enabling environment
• Have a strong customer focus and build relationships based on integrity, superior service and mutual benefit
• Strive for profit & sound growth
• Work as team to serve the best interest of our owner
• Work as a team to serve the best interest of the owners.
• Relentless in pursuit of business innovation and improvement
• Value and respect people and make decision based on merit
• Base recognition and reward on performance
• Responsible, trustworthy and law-abiding in all that we do.

Company Values

CRYSTAL

An employee must be CRYSTAL in every step she/he takes for the customers, other employees and stakeholders.

C-Creative: Be a person of innovative ideas in solving issues, thinking different ideas to reach one destination; do new associations between existing ideas or concepts for the organization’s overall growth.

R-Reliable: Be worthy of reliance or trust at work so everyone could depend on you.

Y-Youthful: Be a person of freshness and vibrant characteristic at work. Feel young at HEART and project enthusiasm during performing duties.

S-Strong: Be a person of willing to move forward and apply conscious choice, willpower, discipline and passion at work.

T-Transparent Be transparent at work at all level both internally and externally. Show openness and honesty through communication to bring transparency.

A-Accountable: Be accountable for own actions and take responsibilities for the outcome of the actions; be responsible and answerable towards customers, organization, regulatory bodies as well as the society.

L-Loyal: Be loyal to the organization by being compliant at work, taking ownership and create belongingness which will carry your brand as your pride.

Shareholder Structure

We see this as a start – a new start for the dream Bangladesh we all have put our trust on.  BRAC Bank Limited, with institutional shareholdings by BRAC, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and ShoreCap 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.

Management Aspects

Like any other business organization, the Top management makes all the major decisions at BRAC Bank Limited. The Board of directors being at the highest level of organizational structure plays an important role on the policy formulation. The Board of directors is not directly concerned with the day-to-day operation of bank. They have delegated their authority to its management committee, which is called MANCOM. Now there are 5 directors in the Top management of the bank. All the directors have good academic background and have huge experience in business. Mr. Fazle Hasan Abed is the chairman of the bank. The board of directors holds meetings on a regular basis.

Departments of BRAC Bank LTD:

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

1. Business
2. Support
3. Operations

Business:

(1) SME Banking.

(2) Retail Banking.

• Retail Distribution.
• NFB and Secured Assets.
• Unsecured Assets.
• Service Quality / Business Intelligence.
• Cross Selling.
• Regional Distribution.

(3) Corporate Banking.

(4) Probashi Banking.

• International Distribution.

(5) Cards.

(6) Treasury & Financial Institution.

(7) Marketing and Corporate Affairs.

Support:

• Company Secretariat & Regulatory & Internal Control.
• Enterprise Risk Management.
• Human Resource Division.
• Financial Administration.
• Impaired Assets Management.
• Complaint Handling Cell.
• Credit Inspector.

Operations:

• Retail Banking Operations.
• SME Banking Operations.
• Wholesale Banking Operations.
• Probashi Banking Operations.
• Card Operations.
• Business solutions.
• General Infrastructure Services.
• Central Operations.
• Call Center.
• PSO & MIS

Target Customers

• Leading domestic, corporate and trading houses
• Local, medium and large corporate bodies
• Multi-national Corporations (MNCs)
• Non-government Organizations (NGOs)
• Skeptical while building relationship with:
• Educational Institutions
• Medical Institutions
• Manufacturers/Service Providers that are environmentally threatening

Unique Selling Point (USP)

• Quality of Service
• Innovative Solutions
• Market Knowledge
• Level of Trust with clients (source: BBL/local/web portal)

How does BBL make money?

