In a recent "Most Popular Employers among Chinese University Students" poll voted by about 200,000 university and college students in China, ICBC is once again named in the "Most Popular Employers Ranking" for the fourth consecutive year. According to an HR expert, the respect given to ICBC by university and college students, who are the future pool of talents, manifests the recognition by the general public on the achievement in the reform of human resources management among Chinese commercial banks.
An ICBC official said, in recent years, ICBC has proactively implemented the "talent-first, talent-focus" strategy to broaden its recruiting pool. By attracting talents using market-oriented approach and retaining talents under sound policies and systems, ICBC has managed to outperform its peers amid fierce competition for talents and built up a brain trust in order to become a world-class modern financial institution.
Attract Best Talents in Every Way
Over the past few years ICBC has been stepping up reform in human resources, in particular, after its shareholding reform and IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Taking the first step of hiring global talents, ICBC has put in place a new market-oriented system in recruitment and HR management. ICBC has been pursuing the policy of "making international talents localized and local talents international". By carrying out a strategy of global recruiting combined with local training, ICBC has achieved free movements of talents in both directions under a cross training and staff education programme.
Early this year, the former president of Deutsche Bank in the Asia-Pacific region Mr. Zhang Hongli joined ICBC as Senior Executive Vice President, making him the first executive of foreign banks to become the vice president in a Chinese state-owned commercial bank. This also marks a break-through attempt of state-owned commercial banks in reforming the talent hiring and management system, setting a good example in the current era for successors. Mr. Zhang smoothly integrated into the ICBC team soon after on board and was widely applauded by the important role he has played in his work area.
Even before that, ICBC has started hiring international talents in the global market by various means and methods. Since 2004, a total of 35 overseas talents from respected international banks have joined ICBC, who assume middle or high-level managerial or specialist positions in the bank's overseas branches and subsidiaries.
In 2009, ICBC launched another global recruiting campaign, which is the biggest and most extensive ever in magnitude and offers the largest number of vacancies. In the end seven overseas high-profile candidates snared key roles as senior quantitative financial analyst and system architect in financial market business.
While hiring talents in the global market, ICBC has taken active measures to make international talents localized and local talents international. ICBC now has 4,319 employees in overseas branches and subsidiaries, among whom only a small fraction of 6.85 percent come from China. ICBC, however, has appointed more than 1,400 Chinese employees to work outside China in rotation, which is deemed as an important way to build an international work force.
Besides, ICBC has run many targeted programme to recruit from the public to meet specific needs in business development. Since the shareholdings reform, the bank has hired over 400 professional talents from local communities, including some high-level positions which were not opened to the general public before.
The move has helped improve the staff's structure in terms of source and profession.
A Culture of Meritocracy to Retain Talents
Following the first step of hiring talents, the key to success is how to give talents full play to their potential. ICBC has made every endeavor to achieve this by taking into consideration of the bank's real needs, international practices, as well as the specific needs of those talents hired. Most talents are hired for middle or high-end professional positions and equipped with a dedicated supporting team.
They are fully empowered to improve their competence and efficiency in management decision-making. Not only had they helped drive the growth of local talents in ICBC, but also in product advancement and management innovation at the bank.
To retain talents and enable them to achieve personal development and grow with ICBC in the long-term, ICBC sticks to the employee-centric policy to win their hearts. Through cultural integration, recruited talents can quickly fit in ICBC's corporate culture, get familiar with their work environment, change their roles, and integrate into the ICBC team.
ICBC has also initiated the "peace in mind" project aiming to create supportive conditions to boost their confidence and determination to work in ICBC. A mechanism is in place to pay regular visits to international talents and listen their feedback, understand better the potential and real problems and difficulties in their work, life and study, address their problems and ease their concerns.
With its extensive business platform and promising prospects, ICBC offers an excellent stage for global talents to exercise their full potential. Those previously hired have already assumed middle or high-end managerial or specialist positions. Those recruited in recent years in local communities have entered into management roles through open competition.
Well-structured Management System for Personal Fulfillment
While it speeds up the pace in hiring sought-after professional talents, ICBC is cultivating its existing staffs by creating a level playing field so that talented staffs can stand out and realize their full potential. Measures have been taken to accelerate the reform in the human resources management system and consolidate the internal resources in line with market needs.
A new hierarchical system covering all professions and different levels/categories of jobs has now been in place at ICBC, with two types of positions in the managerial line and the business line in parallel. This career advancement program allows staffs "to move along the vertical positions or transfer among horizontal positions", enhancing opportunities for staffs to advance and get promoted or quit.
Staffs are encouraged to transfer and move among different levels, professions and departments. Organizational conditions are created to foster employee spirit at work. For instance, this year ICBC make greater effort in exchange of officials between the Head Office and Branches. 22 Head Office officials are dispatched to work in direct branches and tier-2 branches.
At the same time 12 officials at the tier-1 (direct) branches are transferred to work at the Head Office.
Based on the principle of selection through competition, ICBC has established an open system similar to that in "horse racing" to pick up the talents. Most managerial positions are filled by candidates through competition. In 2008, ICBC selected 27 candidates within the whole bank group as vice presidents and assistants to presidents for tier-1 branches.
This year ICBC launched an open recruitment program to select candidates from both the ICBC staffs and the general public for some managerial positions at the Head Office. The open policy in looking for best candidates creates favorable workplace and fills the management positions with a great number of outstanding talents who excel both in professional skills and work ethics, effectively increasing the overall quality of managers at all levels.
More importantly, ICBC has set up a platform for internal staffs to move and work in different job positions in line with their personal career preferences and market needs across different lines, positions, regions, levels and even in different countries. Each position will be matched with the best suited individual and the job will be done by the most competent person.
In recent years, more than 5,000 staffs have moved across the region within ICBC and 647 employees at the grass-root branches entered the Head Office through open selection. The program helps ICBC cultivate own people resources in the most optimal manner.
Extensive Training to Groom Promising Staff
While hiring and selecting talents around the globe, ICBC always give top priority to staff education and training as a crucial measure to build up human capacity for sustainable development. ICBC has organized large-scale, multi-level, top-quality training programs to hone the skills of the staffs. Statistics show that, in 2009, ICBC ran 46,000 sessions training a total of 2.1 million staffs, which equals to an average of 8.86-day training for each staff at ICBC, making ICBC the leader in the financial sector.
Speaking of staff education and training, ICBC has drawn advanced concepts and best practices of other countries. ICBC consolidated various resources and collaborated with prestigious universities, banks and research institutions in China and abroad to find more and better channels and approaches in talent training.
Taking the training program for professional managers as an example, staffs are required to take training courses and pass certification examinations of international bodies in various areas, covering all key points, techniques, tools and models in international financial risk management, investment analysis, and international accounting.
A host of high-end professional talents with international perspective and qualification have been cultivated and entered into the talent pool. As of end of August 2010, ICBC has organized training programs for 15 international qualifications under 9 categories. A total of 4,440 staffs have passed the certification examinations for Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Financial Risk Manager (FRM), Certified Information System Auditor (CISA), Members of Appraisal Institute (MAI), and Certified Treasury Professional (CTP), etc, making ICBC far ahead of its peers.
ICBC has also launched a sustainable development plan for high-level staffs who have acquired professional qualifications. The plan not only enhanced the staffs' loyalty and commitment to ICBC, but also helped they leverage their knowledge and expertise to make contribution and become the best performers and innovation experts in their workplace.
