After several months being elected, general director (CEO) of a bank has officially resigned for personal reason. This case is not normal like other CEOs when they were one or two years in positions and left for personal reasons. The reason, rumoured in the market, is that the CEO brought his team from the previous bank to the current bank but the team was found negative in recruitment, leading to legal proceedings. This matter affected the CEO, hence causing him to send in resignation.
Relating the issue of “team”, according to recruitment manager of a “head-hunter”, chair of the Board of directors (BOD) of a bank, when inviting a general director of the bank, actually knows and accepts a “team” going together with the general director.
The common psychology of general directors is having a team with perfect teamwork and this does not only make the BOD chairmen uncomfortable but also satisfied, some chairmen even suggest the general director to bring his own team. The reason is that inviting middle-level managers is not an easy task. “Normally, if the general director cannot reach an agreement with the BOD chair, he will leave. However, the followers of the general director will not be forced to quit the jobs. They will leave if they feel sorry for the old boss or have a disagreement in point of view with the managers. In most cases, the team will stay as they have certain positions in the bank, which can be a foundation for devoting and expecting promotion”, said the above recruitment manager.
General director of a joint stock bank in the South said that as the banking system in Vietnam has about 50 banks, the workforce for middle-level positions is very large, reaching tens of thousands. However, the number of people banks found suitable is rare. For capable persons which are assessed as suitable for the bank, the remuneration can be considered “a dream”.
Proving about the attractive remuneration, the recruitment department shared about the case where bank S has just recruited a staff who used to be a staff of bank V as the head of customer service department. This person is paid 100 million dong per month, twice as much as what he received in bank V; and bank S also buys back the preferential loan at bank V. Accordingly, the income of the head of customer service department is estimated to at about 150 million dong per month.
In the report titled “Some of the most prominent issues in the banking industry the views from candidates and employers” announced in late February, 89 percent of the surveyed banks said that the average income of their employees is about 10-30 million dong per month. About 26 percent of the employers said that the uncompetitive salary and benefit policy is the biggest difficulty for them in recruitment process.
To increase the efficiency in recruitment, 37 percent of banks said that they would consider applying financial incentives to attract candidates. About 56 percent of the surveyed banks said that overall they have basic and reasonable policies, but they may diversify and expand these policies to make them really attractive to employees.
The recruiting director of the above head-hunter said that year 2017 was a very busy year for the recruitment department of banks. Business reports of most banks were very impressive and they have plans to develop. Hence, they are looking for qualified personnel.
In addition, with the 4.0 trend, Digital Banking is a hot topic and the recruitment in this area is very exciting and there is rotation between banks. At the same time, since some banks involved in legal issues and violations of the State regulations, a number of their employees are not feeling secure working and want to move to other banks.
Report of the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC) on the socioeconomic situation in January 2018 stated that the business results of the entire banking system in 2017 improved significantly after many difficult years. The average Net Interest Margin (NIM) was 2.9 percent, and average Return on Assets ratio (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) reached respectively 0.73 percent and 11.65 percent (0.56 percent and 8.05 percent in 2016, respectively).
Nguyen Duc Vinh, general director of Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank), the bank’s bonus budget in 2017 increased along with the sharp increase in personnel. In late 2017, the number of employees of VPBank reached 23,879 persons, up by nearly 6,500 persons compared to the beginning of the year. Statistics showed that the total number of employees of 15 banks including BIDV, VPBank, VietinBank, Sacombank, Vietcombank, HDBank, MBBank, ACB, Techcombank, LienVietPostBank, Eximbank, VIB, TPBank, and NCB as of late 2017 was more than 178,000 persons, including nearly 20,000 additionally employed, equivalent to a 13 percent increase compared to late 2016. The group of private banks led the sector in recruitment, typically VPBank, HDBank, MBBank and LienVietPostBank. BIDV’s workforce in 2017 dropped by 500 persons to 24,588 people.
Forecasting the 2018 business situation, the NFSC said that the profits of the banking sector will continue to be positive thanks to the stable credit growth and faster bad debt settlement process. Particularly, since some banks have used the provisions for risk to eliminate bad debts from the balance sheets, they will have a large revenue from the sale of secured assets and debt recovery from customers. Thus, the story of finding capable people continues to be a “headache” for the recruiting department.
According to survey of Navigos Search, 78 percent of the surveyed recruiters said that to retain talented people for businesses, they will apply clear career advancement path for employees.
In addition, 37 percent of the surveyed recruiters are considering applying financial incentive policies to attract candidates. Regarding candidates, three remuneration policies out of the basic salaries are considered most attractive low-interest rate loans (accounting for 53 percent), bonuses (mid-term bonus, term bonus, and 13th month salary, accounting for 47 percent), and health insurance and life insurance for employees (accounting for 45 percent).
Nguyen Phuong Mai, Managing director of Navigos Search commented that “recruiting right people and retaining talents are becoming a top concern of most banks in Vietnam”.