• Interest income
• Fees & Commission
• Capital Gain
• Foreign exchange Gain

My Internship Experience in BRAC Bank HRD

It was a great opportunity to work with one of the country’s fastest growing bank of Bangladesh, BRAC Bank Limited. BRAC Bank has given me the chance to learn and grow along with the everyday job activities which can be utilized in my future career growth. As I was involved with the recruitment division of HRD, I was involved with the following job responsibilities:

Job Responsibilities of Recruitment:

• CV screening.
• Making joining package & taking joining.
• Personal file preparing of every employee.
• Data entry of employees both who’s CV is selected for the interview and those who are recruited.
• Checking the references & sending mails.
• Making phone calls.
• Helping out all the employees when they are overloaded with work.
• Verification of employees past working status in Brac Bank Ltd.
• Checking out PM rating.
• Worked as an invigilator in promotion exam.
• Coordinate Interview on due date and time.
• Sending mail to every referee to verify the candidate.

THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS & THE TEAM

The recruitment team of HRD in BBL is very engertic, intelligent, hard working, and responsible and committed to every task they are assigned to. Within this HRD, the work pressure and work load of the recruitment department is comparatively high, and the way the team handles them is excellent and appreciable.

The whole recruitment team is divided two main segments. They are HR Core team and HR Relationship team.

Objectives of Recruitment

• To attract, select and employ the most suitably experienced and qualified applicants
• Follow the recruitment policy of the Bank.
• Ensure every steps of selection when and where needed
• Ensure transparent, task oriented, unbiased and merit based selection.
• Determine present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its HR planning and job analysis activities by increasing the pool of job candidates at minimum cost

Job Responsibilities of24 HR Relationship team  

The core team has four differents division who controls the recruitment process of each segment. The divisions are:

1. Operations & IT
2. SME Banking
3. Wholesaling
4. Retail Banking

Recruitment for operations is controlled by Khaled Shah Newaz Recruitment for SME is controlled Mr. Sambit Datta Recruitment for Wholesaling is controlled by Mr. Faisal Khan

Basically, major responsibilities of HR Relationship teams are:

• Keep informed with their respective department like Operations about vacancy, transfer and promotion
• If vacancy arises, arranging and recruiting new applicants
• Sorting out CVs from requisitions or CV bank
• Arranging interviews
• Work with overall recruitment process up to final selection the new applicant

Job Responsibilities of HR Core Team

The support team is supported by three members, one is in the grade of Assistant Manager, and others are Officer Grade II. They basically responsible for supporting the whole recruitment team and controls overall acitivities.

Their responsibilities are:

1. Reference check
2. Making regret calls
3. Issuing, forwarding and verfying medical reports
4. Controlling the IFS software. Here he has to update all new employee’s personal information, like, name, phone number address, pin number and respective salary. Until and till the information are not updated, the new employee’s salary will be processed by the system.
5. Providing all sort of support to the recruitment team, like sorting out CVs, conducting interviews and etc.

Mode of Employment

BBL has four types of employment to meet the highest order of the satisfaction level of its clientele. These are:

1. Full Time
2. HR Contractual
3. Outsource
4. Internship Programs (IP)

Job Advertisement and CV Screening/ short listing

Sources of Talents

The talent sources are as follows:

• Reference from internal employees
• Drop Box
• Road Show
• Job Fair
• Internal Job Posting
• Newspaper Advertisement
• Job Portal
• Promotion
• Transfer or deputation
• CV Bank

(1) When a Department sends a requisition proposal with the approval of the concerned Head of the Division to the core recruitment team of Human Resource, the job description/ job specification for the particular post is sent along with the requisition proposal. The job description guides the Recruitment team to assess and determine the appropriate and efficient assessment methods and tools. Therefore attaching completed job description and job specification information is prerequisite for Recruitment Department to accept any manpower requisition and act on it.

(2) The core recruitment uses the job description to decide whether an employee is actually required for the concerned department/division.

(3) After receiving the approved requisition, Recruitment Department does the needful for posting an advertisement addressing potential internal/external resources.

(4) The core recruitment team of HR posts the job circulation internally through e-mail to all the employees of Brac Bank Limited (BBL) and also attaches the job description along with the job circulation.

