UBA – ‘We invest a great deal in human capital’
The saying that an organisation is as good as its workforce holds true especially when viewed from the perspective of the growing skills gap that employers of labour grapple with today.
While this concern may cut across key sectors of the economy, it appears that only institutions with the right approach to talent management stands a chance to attract and keep the available talents that the industry has to offer.
One of the leading institutions that have embraced the idea of strategic talent management is United Bank for Africa UBA. As an organisation that strongly believes that people are critical to her success in building a sustainable and dominant business in the countries they operate in across Africa and beyond, the bank has painstakingly ensured its goes to great ends to source, attract, recruit, develop and retain the best talents where-ever they may be in the world.
In realising that the only way to get the best results and continually stay ahead of the curve is to continually sharpen her asset which without doubt is the people to work in the Bank, UBA set up the UBA Academy as a force to reckon with in continually training and developing workforce, so they can continue to be at the fore-front of best-breed professionals in the world.
UBA Academy through dedicated Learning and Development professionals serves as channels deployed to close any detected competency gap in her work-force. In addition by adopting different learning methods ranging from e-learning programmes, class-room trainings to off-site trainings both locally and abroad, the UBA academy has since inception successfully graduated 4 batches of Management Trainees from its rigorous trainee programme.
Kennedy Uzoka, Deputy Managing Director, UBA Plc, disclosed that the challenge of falling educational standards and the need to create a pool of talented workforce was responsible for setting up the six months programme for the trainees that would equip them with the UBA DNA and the best basic banking practices in the industry.
According to him, “We require quality talents, irrespective of falling standards. We also believe that the best form of assessment is continuous assessment over time. That is why we keep them in the banking school for six months,”
He is of the view the academy affords the bank the opportunity of identifying the various departments that the prospective staff would best fit in.
“In UBA, we do things differently being a pan-African bank that wants to be a role model for African businesses. We have initiated this engagement process in the banking school to understand ourselves better and know what department would suit each of you. The training helps us to filter the system and make you know the environment where you want to work,” he said.
The Management Trainee Programme was conceptualised in 2011 in line with the bank’s excellence-in-service initiative and a people strategy geared towards engaging the best personnel.
Consequently, UBA has been actively recruiting top African and non-African talents from the continent and in the diaspora to drive the bank’s ambitious growth and expansion plans.
Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) on his part stressed the need for financial institutions to continue to invest in their workforce so as to enhance efficiency in the banking industry. “We invest a great deal in human capital because training and development is very key to our operations. This is why we place high premium on staff performance,” he said.
Platforms like the academy and others like the graduate programmes aims to inspire participants to discover the next stage of their lives after graduation. The mission is to facilitate new understanding and life-changing learning. Through our engaging classroom environment, participants will learn from industry experts, and cultivate a master’s level business mind.
KELECHI EWUZIE