(5) If CVs are not received within the stipulated time internally, the core recruitment team posts the job circulation in the local dailies of the country and rewrites the job description in the form of job responsibilities. Should any recruitment requisition requires posting newspaper advertisement that shall be required to be recommended by the concerned Division head, supported by HOHR, upon which, Corporate Affairs Department design the layout plan for approval of Managing Director & CEO. After receiving a requisition and posting of a job advertisement, candidates are usually given seven days time to apply, which can be extended if it is deemed necessary

(6) In case of internal job circulation, CVs are received on the IFS as well as hard copy CVs are received. Whereas in case of external job circulation, apart from hardcopy CVs, CVs through e-mail are also received.

(7) After closing of a job advertisement (both internal and external), the concerned Associate Relationship Manager (ARM) collects and compiles the CVs.

(8) The applications/CVs are profiled against the given job advertisement and sent to the concerned department by the ARM for screening and short listing. Short listing criteria include:

• Education
• Required academic qualification
• Reputation of academic institution
• Relevant courses
• Number of years and relevance of job experience (where applicable)
• Skills and qualifications
• Other factors (extra – curricular activities)

(9) Once the CVs are evaluated and shortlisted by the concerned Department, those are sent back to the concerned ARM who cross-checks the CVs against the criteria set out above.

(10) If it was an internal job circulation, the concerned ARM after cross-checking and screening the applications of the short listed candidates, makes necessary arrangements for the interview of the short listed candidates. Moreover, to apply internally the candidate must serve the Bank for a particular period time. Also candidates who apply internally, their PIN numbers are used as the application /CV track number.

(11) For external candidates, once the short listed CVs are cross checked and screened by the concerned ARM after the concerned Department, the ARM sends those to the core recruitment team of HR.

(12) The core recruitment team again cross-checks the CVs against the criteria set out above and puts an application track number on the CV and accordingly updates the MIS.

(13) The shortlisted applications/CVs are then sent by the core recruitment team to the concerned ARM who then makes the necessary arrangements for the interview of the short listed candidates.

Job Responsibilities of Customer Relationship Officer

CRO means Customer Relationship Officer. They work under the SME banking of BBL.

Their job nature is field based. Their job responsibilities are:

• Deal with SME loan
• Search for potential and promising customer
• Search for interested business entrepreneurs
• Convince them to take loan from BRAC Bank
• Provide all sort of information and guidelines
• Promote BBL SME banking sector
• Fulfilling targets given by the zonal manager

BRAC Bank provided all kinds of facilities to CROs for their convenience. They are provided motor bike and BBL bares the fuel cost. They also provide mobile phones. It is a very challenging job, as it is all about finding out the promising and liable customers and convincing them. (source: BBL/HR policy)

Intern Recruitment

BRAC Bank offers internship programs to individuals who are about to get graduate. They give an opportunity to get involved with their corporate environment to learn and experience work life. Every three months they hire almost 50 interns from different universities. HRD will prepare the proposal of such engagement with individual(s)/institution(s) and take the consent from the concerned departmental head and place the internee accordingly.

Conclusion

Human Resource is not the head count of people working in an Organization. It is sum total of their knowledge, skill, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes as well as their values attitude and beliefs and positive frame of mind.

In the current phase of ‘Age of Discontinuity” and “Continuous Change” human resource recruitment play an important role in the pursuit of capable and potential employees. Recruitment of people without any clear sense of direction does not bring any good result. BRAC Bank limited is very conscious and careful about taking competent people to strive for winning spirit and bonanza.

As one of the fastest growing and modern banks of Bangladesh, the “People” has been the key success factor that BRAC Bank has achieved in a short span of time. Bank views the employees as most valuable capital of the organization and is endowed with unique qualities and if thoughtfully and inspiringly led the workforce can bring superior result with creativity. In line with the growth aspiration of the Bank, the management of the Bank carefully identifies potential future leaders amongst its employees and takes extra ordinary effort to build them.I am honored and grateful to be a part of BRAC Bank HR team and work with them.

I will forever appreciate this experience in my life span.